How to Help an Animal Hoarder

Animal hoarders own more pets than they can properly provide with appropriate care. An animal hoarder often lives amongst dirt, clutter, feces, urine, animal vomit, fleas or other unsanitary living conditions. Animal hoarding is a severe mental illness that often requires professional treatment. Help an animal hoarder in your life by contacting authorities and encouraging her to seek treatment. With proper care, your loved one can return to healthy, happy living conditions.

Instructions

• 1

  Assess the individual's animal hoarding problem. Identify classic symptoms of animal hoarding: a need to have many animals, refusal to part with animals, social isolation or insistence that ill or neglected animals are healthy.

• 2

  Visit your loved one's home to view his living conditions. Look for unhygienic conditions and ill, distressed animals.

• 3

  Talk to the animal hoarder. Assess her awareness of the hoarding problem by asking how many animals she has and whether they are healthy. Mention your concern about her unsanitary living conditions. Avoid accusing the animal hoarder or calling her crazy.

• 4

  Contact a mental health professional such as a clinical psychologist who specializes in treatment of animal hoarding or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Make an appointment for your loved one.

• 5

  Accompany the animal hoarder to his treatment appointment. Bring a list of his mental health history, family health history, previous psychiatric illnesses, symptoms, medications and other health information. Prepare to answer the psychologist's questions about your loved one's behavior if he lacks insight into the severity of his animal hoarding problem.

• 6

  Call your local humane society or animal shelter to make arrangements for the hoarder's animals. Assure the animal hoarder that the animals will be cared for appropriately.

• 7

  Encourage your loved one to attend cognitive behavioral therapy sessions for her hoarding problem. Advise her to contact a psychiatrist to receive pharmacological treatment for animal hoarding. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are a type of drug that may help reduce obsessive-compulsive symptoms.

• 8

  Help the animal hoarder stay motivated to improve his personal situation, cope with stressors and avoid a relapse. Check in frequently to ensure that the hoarder maintains a healthy lifestyle.