Help Needed To Stop Cat Hoarding
This is a serious problem in our family. What is the right thing for us to do? We have a situation that is going progressively from loving cats to hoarding. The house is disgusting, but my family member doesn’t seem to see a problem.
What should we do? So far, all of the cats get fed and are reasonably healthy, but each one is being denied the opportunity to live in a clean home where they are loved individually.
But because this is a mental problem I can’t use logic (ie, you can’t afford it, the personal hygene problems are going to make you lose your job, etc) to get it resolved.
Has anyone had any experience with this? Or know where to turn?
Anonymous
Hi…. thanks for visiting and asking. I hope visitors and regulars can help.
There is lots written about cat hoarding but much less on how to cure it because I am not sure that there is an agreement on what the underlying cause is. Here is another page on cat hoarding.
I think it is generally agreed that a genuine cat hoarder has some sort of borderline (or not) mental health issue. You agree this and you know the family member so we can take it that there is a mental health issue.
I’ll come back to this page later but all I can think of at the moment is to see if this person would agree to see a psychiatrist. That may sound ridiculous but mental health problems are dealt with by psychiatrists. If not a psychiatrist perhaps the family’s general practitioner may advise.
Failing the person involved agreeing to seek medical advice and help, it may be reasonable to find help to get the cats into a shelter. In other words to clear the house of cats while the person who is cat hoarding is out. That too might sound impossible and unreasonable. But something clearly has to be done and it may take something a little dramatic to fix the problem. In other words bold action is required before the local authority gets involved and clears the house under health and safety regulations.
Indeed the threat of animal control (if you are in the US) or some other official organisation getting involved may force the cat hoarder to take action now.
I will circulate this post on Facebook and see if some of the wise regular visitors can provide some good advice.
Good Luck