02-04-2015, 09:50 PM
I'm not sure why, but I suspect that mental illness is generally more widespread these days. The cases of animal hoarding would seem to be triggered by some sort of mental illness, based on the need for ever more and more creatures to care for and "love", to fill some sort of void in their personal lives. This sort of mental illness probably is more prevalent because of the artificiality of modern life, increasingly more urbanised, where we have become divorced from the countryside and nature.
The trouble is, the hoarder is so obsessed with having lots of animals, in his/her eyes "giving and receiving love", that s/he doesn't stop to think about the practicalities of feeding, hygiene, exercise, etc. The end result, sadly, is that animals suffer on a big scale.
Such people need therapy urgently. But any animal suffering of any kind is unacceptable. So ultimately, the only way to protect them is to ban the hoarders from having any pets. That is the first priority.
The trouble is, the hoarder is so obsessed with having lots of animals, in his/her eyes "giving and receiving love", that s/he doesn't stop to think about the practicalities of feeding, hygiene, exercise, etc. The end result, sadly, is that animals suffer on a big scale.
Such people need therapy urgently. But any animal suffering of any kind is unacceptable. So ultimately, the only way to protect them is to ban the hoarders from having any pets. That is the first priority.
