GREEN BAY, Wis. — According to the American Psychiatric Association's website, hoarding disorder affects "estimated 2 to 6 percent of the population." In many cases, animal shelters must step in to rescue and rehome pets affected by the produced environment.
Safe Haven Pet Sanctuary in downtown Green Bay has rescued 21 cats, including five pregnant ones, in February from a hoarding situation. The shelter has rescued 31 total from hoarding in the past year.
"In spring, it does seem like we see more hoarding and more kittens," SHPS founder Elizabeth Feldhausen said, although kittens can be born year-round.
Within the city of Green Bay, animal control allows residents to have up to two cats and three dogs. To own more than that, you have to apply for a special permit with a veterinary doctor's sign off and reason for needing to own beyond the limits.
When animal advocates see hoarding situations beyond city limits, local shelters will step in to help out those affected by the case. Feldhausen says it is work that must be handled delicately based on varying degrees of mental illness at hand, but their priority is to rescue the cats from the physical results of hoarding.
"We use our foster networks and reach out to other local shelters, and then we kind of disperse the cats as we need to," Feldhausen said.
Feldhausen thinks the solution is by spaying and neutering all cats, even those who do not explore the outdoors. This would prevent household cats from mating and multiplying further.
"They started out with a couple cats, didn't have them spayed or neutered which is so important, and they just kept multiplying and multiplying," Feldhausen said. "In both cases, mental illness was involved and they didn't even know how many cats they had in the house."
After medical exams, SHPS quarantines hoarded cats for 30 days before they're available for adoption.
