Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control: Animal hoarding is becoming more common

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - After a lot of media attention on a home where a couple was hoarding almost 100 cats, the director of Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control said animal hoarding is becoming more common.

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"They don't all make the media. They are more common than a lot of people think," Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control Director Belinda Lewis said.

Would you be surprised to know Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control officers respond to three to five cases of animal hoarding every year? The director of Animal Care and control said she believes more are coming to light because of popular TV shows.

"They're realizing that this is a mental health situation. That the humans need intervention and assistance as well as the animals do."

A week after officers found almost 100 cats in an Elmer Avenue home... they were called out to two other homes. People there were hoarding cats too.

"They were smaller cases. So, intervention was sooner. The animals had not suffered at the same level. We were able to gain 100% voluntary cooperation for treatment for the individuals."

Why do people hoard animals? Psychologist David Lombard said sometimes control and obsessive compulsive tendencies lead people to hoarding.

"They feel really compelled to have animals around and to care for them. Based on that thought pattern that belief I must do something they start acting on it. They'll bring in a few animals and it becomes a bit of a slippery slope," Psychologist David Lombard said.

Lombard said after awhile the hoarders don't see anything wrong with having an unusual amount of animals.

"It becomes their new normal and they don't understand how odd or dysfunctional it is."