Pima Shelter Addresses Animal Hoarding, Helping Owners

PIMA COUNTY, AZ — The Pima Animal Care Center is working with other local agencies to address the problem of people hoarding too many pets, according to a release from the shelter. Hoarding cases are up in 2020.

They're holding meetings with the Pima County Health Department, the Pima Council on Aging and other community organizations. Two meetings are set up for Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 5:30 p.m. in the Community Room at Pima Animal Care Center and Wednesday, Feb. 26 at 1:30 p.m. at Abrams Public Health Center.

"In most cases, pet owners start out with the best of intentions," said Kristen Hassen, Director of Animal Services, in the release. "They begin acquiring pets, but at some point they reach a tipping point, either because the pets aren’t sterilized or continue to breed or because they keep getting more and more animals."

The release says the shelter saw 37 hoarding cases in 2019, each of which saw cases of owners having too many pets which can often be overwhelming, resulting in poor care.

PACC Animal Protection Officers have responded to 10 hoarding cases so far in 2020, a much faster rate than in the two years prior.

See the Pima Animal Care Center Facebook.

The release says that according to the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium at Tufts University, hoarding is not just defined by the number of animals a person has. It's defined by:

• whether the caregiver is able to provide for the animals’ basic needs
• whether the caregiver is able to recognize the effects of this on themselves, people around them, and the community
• whether they continue to collect pets after reaching the point where they are unable to care for all of them
• denial or minimization of the issues

Bennett Simonsen, the shelter's Community Programs Manager, said in the release that without intervention, the recidivism rate back into animal hoarding is almost 100 percent.

"These pets are very important to the folks in these situations," Simonsen said in the release. "When you remove these pets all at once or don’t connect the owner with resources for themselves, you do nothing to address the root of the problem. Overwhelmed caregivers need help for the compulsion to care for multiple animals."

If someone is concerned about the number of pets they have, they can call the shelter's Pet Support line at 724-PACC to ask about resources available to them.

People who would like to donate to the Hoarding Task Force or the Pet Support Center can make a donation to PACC’s official nonprofit partner, Friends of Pima Animal Care Center.

For more information, or to see how to adopt animals, visit the Pima Animal Care Center website.