Large dog seizure in Victoria puts spotlight on problem of animal hoarding

When we read about animal protection agencies seizing large numbers of dogs it usually involves puppy mills, but a raid this week on a Victoria home had more to do with hoarding.

The B.C. SPCA said its constables had removed 45 miniature poodle-bichon frise cross dogs from a suburban Brentwood Bay residence.

CTV News reported that one of the dogs was found dead. In all, the SPCA rescued nine puppies and 35 adult dogs.

The officers went in Wednesday after the owner ignored orders to reduce the number of animals in the home.

“This individual is not a typical breeder although puppies were occasionally sold to the public,” SPCA spokeswoman Lorie Chortyk said in a news release.

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“In this case the person hoarded animals and allowed them to breed unchecked in the home. The number had escalated to the point where the animals were not getting adequate care and the living conditions jeopardized the welfare and safety of the animals.”

The dogs were taken to the SPCA's Victoria branch to be checked, bathed and groomed. They'll be treated for parasites, any medical problems and the females will be examined to see how many are pregnant.

“We certainly have a number of pregnant moms; we have a number of nursing moms,” branch manager Penny Stone told the Victoria Times Colonist. “They’re just not in great shape. Their coats, their fur is matted and covered in feces, their nails are way too long."

Hoarding cases are always very sad, said Chortyk.

“We tried numerous times to work with him to surrender some of his dogs for re-homing but he was very resistant,” she said. “While he did give up a few dogs to a local rescue group, the breeding and hoarding escalated to a point where we were able to secure a warrant to take action.”

Animal hoarding is a recognized phenomenon that's only recently been the subject of study.

According to a veterinary research group based at Tufts University, near Boston, it was first described in 1981 as the "pathological accumulation of animals."

Characteristics include having more than the typical number of companion animals, failing to provide even minimal standards of feeding, shelter and other care, a denial there is a problem that effects the animals and other people in the household and persistence of the practice despite the obvious detrimental effects.

Without intervention and treatment, the recidivism rate is said to be 100 per cent, according to the Tufts consortium. A move is underway to have animal hoarding categorized as a separate illness in the DSM-V, the standard diagnostic manual of psychological disorders.

"Animal hoarders often keep animals numbering in the tens or hundreds," the Canadian Confederation of Humane Societies says on its web site.

"These animals are kept in abysmal conditions without having their basic needs met. Most hoarders do not feel that their actions are endangering the lives of the animals they keep, but rather that they are saving lives."

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These situations, never good, can sometimes be extreme, such as the case of an Ohio dog hoarder in his sixties who, according to the Daily Mail, was found dead and partially eaten by the 50 starving dogs he had kept.

Stone told the Times Colonist none of the dogs seized in Victoria this week will be adopted until the SPCA completes its investigation and custody issues are sorted out.

The Victoria SPCA is asking for donations of bedding to cope with the large influx of dogs.