Taking in more animals than a person can provide with adequate care, or
failing to seek help including new home for animals when a person
becomes unable to any longer care for the animals fully (sanitation,
fiord, medical care, etc.) IS the definition of a hoarder. What was
found indicates that one or both of those things happened.

Often the people delude themselves that only they can provide the
animals with what the animals need and that the animals would suffer
terribly without them, more than missing them terribly for a while. The
really extreme ones think the animals would be better off dead than
without them.

It is an anxiety disorder with self-delusion involved, but the degree
varies greatly among individuals. There have actually been some homes w
so much feces and ammonia that the structures themselves have been
beyond rescue and have had to come down.

The important thing is that anyone tending in that direction get help
right away, for not only the animals but for themselves, too.

Here are some facts:

<http://www.adaa.org/living-with-anxiety/ask-and-learn/ask-expert/what-animal-hoarding-it-hoarding-lots-objects-can-peopl>

<http://aldf.org/resources/when-you-witness-animal-cruelty/animal-hoarding-facts/>

http://www.animalhoarding.com

[Posted in FML 8030]