Animal Hoarders a Sad Situation

Animal Hoarders a Sad Situation offers an example of what animal hoarding is. What it looks like is not something that probably you or I could ever imagine. Yes, we know people who have what we consider too many dogs. Do you think 80 dogs is too many?

NOTE: Be sure to check toward the end of this post for Animal Planet news about “Confessions:  Animal Hoarding“.

If you have a friend, loved one or neighbor please consider contacting the folks at AnimalHoardingProject.com since, as you will see, they have tons of information on the subject and can help all parties with resolution of the situation.

Hoarding is being talked about as well as gaining a place on TV. Personally, I don’t really need to know but as they say, follow the money. If a person chooses to be a hoarder of things, I don’t care as long as nobody’s life is in danger. When a person chooses to hoard animals then I do care. Each and every animal is in danger and all their future generations are born into danger.

Here is an article by Christopher Ortiz of the Rio Rancho Observer in New Mexico.

Watermelon Mountain Ranch rescues dogs from animal hoarder

It did not take a dog whisperer to know Weasel was scared. The golden retriever-mix was timid and hiding in the back of his cage. But given Weasel’s story, it’s easy to see why the dog was frightened.

Weasel is one of 15 dogs rescued from an animal hoarder in New Mexico earlier this year and being placed at Watermelon Mountain Ranch. On Tuesday, five dogs, including Weasel, were brought to the ranch by Stray Heart, an animal shelter in Taos.

“They simply didn’t have room,” said Michael Howland-Davis of Watermelon Mountain Ranch. “It was a matter of space and the dogs had been there for a long time and they hadn’t been able to get them adopted. We didn’t want to see these dogs put down.”

On Oct. 15 the ranch took in seven dogs that were removed from the hoarder and will take three more in November. The rescuing of the dogs was done in partnership with an Animal Planet show about animal hoarders.

The home these dogs are coming from was a tragic situation, said Howland-Davis. There were up to 45 dogs living in a small enclosed area. “This is a major adjustment in their lives,” he said.

Watermelon Mountain Ranch agreed to take the dogs after Stray Heart said it did not have room for them. To make room for the 15 dogs, the ranch had to move some of the dogs already at Watermelon to a private shelter.

The task for the ranch now is to rehabilitate the dogs. The dogs will be placed in the ranch’s canine rehabilitation program. “Staff will work daily getting the dogs used to humans,” Davis said. Staff will start getting the dogs to trust humans and then will work with obedience training. Howland-Davis admits the challenge ahead is getting the dogs, that range from 3 to 14 years old, adopted.

“Adopting a 14-year-old dog would be a challenge for any shelter,” he said.

The rescue of the 15 dogs will air on the Animal Planet show “Confessions: Animal Hoarding.” The show explores stories of people who own more pets then they can care for.

According to the ranch, there are more than 3,000 reported cases of animal hoarding a year but at least 10 times that number of animal hoarding go unreported.

Watermelon Mountain Ranch is the state’s largest no-kill animal shelter.

The ranch estimates it will cost about $1,000 to rehabilitate each dog and is always accepting donations, foster families and volunteers. Western Mercantile in Tijeras and Nutrol Products donated 3,400 pounds of dog food to make sure the dogs have proper nutrition.

The shelter will host its eighth annual Furball fund-raiser on Nov. 6 at El Pinto Restaurant in Albuquerque, starting at 6 p.m. The event will feature live music and an auction, which will include a guitar signed by the Rolling Stones and drumhead from Bruce Springsteen.

Here is a short video about this animal hoarder. There will be a full length story on Animal Planet sometime in January.

At first thought I would say that the only difference between an Animal Hoarder and a puppy mill is the animal hoarder doesn’t profit from the sale of the animals.

Are there zoning regulations on the number of dogs and cats just like there are for horses and other large animals. I don’t know. Who knows what the future will bring.

Animal Planet makes major commitment with “Confessions: Animal Hoarding”

Check in with Animal Planet for “Confessions:  Animal Hoarding” where you will find lots of videos and other information concerning Animal Hoarding.

About the Show

From the producers of the hit series Intervention comes a new one-of-a-kind series, Animal Planet’s CONFESSIONS: ANIMAL HOARDING, an unflinchingly honest look at a human condition that affects people and animals. Animal hoarding is defined as a compulsive need to possess and control animals. It has no official psychological diagnosis or treatment and, in most cases, the problem is not addressed until it becomes a crime…until now.

From Animal Planet’s Confessions: Animal Hoarding I learned that it just isn’t Dogs or Cats. It’s birds, ferrets, rats and other animals. So, here’s another area of animal abuse that needs our help. Just my opinion but any contributions should probably go to the no-kill rescue facilities that have to step in once these folks are found out or simply give up. Check in on animal hoarding project. They can advise you about how you can be of help.

Lastly, if you have a number of dogs you may find need for wire dog crates and depending on the size of your dogs you may need a Level 3 Commercial Strong Heavy Duty dog crate. Take a look. See what you think.

Animal Hoarders a Sad Situation is a something I really didn’t want to write about but I won’t put my head in the sand. Perhaps somewhere along the line at least one or more animals will benefit from the information.