In the doghouse
Six months after rescuing 100 Chihuahuas from a hoarding case, Dearborn Animal Shelter’s Heather Mehi looks back on that horrific week. Mehi explains that the number of pets does not decide hoarding cases, but how the animals and home are kept.
In many cases, according to the Mayo Clinic, compulsive hoarding goes beyond - or may not even include - animal ownership, but the obsessive collection of all kinds of items. Hoarders, whose syndrome is closely related to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, often have no idea they have a problem, such was the case with Dearborn’s Lang, who knew only that he had “too many dogs.”
