Did anyone watch the show on Animal Planet last night about animal hoarders?  It was fascinating yet very, very sad.  The show is a six-week series depicting a couple of people each week.  Last night showed a man who had too many cats.  He was not your typical hoarder who intentionally took in stray animals.  He had a couple of cats of his own and obtained another from a relative. His issue was that none of the cats were spayed and neutered.  As you can imagine, his house quickly became overrun with cats.  Once the home was so out of control, the man had no idea where to start to fix the problem.

The other person in the show was a very unhealthy, overweight woman who kept buying animals.  She had numerous dogs but she never allowed them to go outside for fear that they would run away and get hit by a car.  And the woman was so infirm that she was incapable of walking them.  So…the dogs eliminated in the house – on the carpet.  Ugh! 

One thing I did not like about the show is that both of these people had very little income, thus representing hoarders as very poor people who cannot afford to care for themselves and the animals.  There are a lot of hoarders who are not poor; they live in nice neighborhoods and live regular lives. Just last year, a hoarder was arrested in Jeffersonville (Montgomery County) in a very nice neighborhood.  I hope that future Animal Planet shows about animal hoarders depict a cross-section of our society – hoarders come from all demographics.