What Is Animal Hoarding?

The following criteria are used to define animal hoarding:

More than the typical number of companion animals. The inability to provide even minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation, shelter, and veterinary care, with this neglect often resulting in starvation, illness, and death. And the denial of the inability to provide this minimum care and the impact of that failure on the animals, the household, and human occupants of the dwelling. Animal hoarding jars communities across America on a daily basis with approximately 1500 new cases discovered each year. Thousands of animals suffer and some die in squalid surroundings, devoid of adequate food and water, yet, the owners insist nothing is wrong. Standing in three inches of feces, breathing acrid ammonia in the air, and in plain view of dead and dying dogs, one woman said to me on an abuse case I went out on, “I never hurt any dogs, I love my babies. The fact is I protect them.” Conditions often become extreme before law enforcement officials can glean enough evidence for a search warrant. “The biggest problem is they are never allowed access to the house until it becomes so severe that something tragic happens. Communities are left to cover the cost of rescuing, treating, housing, feeding, and in some cases euthanizing the animals. Additional financial costs for incarceration and public defenders add to the burden. Although the case of a dog being violently killed is shocking, in animal hoarding cases the suffering can be felt by hundreds of animals for months and months on end.
source: petabuse.com

Some Information I Have Learned Through The Years.

There are many different reasons why individuals abuse animals. Animal cruelty covers a wide range of actions (or lack of action), so one blanket answer simply isn’t possible. Each type of abuse has displayed certain patterns of behavior that we can use to help understand more about why people commit the crimes we encounter today. Animal cruelty is often broken down into two main categories: active and passive, also referred to as comission and omission, respectively. (1) In every pschology class I have ever taken that studied Serial Killers, said statistically, people that abuse animals usually go on to harm humans. (2) Passive Cruelty (Acts of Omission):
Passive cruelty are by cases of neglect, where the crime is a lack of action rather than the action itself - however do not let the terminology fool you. Severe animal neglect can cause incredible pain and suffering to an animal. Examples of neglect are starvation, dehydration, parasite infestations, allowing a collar to grow into an animal’s skin, inadequate shelter in extreme weather conditions, and failure to seek veterinary care when an animal needs medical attention. In many cases of neglect where an investigator feels that the cruelty occurred as a result of ignorance, they may attempt to educate the pet owner and then revisit the situation to check for improvements. In more severe cases however, exigent circumstances may require that the animal is removed from the site immediately and taken in for urgent medical care. (3)
Active Cruelty (Acts of Comission):
Active cruelty implies malicious intent, where a person has deliberately and intentionally caused harm to an animal, and is sometimes referred to as NAI (Non-Accidental Injury). Acts of intentional cruelty are often some of the most disturbing and should be considered signs of serious psychological problems. This type of behavior is often associated with sociopathic behavior and should be taken very seriously. (4)
1,2,3,4 are taken from my own notes from a Pschcology class I had. We studied killers for a semester.