Grass Roots Animal Legislation By Russ Mead Copyright Russ Mead 2018 Table of Contents Chapter 1 Animal hoarding Chapter 2 Animal protective orders Chapter 3 Anti vivisection Chapter 4 Breed specific legislation bans Chapter 5 CAFO Bans Chapter 6 Cat de-clawing bans Chapter 7 Commercial dog breeder regulations Chapter 8 Dog chaining bans Chapter 9 Dog fighting bans Chapter 10 Dogs in hot cars Chapter 11 Dangerous dogs Chapter 12 Feral cat colonies Chapter 13 Gas chamber bans Chapter 14 Horse slaughter bans Chapter 15 Ivory bans Chapter 16 Mandatory spay neuter Chapter 17 Pet store bans Chapter 18 Pet trusts Chapter 19 Egg laying hen confinement Chapter 20 Tail docking bans Chapter 21 Veal crate bans Chapter 22 Animal testing bans Acknowledgements About the author Russ Mead Chapter 1 Animal hoarding Introduction to Animal Hoarding Alto Georgia Hawaii Illinois Never Enough: Animal Hoarding law Introduction to Animal Hoarding Animal hoarding is one of the worst forms of domestic animal abuse in the United States. We are outraged when we see photos of a single neglected single dog, cat or horse. In an animal hoarding case, the hoarder can injure hundreds of animals. These large-scale animal cruelty cases are often hidden from our view. Animal hoarders don't let us in. They don't let anyone in. Few jurisdictions have specific laws that address animal hoarding. Animal hoarding is its own particular brand of animal abuse. Traditional animal cruelty laws are not enough to protect these animals. Materials in this chapter look at three jurisdictions that have specific animal hoarding statutes. The approaches outlined in these statutes are different. One approach focuses on the conditions the hoarder keeps the animals in. Another identifies a specific number of animals as the primary indication of animal hoarding. The issues of animal hoarding are discussed in the article “Never enough: animal hoarding law”. The author is Courtney G Lee. The original publication is the University of Baltimore Law Review. The article is reprinted with permission. Alto Georgia Alto, Georgia – CODE OF ORDINANCES Chapter 6 - ANIMALS ARTICLE I. - ANIMAL CONTROL Sec. 6-16. - Hoarding of animals. It shall be unlawful for any person to collect animals and fail to provide them with humane/adequate care, collect dead animals that are not properly disposed of as required by this article, or collect, house, or harbor animals in filthy, unsanitary conditions that constitute a health hazard to the animals being kept, and/or to the animals or residents of adjacent property. (Ord. of 5-11-2010) Hawaii HRS § 711-1109.6 § 711-1109.6. Repealed by Laws 2009, ch. 160, § 3, eff. July 1, 2015 2008 Hawaii Laws Act 128 (S.B. 3203) HAWAII 2008 SESSION LAWS 2008 REGULAR SESSION OF THE 24th LEGISLATURE Additions are indicated by Text; deletions by Text. Changes in tables are made but not highlighted. Vetoed provisions within tabular material are not displayed. Act 128 S.B. No. 3203 CRUELTY TO ANIMALS—HOARDING PETS A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ANIMAL HOARDING. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII: SECTION 1. Chapter 711, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows: << HI ST § 711– >> “§ 711– Animal hoarding. (1) A person commits the offense of animal hoarding if the person intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly: (a) Possesses more than twenty dogs, cats, or a combination of dogs and cats; (b) Fails to provide necessary sustenance for each dog or cat; and (c) Fails to correct the conditions under which the dogs or cats are living, where conditions injurious to the dogs', cats', or owner's health and well-being result from the person's failure to provide necessary sustenance. (2) Animal hoarding is a misdemeanor.” Illinois Effective: January 1, 2002 510 ILCS 70/2.10 70/2.10. Companion animal hoarder Currentness § 2.10. Companion animal hoarder. “Companion animal hoarder” means a person who (i) possesses a large number of companion animals; (ii) fails to or is unable to provide what he or she is required to provide under Section 3 of this Act; (iii) keeps the companion animals in a severely overcrowded environment; and (iv) displays an inability to recognize or understand the nature of or has a reckless disregard for the conditions under which the companion animals are living and the deleterious impact they have on the companion animals' and owner's health and well-being. Credits P.A. 78-905, § 2.10, added by P.A. 92-454, § 5, eff. Jan. 1, 2002. 510 I.L.C.S. 70/2.10, IL ST CH 510 § 70/2.10Current through Public Acts effective August 28, 2018, through P.A. 100-1114, of the 2018 Reg. Sess. Never Enough: Animal Hoarding Law Never Enough: Animal Hoarding Law Courtney G. Lee University of Baltimore Law Review Volume 47 | Issue 1 2017 University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law Article 3 Follow this and additional works at: (URL removed for reprint) Part of the Animal Law Commons Recommended Citation Lee, Courtney G. (2017) "Never Enough: Animal Hoarding Law," University of Baltimore Law Review: Vol. 47 : Iss. 1, Article 3. Available at: (URL removed for reprint) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@University of Baltimore School of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Baltimore Law Review by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@University of Baltimore School of Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NEVER ENOUGH: ANIMAL HOARDING LAW Courtney G. Lee* ABSTRACT Animal hoarding, a disorder that causes sufferers to acquire animals compulsively despite the inability or unwillingness to provide them with adequate care, is a widespread, costly, often underestimated problem that causes more animal suffering than all acts of intentional cruelty combined. Not only are animals harmed, but humans are as well, from dependents that live with hoarders to members of the surrounding communities to the hoarders themselves. Current laws do not address the issue effectively, and recidivism rates are close to 100%. This Article seeks to increase awareness of the animal hoarding problem and offers suggestions as to how the law might evolve to better manage and resolve these complex cases. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. BACKGROUND: WHAT IS OBJECT HOARDING A. Helping Object Hoarders II. ANIMAL HOARDING A. Why People Hoard Animals 1. Overwhelmed Caregivers 2. Rescuer Hoarders 3. Exploiter Hoarders 4. Other Types, Common or Combined Traits and Mislabeling B. Helping Animal Hoarders III. CIVIL AND REGULATORY RESPONSES TO ANIMAL HOARDING A. Civil Forfeiture and Bonding Laws B. Other State and Municipal Laws C. Other Local Ordinances IV. CRIMINAL RESPONSES TO ANIMAL HOARDING A. Intent Requirements of Animal Cruelty Laws B. Outside Factors Affecting Charging and Sentencing C. Other Problems with Using Animal Cruelty Laws to Prosecute Hoarding Cases V. LEGISLATIVE RESPONSES TO ANIMAL HOARDING A. The Illinois State Law Example 1. Limitations of the Illinois Law 2. Effectiveness of the Illinois Law B. Hawaii’s Animal Hoarding Law C. Rhode Island’s New Animal Hoarding Law D. Proposed Animal Hoarding Bills 1. Arizona 2. West Virginia 3. New York 4. New Jersey VI. RECOMMENDATIONS A. Adopt an Official Definition of Animal Hoarding at the National Level 1. Distinguishing Animal Hoarding and Animal Neglect 2. Home of the Official Definition 3. Definition Recommendations B. Suggestions for State Laws 1. State Animal Abuse Registries 2. State Hoarding Task Forces 3. Providing for Seized Animals 4. Providing for Hoarders 5. State Criminal Law Provisions 6. Collaborative Justice VII. CONCLUSION INTRODUCTION There is a person right now who—quietly, unbeknownst to her family and neighbors—is acquiring animals. She might keep them in her home, which may look perfectly normal from the outside, or perhaps she keeps them in another structure. They could be dogs or cats, or they could be birds, exotic pets, livestock, or even wild animals. She might be compelled by various reasons; she may have started with the best intentions, just trying to provide a safe haven for a couple of pets that she did not spay or neuter, and the number grew out of control too quickly for her efforts ever to be enough to contain the situation. Alternatively, she may honestly believe that she is the only person who can save the animals, and that other caregivers would never be enough. Or she may just feel that she never can have enough animals, so she continues to adopt more from shelters, and perhaps she buys them from pet stores or through classified ads. Regardless, she does not or cannot provide adequate care for these animals, and by the time the authorities realize what is happening, she may have ten, twenty, fifty, or even hundreds, some barely alive, some already dead. After a lengthy, expensive process during which the animals are seized and treated and her property is cleaned, she may pay a fine, serve some time in jail, or both.1 She then returns to her newly clean, empty home, or maybe she moves to a new city or state. As the authorities heave a sigh of relief that the case finally is over and local media coverage of the incident dies down, she might notice a stray cat in the neighborhood, or encounter someone outside the local grocery store who is trying to rehome some puppies. Then quietly, unbeknownst to her family and neighbors, she begins the process all over again. Animal hoarding is a widespread, often undervalued problem across the country that causes more animal suffering than all acts of intentional cruelty combined.2 Not only are the animals harmed, but humans are as well, from dependents living with hoarders, to members of the surrounding communities, to the hoarders themselves.3 Many hoarders feel as if they never have enough animals, and current treatment strategies that rely primarily on animal cruelty laws are not enough to address the problem effectively.4 This Article seeks to increase awareness of the problem and offers suggestions as to how the law might evolve to better manage animal hoarding cases. Part I provides background on object hoarding in general,5 and Part II expands upon those ideas to explain animal hoarding specifically, types of animal hoarders and the rationales behind their behaviors, and ways to assist them.6 Parts III through V explore civil and regulatory, criminal, and legislative responses to animal hoarding cases,7 and Part VI offers suggestions as to how the law might change to better resolve these complex cases.8 Finally, Part VII concludes that current laws will never be enough to solve this problem until increased awareness of the issue and more thoughtful consideration of its causes, not just its effects, lead to change.9 I. BACKGROUND: WHAT IS OBJECT HOARDING? The hoarding of objects entails the compulsive acquisition of, and difficulty in discarding, a large amount of possessions in a manner that impairs the hoarder’s daily life, and that may threaten her health and safety, in addition to the health and safety of those who live with or near her.10 The general public was largely unaware of hoarding until recent years, as the media amplified exposure through news reports, talk show interviews, and reality television programs.11 Similarly, few studies discussing hoarding as a mental disorder existed in the medical community until the last two decades.12 As scientific inquiry increased, it expanded awareness, but also bred disagreement regarding how to classify the condition medically.13 Initially, researchers categorized hoarding as a subset of obsessive- compulsive personality disorder (OCD), but over time many medical professionals started viewing hoarding as its own separate condition, believing that classifying it as a subset of another disorder results in inconsistency in studies and underestimation of hoarding’s harmful effects.14 That theory gained momentum, and the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the definitive guide for the classification of mental disorders, changed to list hoarding as its own separate diagnosis.15 Although medical professionals have started to accept hoarding as a distinct disorder, it still may appear in conjunction with other mental conditions, most often with OCD, but also with schizophrenia, dementia, eating disorders, autism, mental retardation, and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder.16 Hoarding is extremely widespread, estimated to impact roughly “two to five percent of all adults.”17 In the United States alone, compulsive hoarding affects approximately 700,000 to 1.4 million people.18 Although the states of their homes may seem to suggest otherwise, hoarders themselves do not necessarily fit the stereotype perpetuated by sensationalized media depictions of lazy, disorganized, dirty people living in a “spectacle of chaos.”19 In fact, hoarders tend to be perfectionists who are afraid to discard something that they believe will prove necessary later, assigning “distorted beliefs” of importance and emotional attachment to their possessions.20 People who suffer from hoarding can be found anywhere, and the degrees of separation between non-hoarders and hoarders often are smaller than expected; perhaps surprisingly, “[i]t seems that everyone knows someone or knows someone who knows someone” who could qualify as a hoarder.21 That surprise may be due to the secrecy that frequently surrounds hoarders. Many compulsive hoarders fail to recognize that their behavior poses problems, and therefore are very unlikely to seek treatment voluntarily, dismissing and sometimes even reacting violently toward family and friends that attempt to intervene.22 As a result, they can become socially isolated, living beneath the weight of their possessions in secret, sometimes in shame, and often in denial of the deleterious effects of their compulsive collecting.23 Because of this social seclusion, along with the tendency of many hoarders to actively try to hide their circumstances, many hoarding cases go undetected for years or even decades.24 Although not always obvious to those around them, unfortunately the clandestine environments hoarders create can be harmful or even deadly.25 Hoarders save many different items, but the most common “include newspapers, magazines, old clothing, bags, books, mail, notes, and lists.”26 The accumulation of these objects creates a significant fire hazard, both in combustibility—particularly if located near space heaters or overtaxed electrical outlets—and in access for firefighters who may not be able to reach a blaze or anyone trapped therein.27 Further, amassing large amounts of items in a comparatively small space creates other dangers, such as the risk of falling, especially if the hoarder is elderly or disabled.28 If the hoarded items include food or other perishables, contamination by rotting is likely, and dust pollen and bacteria frequently plague hoarders because their homes cannot be accessed adequately for cleaning.29