Cat Collectors: Ailurophilia Run Amok

Every week I receive one or more Google Alerts that tell about a cat collector somewhere in the U.S. One recent one was from New Haven, CT, where UPN Channel 8 told the story of a condemned house and the woman and cats that occupied it.

This unfortunate anomaly repeats itself all over the world, but the U.S. seems to be very susceptible to animal collecting cases. Hardly a day goes by that I don't see newspaper articles from all over the country detailing cases involving cat and dog collectors aka "hoarders," many involving otherwise "normal" people from all walks of life. "Casual collectors" seem to suffer some pathological quirk that allows them to take on more than they can handle, resulting in masses of ill-fed, unaltered, sick cats living in squalid conditions.

Please read the linked title article to learn more about the tragic spectre of cat collecting, and what you can do about it.