Animal hoarding: slipping into the darkness of comorbid animal and self-neglect.

Substantial research and literature indicate how people and companion animals form relationships that are, for the most part, mutually beneficial. Yet there are highly dysfunctional human-animal relationships that do occur, meriting attention and remediation. One of the most perplexing and problematic human-animal relationships is encountered in cases of animal hoarding--a deviant behavior associated with extremely deleterious conditions of comorbid animal and self-neglect.

A theoretical perspective to inform assessment and treatment strategies for animal hoarders.

Animal hoarding is a poorly understood, maladaptive, destructive behavior whose etiology and pathology are only beginning to emerge. We compare and contrast animal hoarding to the compulsive hoarding of objects and proceed to draw upon attachment theory, the literature of personality disorder and trauma, and our own clinical experience to propose a developmental trajectory. Throughout life, there is a persistent struggle to form a functional attachment style and achieve positive social integration.