Animal hoarding is on the rise, and 'no-kill' policies are making it worse

Trapped in a living nightmare, a cat named Lilly suffered for months with an untreated, excruciatingly painful perforated cornea, until she finally died. She was just one of many. Hundreds of others perished or “lived” in urine-soaked outbuildings or outdoors amid vomit, trash, excrement, roaches and maggots. The most shocking part? This happened at a self-proclaimed “cat rescue sanctuary.” Within the past year, cases of animal hoarding have surfaced across the country, revealing hundreds, sometimes thousands, of neglected animals trapped in filth and deprivation. Hoarding is on the rise, and the push for “no-kill” shelter policies is fueling this crisis. Facilities that become fixated on making their “live release” rates look good often refuse to accept animals, including those who are elderly, ill or aggressive, to keep their euthanasia numbers low. When shelters turn animals away, they don’t just disappear. Many wind up dumped on the streets, where they suffer and die slowly and in pain. Others are handed over to hoarders, many of them posing as “rescues.” These