Applying Broken Window Theory to Prevent Hoarding Situations

I know that many of my recent blog posts have focused on the fact that we are overwhelmed with kittens. We also have so many requests for assistance, along with many more things going on. Today I am going to continue on that trend by discussing Applying Broken Window Theory to Prevent Hoarding Situations. Why do they always seem to have to happen in the summer? I will list reasons why this happens, as well as list how we can try and prevent the situation from happening in the future.

Why do hoarding situations come up in the summer?

Two reasons, smell and kittens! In the summer, it is hot and humid. Everything stinks! This is when neighbors call local animal control and complain the most about all animal situations. Also, summer is when kittens show up! Therefore, if there is a situation with six unspayed cats, you are pretty sure to have litters upon litters of kittens. People will see those kittens and become very concerned!

When is the best time to handle hoarding or near hoarding situations?

February!

I know it is too late for this year, but next year in January reach out to your local animal control and find out who they think needs access to low cost spay/neuter services for their cats. It is a great way to open up communications with your municipal services. Find out the locations that your local animal control gets the most complaint calls. This is a great way to start off the year working together for the benefit of cats in the community.

In addition to working with your local animal control, it is also best to reach out to other groups to see if they might know of some locations that might be of concern. I find January is a great time to network and reach out to others, in order to kick off the year right.

I refer to this as Applying Broken Window Theory to Prevent Hoarding Situations

From wikipedia: “The broken windows theory is a criminological theory of the norm-setting and signaling effect of urban disorder and vandalism on additional crime and anti-social behavior. The theory states that maintaining and monitoring urban environments to prevent small crimes such as vandalism, public drinking, and toll-jumping helps to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness, thereby preventing more serious crimes from happening.”

So, our objective is to get to those potential hoarding situations before they happen and create a much bigger problem!

How do you handle hoarding situations? Is there a way you prevent those large situations from happening? Let us know on our Facebook page!