THE COLLECTION AGENCY - Rescuism vs. Rescuing

By The Barbi Twins, Founders, TwinBunnies.com (originally posted on Kitty Liberation Front May 31, 2006) To the animal community, In reading these e-mails about hoarding I could not resist in commenting. My sis and I are known for our recovery from bulimia, and my mom is a top therapist for alcoholics and addicts. I have learned to recognize addictive behavior, not by their symptoms of excess weight or being drunk, but instead by their character defects: control issues, being  a victim, denial, etc. Hoarding is a mental illness, just like bulimia, and the addiction that follows hoarding allows us to add the "ism" to rescue. In fact, I recoined the word hoarding into "rescuism", to force people to view hoarding as mental addiction and disease. You cannot judge or get angry at someone mentally ill. However, just as we should not judge a "drunk", you still can stop the drunk from driving, when it involves other living creatures. I believe this should hold true with a hoarder and  rescuism. Their illness makes them unfit to see their sickness and unfit to run a shelter with dependent living creatures. Furthermore, you cannot tell a drunk they are drunk. Telling a mentally ill person they are a hoarder, will only make them defend themselves or defend other fellow hoarders.

MYTH BUSTER!

By The Barbi Twins, founders, TwinBunnies.com

There is NO pet overpopulation, but rather a pet crisis which is directly related to the lack of laws and spay and neuter programs. The pet crisis is also because people are unwilling to commit for life to their pet, just like a family member, or they are unwilling to adopt imperfect or older pets. The chances of an older dog getting adopted is less than 10% and the chances of an older cat getting adopted is less than 1%. Rabbits aren't even considered pets, they are "property". They all end up killed or abandoned on the streets