a strange phenomenon that many find simply unbelievable Animal Hoarding it's called These are people who are far more than simply pet lovers no they are truly obsessed by the need to obtain and keep pets sometimes by the Dozen sometimes by owning a hundred or more many of them choose to live in squalor rather than parting with their pets our Yi Denise peered into this world and the psychological mindset of animal hoarders Olga feder off watched helplessly as last week investigators removed dozens of animals dogs cats pigeons even a fox some alive many dead from her Philadelphia home a place where she says the animals were well cared for I spare no expense they're my babies I have no husband or children to worry about they were my children this shocking scene is all too common one of the biggest Animal Hoarding cases ever 250 dogs rescued from a home in P County pit bulls and more than a 100 pigeons found living in filth across the country men women young and old share an addiction unlike any other I look at it and just go how did it get this way how did I let it get this way the overwhelming need to collect and even control animals the difference with Animal Hoarding is that this drug can love you back sweet boy this is lolette what started as a rescue Center for Strays is now a house teaming with nearly 300 cats I have a hard time saying no to a cat need every year thousands of Americans hoard more than a quarter of a million animals animal lovers like Dawn oh you guys he began with one two then three cats and now has more than 30 one day you look down and you've got 30 pairs of eyes looking at you going you're going to feed me Dawn overcame an addiction to methamphetamines and he seemingly replaced one habit with another and then there's Janice with 97 dogs and 15 cats crowded into her tiny trailer Janice began breeding Yorkshire Terriers but she eventually added more breeds and stopped selling the puppies she's lived like this for the last 12 years my dogs are like my kids Clover what are you doing they're all sweet dogs they're just incredible caring for her kids is a full-time exhausting job it's constantly all day long that I have to just keep going behind them and you know filling the water back up picking the paper back up you know putting new paper down still the trailer is never truly clean nor quiet Janice hasn't seen her grandchild in months I mean as much as I love my grandkids and believe me that is a lot but you know I also love my dogs too who else is going to be it come on Garrett come on cockroach you know you've seen these guys grew up from puppies you know and you taking care of them come on it's her daughter Lindsay who eventually calls on Dr Karen Cassidy to set up an intervention the goal convince Janice to give up all but two dogs and one cat you honestly speaking if you were looking for a home for an animal so let's say you were running a pet shelter would you pick your [Applause] place oh to be all right here we go cat in the Box it's a painful process Humane Society volunteers fill an entire tractor trailer with animals as Janice learns to let go felt like it was pulling on my heart cuz like I wanted to give him one more hug goodbye it's been almost 4 months but that moment is still tough to think about when you walked back into the house and those trucks pulled away and you saw all those empty cages what was that like it was hard it was very hard what were you feeling at that point I felt good for the dogs I I knew that I did what I had to do and you know but it but it was it was hard because I I loved him Janice has moved into her daughter's home with just one cat and two dogs and says her life is better but she still misses those dogs I mean that term animal hoarder do you think that applies to you no no I don't think that applies to me because it wasn't something that I I chose to do do you see the hoarding parallel of of someone who collects let's say clothes or I mean you bought the initial dogs but I didn't go out and initially byy a hundred dogs so no I don't I don't see myself as a as an animal hoood or no I don't even with 97 dogs no because I got put in that situation that denial is typical it goes with every animal hoarder um they fail to understand that all their love is is a good intention gone a for Dawn the threat of jail time finally forces him to surrender to animal control workers find dangerously high levels of ammonia from all the urine and several gruesome surprises oh look what we got here good after cleaning a new carpets he has his life back lolette also Parts ways with her animals 260 cats most are put up for adoption I felt that I could really trust them so I I let go of some cats that I did not plan to and then today Janice is focusing on life with her grandchildren but she stopped seeing her therapist Janice would be likely to start rescuing more animals if she doesn't get help unfortunately 100% of animal hoarders relapse if they don't receive treatment and it's because it's painful for them to let go of the animals because they feel like the animals give them perfect love and that they give the animal perfect love and that feels like the only way they can derive satisfaction in life I think you get enough love from two dogs in the same way that you got love from so many other dogs I get the same amount of love from each one of them I can say that it's definitely unconditional love cuz they they love you no matter what when you're with these two do you ever miss the others I always miss the others I'll always miss them I'm Yan Denise for Nightline in Fredericksburg Maryland