A woman has spoken out about her experience of ‘animal hoarding’ after she claims to have grown up in a household filled with upwards of 70 pets.
Summer Joy likened her childhood house to a zoo – which was a home to 20 dogs, 20 cats, 20 chickens and ducks, three exotic birds, two lizards and a farm of “countless” horses, goats and peacocks.
In total, she believes her family housed over 70 animals at once.
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The 31-year-old describes her parents as ‘hoarders’ and said the conditions included excrement often found on the floor, and a strong smell attached to her clothes that led to years of bullying.
“While my peers were playing ‘the floor is lava’, I was dealing with it in real life,” the legal worker told Need To Know.
“Every inch of our home was covered in a layer of grime, fur and dirt.
“There were also copious amounts of faeces, urine, mould, roaches and fleas.
“It was nearly impossible to get myself to eat within the home due to the state of the kitchen.”
The issue dates back over 20 years, with things spiralling almost right away.
Summer claims her parents bred animals like dogs, such as Corgis and Golden Retrievers, as well as rabbits.
They’d then sell these on as their main source of income.
She puts this down to hoarding – a recognised mental condition that involves the sufferer struggling to part with possessions.
Summer said: “Their [my parents’] animal hoarding knew no boundaries.
“They would have dogs birthing litters of puppies and house them in the dining room.
“In later years, they ran out of space and so would use mine and my siblings’ rooms.
“Each day felt like a constant battle with my senses, that left me beyond exhausted.”
Summer, who lives on the east coast of the US, recalls struggling to fall asleep due to being bitten by fleas.
While she hoped for respite at school, she sadly suffered years of cruel taunts.
She said: “I was known as ‘cat piss girl’ by everyone despite trying to rid the smell when I left the house.
“I’d desperately try to take care of my hygiene with the little resources I had.
“But it never made much of a difference due to the severity of the conditions I was trying to mask.
“Once, I invited a girl over for a sleepover, and she freaked out, rightfully so, over the cockroach infestation in the kitchen.
“Her parents came to pick her up, and she wasn’t allowed back over again.
“I suffered extreme bullying from a little girl all the way to graduation as a result.”
Summer tried to speak with her parents on the issue, though she was often met with phrases such as: ‘This is just a typical farmhouse’.
She eventually left her childhood home in 2013 to go to university.
For the first time in her life, she felt “clean” in her own surroundings.
It was also there that she realised her upbringing was far from typical, and came to believe that she had lived amongst ‘hoarders’.
She said: “Once I got into adulthood, I realised they were incapable of taking responsibility or making an effort to change.
“I had a very candid conversation with them, where I said I would be unable to continue a relationship with them unless they were willing to take accountability.”
She has been ‘no contact’ with her parents since 2024.
The same year, she believes her father was served an official cease and desist regarding breeding operations on the property.
No known arrests or other legal issues as a result of the so-called ‘animal hoarding’ are known.
Now, Summer advocates for children of hoarders online to offer a safe space for those going through a similar experience to open up.
She added: “Through sharing my story, I have helped create a platform that advocates for the unseen effects hoarding has on children.
“And above all, I’ve finally convinced myself that I was never responsible for the mess.
“Children of hoarders often suffer in years of silence because of the overwhelming shame they feel towards the conditions they grew up in.
“When, in reality, we had no choice but to live in it and survive it.
“People have no clue the effect witnessing animal hoarding has on a child.
“The environment itself poses a severe risk to physical health.
“In order to heal, I’ve found it incredibly important for me to shift the responsibility of the shame and guilt back onto those where it always belonged.
“They’ll refuse to accept it, as hoarders do, but that doesn’t matter.
“There’s a very common misconception thrown around a lot when it comes to hoarding: just clean.
“However, it’s not that simple.
“Until the hoarder addresses their underlying mental health issues that caused their hoarding, the cycle will continue.”
