Back in the nineties sometime, I was at the East Hampton Film Festival as entourage for a friend's documentary film that I had worked on. There were a few perks even for the less prestigious filmmakers, including being chauffeured by volunteers.

The woman who graciously drove us all the way from our low cost motel far out of town threw in a bonus tour of the East Hampton mansions, complete with gossip. The Hamptons aren't Hollywood - yet – so these tended to be overblown versions of small town dramas about who sued whom to chop down the heritage trees that were impeding their beach view.

One of the stories she told was of a local man who collected Rolls Royces to a degree that his wife threatened him with the "D" word. Reluctantly he agreed to dispose of many of them, and one by one, the cars that were cluttering their property disappeared.

The thing is, he wasn't selling them – he talked various friends and acquaintances around town into hiding them in their garages. Of course, eventually his wife found out, and the town was divided by the furor.

The man could probably have been classified as a collector, or hoarder, but because he was wealthy, he was just called "eccentric" and became part of town legend. In light of what I am learning now about horses, the story has more sinister overtones than it did at the time.

Cars are one thing, horses are another. You can't simply stockpile them in a garage – they require feed, farrier and vet care, and their status as assets is dependent on their fitness and training. It is not an eccentricity to collect horses – it is a problem waiting to implode, and when it does, it impacts the entire community, particularly when hidden behind the shield of a "rescue."

- Unpaid feed bills and unpaid vet bills increase business overhead for equine services, which drives up costs for responsible clients

- The cost of impounding horses, rehabbing them, and prosecuting perpetrators is paid by the community

- Maintaining a tax-exempt status without practicing fiscal responsibility is fraud and also hinders the efforts of ethical rescues

Even the attempts of many people to intervene, report or challenge the habit of a hoarder may not have a result unless there is an accurate diagnosis. Most of us are not really educated on the subject, beyond watching the broadcasts of the horrorshow and its aftermath. (Thanks to Linda Byron of King 5 for going above and beyond in her recent investigative piece).

Animal hoarding does have its own website www.animalhoarding.com that promotes public awareness as one of the solutions.

"Friends, neighbors and relatives are often the first people to see the signs of animal hoarding before it becomes tragic, however they also may have little information about animal hoarding and thus not fully recognize what they are facing or know what to do about it. Service providers find themselves in the same position when they enter the house of an animal hoarder but fail to contact the Humane Society when they see animals living in crammed quarters with feces encrusted floors and no visible signs of food or water. This is why increasing public awareness is so critical in addressing the problem of animal hoarding."

The web site promotes a preventative approach to the 100 percent recidivism rate through an emphasis on a lengthy parole and supervisory period, combined with mandatory therapy.

So there you go, today's lecture on animal hoarding.