This just blows my mind...How? Why?

[MrLabGuy]

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - About 800 small dogs, including Chihuahuas, terriers and Pomeranians, were seized from a triple-wide mobile home whose occupants were overwhelmed trying to care for the animals, authorities said Wednesday.
Pima County sheriff's deputies and animal welfare officials who removed the dogs also found 82 caged parrots in the home in a rural area northwest of Tucson.
Some dogs were pregnant and giving birth as they were taken to shelters in Tucson, said Jenny Rose, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society of Southern Arizona. Ninety-six dogs were taken from the house Monday and another 700 on Wednesday, she said.
"The home was definitely in very bad condition, urine and feces all over the home, in the kitchen and bedroom, with a very strong odor," she said. "Obviously, 800 dogs in a triple-wide mobile home, they were packed in there. That being said, they were in pretty good shape."
The elderly owners, who have not been identified, were apparently overwhelmed but have cooperated with authorities, sheriff's Sgt. James Ogden said. No charges have been filed, but authorities continue to investigate.
The animals appeared to have had enough food, but a few were missing paws - some from having been attacked by other animals, others apparently having caught their feet in fencing outside, Rose said.
The breeds included Chinese cresteds and Lhasa apsos. The owners were breeding and offering the dogs for sale, Rose said, but she described it as a hoarding case, in which elderly people sometimes feel no one else can give their animals a good home and won't part with them.
Deputies were alerted this month after a woman who bought a Chihuahua at the home reported the conditions, Ogden said.
The dogs living inside the house apparently had free run of the premises, Ogden said. Others were found in other structures on the property.
Ogden described the living conditions as "horrible, filth everywhere ... probably one of the worst (situations) I've ever seen." The animals will be offered for adoption soon, Rose said, adding that a rescue group from Phoenix had taken 100 of the dogs.

[DaveNW]

I think they key phrase when I first heard about this was that the people are elderly, and even though they were deliberately breeding the dogs to sell puppies, they didn't feel anyone else could give their animals a good home, so they kept them. I think they fell victim to their own paranoia.

I had a friend whose elderly mother lived alone in Los Angeles. She'd call my friend and complain that she had no food, and he needed to bring her some. So he'd buy groceries, and take them to her, only to find the refrigerator was stuffed to the brim with expired, outdated food she'd bought. Turns out the reason she had no food was because she would always buy the largest size packages of everything because it was on sale, but then she had nowhere to store it. So it spoiled. But since there was all this food around, she couldn't just throw it away - that would be wasteful. And she couldn't afford to be wasting anything, because she was on a fixed income, and had to make her money stretch. She always said she'd starve before she got another social security check.

He went around and around with her, until finally she was put into an assisted living home where they could keep an eye on her. Eventually she passed away in her sleep one night. As he was dealing with her financial affairs after the funeral, he discovered she had not one, but SEVERAL bank accounts with hundreds of thousands of dollars in them. She could have lived anywhere, under any sort of conditions. But she was convinced it was the Great Depression all over again, and the wolves were at the door. Kind of sad, actually.

I'm glad those dogs in Arizona are mostly all okay. I hope they get great homes.

Dave