Animal Planet Orders Additional Episodes of 'Confessions: Animal Hoarding'

After just three weeks of premieres of CONFESSIONS: ANIMAL HOARDING, Animal Planet orders an additional 10 episodes to air during the first quarter of 2011. The series exceeded Animal Planet's year-ago prime levels by 48 percent among W25-54 in the first two premieres that aired this past July.

Animal hoarding is a serious and growing problem affecting every community in America, with more than 3,500 cases reported annually, impacting 250,000 pets each year. In many cases, it goes unrecognized until it becomes a crime. CONFESSIONS: ANIMAL HOARDING takes an honest and intense look at this condition and for the first time ever shows animal hoarding as a complex human condition that affects both the people and the animals involved.

"Clearly, CONFESSIONS: ANIMAL HOARDING hit a nerve with our viewers," says Marjorie Kaplan, president and general manager of Animal Planet. "These are life-and-death, deeply moving stories of humans and animals driven by profound need. With this series, we are hoping to build awareness that hoarding is a serious psychological condition -- one for which there is hope and treatment for people and animals involved."

Although animal hoarding is not yet formally recognized as a distinct psychological disorder in the psychiatric diagnostic manual with a set course of treatment, the mental health community is trying to better understand and approach animal hoarding through a human lens. Animal Planet's series is providing a forum where experts in psychology, veterinary health and leading organizations such as the Humane Society of the United States can address and unlock the problem on a national level.

CONFESSIONS: ANIMAL HOARDING delves into the daily lives as well as the hearts and minds of the people afflicted by this disorder. It also provides a voice for family and friends who are determined to prevent their loved ones from spinning further out of control. In the series, cameras enter the homes of men and women, young and old and from all walks of life, discovering what it's like for animals and people to live in the toxic conditions that result from an unbelievably large menagerie of animals. And, Animal Planet gets to the heart of the matter, exploring the reasons why these individuals turned to hoarding and how their problems spun rapidly out of control.

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