Animal Hoarding - When Loving Pets Goes Too Far

When you see a cute litter of puppies or a box full of kittens, the desire to keep a couple of dozen of the little critters around is almost overwhelming. Most of us recognize, however, that we don't have the space or the time to attend to large numbers of animals.

But then there are the hoarders: People who love animals so much that they can't stop "rescuing" them, even when they have hundreds of cats and dogs in their homes.

Animal Planet is launching a new series called CONFESSIONS: Animal Hoarding, which looks into the lives of pet lovers who have a compulsion to possess and control an unmanageable number of animals. The series coordinates interventions by psychologists, animal welfare experts and friends and family to help these people -- and their pets -- recover from animal hoarding.

In this video from Today, Matt Lauer interviews Robin, one of the women featured in the show, along with psychologist Karen Cassiday, to gain insight into this troubling phenomenon.

Tags: Animal Hoarding, animal planet, AnimalHoarding, AnimalPlanet