It’s love. Strange twisted love. So many of these stories turn out to be women who feel neglected and have lost people and relationships. Security and love are huge issues for women, moreso than men.
Animals can be kept and love you, and never leave you. They are the ultimate cross between something you own yet something that loves you back.
Of course, once you get past a certain threshold, you can’t get rid of them because it’s just physically impossible. Who is going to take 100 cats? Where would you put them? These people are often devastated to give them up because they know they just are going to be euthanized.
On top of it, many of these women are elderly and physically ill, and they can’t actually physically get going. Remember, if the authorities find out you have a ton of cats, many (especially blue states) will come after them legally for animal abuse, so they are afraid to ask authorities for help.
I could tell cat lady stories all day. One lady had so many cats in her apartment that the apartment underneath her complained that cat urine was leaking down into it. The same lady loved one of her cats so much that when it died she slept with it for two weeks after it passed on. I refuse to see her or her cats because she is absolutely nuts.