A massive Humane Society trailer was loaded up with cats as they were captured in and around a Lane 11 residence south of Powell.
"We're doing a search warrant to collect cats," said County Attorney Bryan Skoric at the scene.
Workers assembled cages to carry captured cats from the home to an area where they were examined and tagged by Humane Society workers, and then loaded onto the trailer.
The Humane Society said in a press release that the cats were being taken to the Park County Fairgrounds for temporary care and holding. The cats will likely be taken to larger communities to be adopted out.Within city of Powell limits, homeowners may own a maximum of two adult pets, but in the county's unincorporated areas, there are no maximums.
"There is no number -- it's the manner in which they're kept," Skoric said. He said the allegations were that these cats were not being properly cared for.
Adam Parascandola, the Humane Society’s director of animal cruelty issues who was leading efforts at the scene Thursday, said the home’s wooden floors were soaked with cat urine and feces. He said the high levels of ammonia in the house made the air potentially harmful to breathe for both animals and humans; workers in the home wore masks as they removed cats.
"It's definitely pretty unsanitary," Parascandola said.
“I have not gone into the residence nor will I,” said Skoric.
Parascandola said Humane Society workers were using live traps and nets to catch the cats throughout the house -- including the ceiling."We do a lot of them (cat-catching operations) so we know where their hiding spots are," he said.
Skoric, who has been county attorney since 2003, recalled an early 1990's case where an elderly Cody woman had a large number of animals, but "Since I've been here, certainly we've had nothing like this," he said.
Skoric declined to name the three individuals who were living at the residence. Clifton Taylor was listed in the phone book as living at the 900 block address on Lane 11.
No criminal charges had been filed in the case as of Thursday morning.
The affidavit of probable cause used to conduct the search will not be publicly available until the warrant is returned to Circuit Court. That was expected to happen perhaps sometime tomorrow.
Skoric said the help of the Humane Society — which will pay for nearly all of the operation -- was critical. Parascandola estimated the Humane Society's cost at between $40,000 and $50,000; kennels and other materials were donated by PetSmart Charities.
"It's an operation that needed a great deal of cooperation," Skoric said, adding, "Quite frankly I don't know how Park County would have handled it (without the Humane Society).”
The Tribune will update this story as it develops.
Humane Society video of the operation is embedded below:
How ironic is it that the two women living there have earned there living as “caregivers” to the elderly.
ReplyDeleteThey cannot even clean their own house. They expect the 79-year-old man that lives there to buy all the food for the cats and cleanup after them and at the same time to work and earn a living to pay the bills so that they don’t have to work. What a couple of free loaders!
The Humane Society was informed about this cat problem three years ago and all they did was tell them to get rid of some cats. Two years ago the cops were called out for a domestic abuse charge against one of the women living there for hitting the old man. They were in the house and could smell that something was wrong. All they did was say that it smelled bad but that the man living there had the right to have a smelly house. Last year the Humane Society in Cody, Worland, Casper and Washington DC were all contacted. At this time there were at least one hundred cats in the house. All of these agencies said that there was nothing they could do. Now they come riding in on there white horses talking about how terrible the living conditions are. One person in the news article said
ReplyDelete“There is no number -- it's the manner in which they're kept," He said the allegations were that these cats were not being properly cared for.
I guess that one hundred cats being locked into a house is okay but if there is any more then it becomes unsafe.
That is heartbreaking, I am sure the man that was living there was completely overwhelmed and unable to decide what should be done for the animals. It is sad when it gets to this point because often the people who get into these situations have good intentions but don't know when to say enough is enough and that is when the animals multiply and run rampant.
ReplyDelete