133 cats rescued from Baltimore home in pet hoarding case
By Jessica Albert
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BALTIMORE (WJZ) — More than 130 cats were removed from a Baltimore home Tuesday in an apparent case of animal hoarding.
Baltimore City Animal Control officers visited the Mt. Clare row home in response to a tip from a neighbor who was concerned about the number of cats living there, according to the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter.
Based on the neighbor’s tip, authorities expected to find about 90 cats inside the home. Instead, they were floored to find the residents were living with 133 cats in conditions that BARCS described as “out of control.”
“It was a very overwhelming situation,” said Bailey Deacon, director of community engagement for BARCS. “The state of the house was overwhelming. The owners were overwhelmed.”
After speaking with the homeowners, animal control officers and shelter staff agreed the best move was to remove the cats and take them to BARCS Animal Shelter.
“Trying to maintain enough litter boxes and clean space for 133 cats is impossible in a space as small as the row home was,” Deacon said.
According to BARCS, the health and temperament of the rescued cats, but many are expected to require “extensive medical care.” Fortunately, none of the cats had died.
“A lot of the cats have eye infections that have become pretty extensive where they need their eyes removed,” said Deacon. “We had some cats come in that were already missing an eye.”
Since the shelter was already caring for 247 cats before Tuesday’s discovery, BARCs is asking for the public for donations to help provide the cats with medical care, food and shelter.
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