These cats don't dance!

[WhiteRat]

450 cats cleared from home

3 likely to face charges; most animals were diseased or dead

BY KEVIN HARTER

Pioneer Press

ST. CROIX FALLS, Wis. — Shielded by hazardous materials suits against the toxic combination of feces, ammonia from urine and decaying flesh, crews removed about 450 cats Friday from a home along the St. Croix River.

A gut-wrenching stench, something akin to raw sewage combined with rotting meat, carried by a westerly breeze, attracted a bald eagle and turkey vulture for closer looks.

Inside the two-story white clapboard home, the crews equipped with oxygen tanks and air filters made their way through a catacomb of debris, including garbage bags and barrels filled with dead cats, all of which were covered by several inches of cat feces.

St. Croix Falls Fire Capt. Jeff Gutzmer called his trips into the home "like going into hell."

Like most on the scene, he had been to a number of homes and farms where from a few animals to maybe a couple dozen were found dead or dying.

"The numbers. I've never seen anything like this. It's beyond words, beyond description," Gutzmer said of the dead and dying cats, and the waste they produced. "It's almost impossible to believe anyone could live. It's toxic."

The home's residents — an 86-year-old retired county health care nurse, her 47-year-old daughter and 52-year-old son-in-law — are expected to face felony charges, including animal abuse. The Polk County district attorney, working with investigators, could file charges as early as Monday. Meantime, the residents were staying at a local motel.

Authorities could not explain why the three were living with so many cats or for how long.

Cats living on the main floor of the house on South River Street appeared to be more domesticated than the ones on the second floor. Many of the hundreds of cats were believed to be diseased.

After three firefighters were bitten trying to round up some of the cats, the crew decided the safest, healthiest and most humane option would be to asphyxiate the remaining animals by pumping carbon monoxide into the house.

"The cats on the second floor were wild, feral cats, and we decided it was too risky," said Police Chief Paul Lindholm.

Firefighters attached large hoses from the exhaust of the fire trucks to pump the carbon monoxide into the house — one of only six on the street.

Any cats found still alive were euthanized by injection.

After the last of three truckloads of cats was taken to a Clear Lake crematory by Friday evening, the house was completely sealed and cordoned off with yellow police tape.

Clearing out the cats took two days of work by the Polk County sheriff's and health departments, and St. Croix police and fire departments, along with several neighboring fire and ambulance crews, who were called in to assist. Work began Thursday morning and was completed Friday.

At one point Friday afternoon, as workers were taking a break, a 10-year-old neighborhood girl brought the crew freshly baked chocolate-chip cookies.

Officials believe the house, which is considered a major health hazard, will be razed.

Previously, neighbors thought they smelled something in the direction of the house, but confused it with the nearby fish hatchery and sewage treatment plant.

In recent months, there had been several anonymous tips, probably from a friend or relative, Lindholm said, but not enough information or evidence for police to enter the house.

That changed when an Xcel Energy worker, checking the neighborhood to make sure power was on after an outage, stopped at the home Wednesday. While talking to the homeowner, the worker saw dozens of sick cats and several inches of feces on the floor and reported it to police.

City and county officials got a warrant to search the home Thursday, and after the county Health Department took an air quality sample, the residents were evacuated and the house condemned.

The house is at the end of a dead-end street in the oldest section of this city of 2,100 people. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource's Fish Hatchery borders it on the south and east, and is next to the city's sewage treatment plant.

Two houses over, Jodi Holland, who has lived on the street for 10 years, said she occasionally saw her neighbor, whom she called a "nice, sweet lady," but rarely the woman's daughter or son-in-law.

Holland said she knew her neighbor took in stray cats, but said she had no idea it was more than a few.

"Occasionally, in the summer, when their windows were open and we were out walking, there was a disgusting smell, but since the sewer plant was on the other side, we figured it must be that," Holland said.

Simply hilarious. [/quote]