Odor Complaint Leads to Discovery of Dozens of Animals (80 Cats)in Apt.

[Champ]

MESA , Ariz. (AP) -- A complaint about odor led to the discovery and removal of three dogs and as many as 80 cats from a Mesa apartment near Southern & Country Club.

Animal rescue workers required the assistance of the city Fire Department to remove the cats Tuesday. Rescuers had to wear protective gear and masks because of the strong smell of amonia. They also had to wear thick gloves to handle the animals. Some who actually went inside wore suits with their own air tanks.

In all, they took out 65 cats and three dogs.

Neighbors say the owner would gather cats from the complex and care for them.

http://www.kpho.com/Global/story.asp?S=2546842
(haha my hometown :D)

[skygazer]

1. Misguided animal lovers

Who think they're doing animals a favor by taking them in. I've known a couple. One woman used to bring cats to the farm I lived on and leave them in the barn. She came out regularly and fed them but for the cats, it was horrible. These were house cats, loved pets whose owners couldn't keep them for whatever reason. This lady would tell them she had a nice home for them and bring them to the farm where they would have to figure out how to survive in a cold and drafty barn (in Vermont) with at least 30 other cats, some of which were very tough. Not a good thing.

She also had at least that many cats at home. Her house, from what I heard, stunk and the cats were confined to two rooms only where there were not enough litter boxes and not nearly enough room for them all to be comfortable. Very stressful for an animal to have to share confined space with so many others.

There were a number of complaints about her and the humane society eventually stepped in and took them all. Many had to be euthanized because they were so ill or feral - very sad.

[LoZoccolo]

2. I think I ran into one of these once.

In college I was walking back from someone's house and there was a cat hanging out on the sidewalk or something so I petted it because I love kitties. After that it actually kept following me for quite a ways! Then this woman pulls over - this was actually a busy street so it was kind of a big deal to just pull over - and asks me if it was my cat or if I knew who's it was. I was like I don't know it keeps following me and she was like I'll take care of it and like realy swiftly she had it and was back in her car and was driving off! It could have just been a stray, but then again it could have been someone's cat!