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Woman Hoards 60 Cats In Trailer Home

Jefferson County Seizes Animals, Place In Shelters

POSTED: 4:39 pm MST January 11, 2010
UPDATED: 8:31 am MST January 12, 2010

A Jefferson County woman is accused of hoarding as many as 60 cats inside her trailer home.

Animal control officers, though, said it wasn't a typical case of cat hoarding.

"I never had any idea she had 50 or 60 cats," said Tracy Stewart, who lived just two doors down from the 58-year-old woman. "You'd expect there to be an odor with someone having that many. I never had any indications."

Last month, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office responded to a call of a large number of animals in the home at 15150 S. Golden Road.

Officers have since seized 33 of the animals and plan to go back this week to seize most of the rest.

"It just snowballed on her," said Mark Techmeyer, public information officer with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. "They weren't spayed or neutered. They started breeding, and her little family just kept growing. She loved her animals."

So much so, neighbors said they often saw her bringing home cat food, but not food for herself.

They said her water is shut off, but that she always took care of her cats.

It's not unusual for animal control officers to come in contact with cat hoarders, but officers said this case was surprising.

"These cats were in pretty good shape," said Techmeyer. "The environment was in pretty good shape, which is not what you normally see in these hoarding situations. So this is a rare case."

Also rare -- the cat owner has been cooperative with authorities, admitting things had gotten out of control and voluntarily giving up her pets to shelters across the area.

"We're pretty excited that we were able to take 10 cats that were not in a good situation and turn around and find them forever homes," said Nick Fisher, chief operating officer of the Humane Society of the South Platte Valley.

Fisher said most of the animals were in good health, although few have minor health conditions related to inbreeding.

Officers will eventually leave the cat owner with three or fewer cats and will have them spayed and neutered.

Techmeyer said because there are no signs of animal cruelty or abuse, the cat owner probably won't face any criminal charges, but there could be zoning issues. The zoning administrator said they are investigating.

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