Hold your nose: 100 cats had the run of the house
By THERESA BLACKWELL and JACOB H. FRIES
Published April 5, 2007

CLEARWATER - Neighbors' complaints of a foul smell led authorities
Wednesday to condemn a north Clearwater home, removing a 57-year-old
woman, her elderly mother and more than 100 cats.
"The house is coated with fecal matter," Clearwater police Sgt. Greg
Stewart said. "The smell is overwhelming in and around the house. ...
The Fire Department is on scene to help us breathe."
Officers initially went to the house at 1881 Union St. on Tuesday
afternoon, but the daughter would not let them inside, Stewart said.
Police returned Wednesday with a child protective investigator, who
went inside, got a look at the conditions and took the woman's 92-year-
old mother to a nursing home, citing the house's conditions, Stewart
said.
The daughter, meanwhile, was hospitalized under the state's Baker Act,
which lets people be committed up to 72 hours for psychiatric
evaluation. The Times typically does not identify people committed
under the Baker Act and authorities did not release the name of the
woman's mother.
Authorities were still investigating Wednesday afternoon and were not
sure how long the mother and daughter had been living in such
conditions.
No charges had been filed.
The official count of animals, meanwhile, continued to rise as the day
went on - topping more than 100 cats and two small dogs by Tuesday
evening.
As Pinellas County Animal Services workers continued to trap animals,
those already captured sat in the front yard stacked in pet carriers
surrounding a statue of St. Francis of Assisi, the Catholic patron
saint of animals.
"There may be 20 cats out of 100 that look in fairly good health.
Eighty of them appear to have health issues of one kind or other:
mucus, runny noses, runny eyes, injuries," said Linda Britland, a
county Animal Services field manager.
"The question is where did they get them all?"
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) Tampa Bay
was going to take 40 of the cats, leaving county Animal Services with
the balance, Britland said.
What would happen to them afterward was not clear Wednesday evening.

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/04/05/Northpinellas/Hold_your_nose__100_c.shtml