NEW YORK -- The three people accused of hoarding more than 130 cats in a filthy Halfmoon mobile home are related to two sisters who had at least 80 cats in their care two years ago, police said.
Arthur Millard, 53, Earl Millard, 26, and Mary Ryan, 61, are facing 51 counts of failure to provide sustenance, a misdemeanor, and one count of failure to vaccinate the animals, a violation of the state's public health law, after authorities seized 134 cats from a mobile home in the D & R Village last Monday.
"It's the third big cat caper we've had with these people," a sergeant in the New York State Police's Brunswick barracks said Tuesday.
In October 2010, police in Bennington, Vt., found 80 cats crammed into two cars in a grocery store parking lot. Bertha Ryan and Regina Millard, whom the sergeant identified as Mary Ryan's sisters, were driving to no-kill shelters and trying to put the cats up for adoption, police said at the time.
Arthur Millard and Earl Millard are father and son. Mary Ryan is Arthur Millard's sister-in-law and Earl Millard's aunt.
Shortly after the cats were found in Vermont, the sergeant said state police seized approximately 50 cats from a Schaghticoke home where some of the five family members lived. He did not know which ones, though police have said Arthur Millard and Mary Ryan list addresses in both Halfmoon and Schaghticoke.
In July 2011, then 55-year-old Regina Millard and then 62-year-old Bertha Ryan pleaded guilty to 13 misdemeanor animal cruelty charges in connection with the cats that were found in the Vermont parking lot, the Associated Press reported at the time.
The two sisters received 18-month deferred sentences that required them to undergo mental health evaluations and forbade them from having animals, the AP reported in July 2011. It was unclear Tuesday if any additional charges were filed.
The AP also reported in July that most of the Vermont cats were adopted.
WNYT reported in October 2010 that neighbors complained about the smell emanating from a River Road home and the 50 cats t were sent to a local shelter. Regina Millard told the news station that her husband, who suffers from dementia, started collecting stray cats.
State police gave a similar story when announcing the 130-plus cats were removed from Halfmoon last week, saying the cats' owners tried to rescue cats from the streets of Troy and from within the trailer park. Code enforcement officials deemed the mobile home uninhabitable, largely because of its overwhelming odor of cat waste.
One code enforcement official called the trailer a "disaster."
Police have said Arthur Millard, Earl Millard and Mary Ryan all lived at the trailer at some point in time and were equally culpable. They are scheduled to appear in Halfmoon Town Court next week.
If convicted of the charges, the accused face a maximum of two years in state prison and a fine of $200.
The Halfmoon cats were sent to the Saratoga County Animal Shelter, where many are now available for adoption. Some have already found homes.
The animal shelter is located at 6010 County Road in Ballston Spa.
(Saratogian - April 3, 2012)
