Oregon: Cynthia Allen, 52, gets 5 years probation after subjecting cats to horrific abuse - 68 cats stuffed in a van along with 5 dead cats. Many of the live cats had lost one or both eyes.

OREGON -- Cynthia Allen, the owner of a van filled with 68 cats found in early November, appeared in Malheur Circuit Court Thursday for sentencing. Allen, 52, pleaded guilty to five counts of animal neglect in the first degree Jan. 28.

Judge Lung Hung, following the recommendations of the Malheur County District Attorney’s Office, sentenced Allen to 60 months probation, during which time she cannot care for or possess any animals. She also will have to pay for and complete a mental health evaluation and will have to pay $11,500 in restitution and $400 in fines.

When authorities responded to a complaint about her van in November, they found a brutal stench, five cat corpses and some cats that had lost one or both eyes.

The restitution will go to the Ontario Feral Cat Project. The nonprofit organization has cared for the cats since Nov. 9, when Allen turned them over, following a Malheur County Sheriff’s Office investigation of a complaint about a bus full of cats on Freedom Drive in Ontario.

A statement provided before sentencing said the Ontario Feral Cat Project had 18 volunteers and three local veterinarians providing service to the cats for three months, according to Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris.

“The cats were in very bad shape when they came in,” Norris said.

Caring for the animals has been costly.

“We have spent far, far in excess of the $12,000 she was ordered to pay,” said Elizabeth Lyon, a volunteer with the Feral Cat Project. “We did get lots of donations … but it also has dipped into money that had been donated for our regular trap, neuter, return work for feral cats. It’s been a stress for us that way.”The Ontario Argus Observer reports she was sentenced last week. She pleaded guilty in January.

But it’s not just dollars the organization is spending on caring for the cats — it’s time, too.

Lyon wasn’t sure how many hours to date had been spent between volunteers and veterinarians caring for the cats, but said when she did some calculations at the end of December, there were almost 400 hours at that point.

“We spend a lot of time caring for them and socializing with them — playing, petting and brushing,” she said, adding that the cats make better pets when they’re used to being handled and touched.

Of the 68 cats that came into the facility, 27 were taken by Simply Cats, a no-kill shelter in Boise that has adopted out 13 of the felines. The Feral Cat Project also has adopted out 13, and is now down to 28 cats.

Lyon also was at Thursday’s court proceeding and heard Allen’s statement to the judge.

“I believe she doesn’t want to hoard cats anymore. It was overwhelming to her,” Lyon said. “She’s grateful they are getting homes and grateful not to have that burden. Seventy cats is a lot of cats to take care of.”

Lyon, who had been in touch with the District Attorney’s office throughout the process, knew about the proposed sentencing.

“We told the court we hoped she would be assigned some counseling for hoarding, and I believe they did suggest that, so we were pleased about that,” she said.

If the therapist is OK with Allen having a pet in the future, Lyon said she didn’t believe the organization would object.

“But we would not want her to hoard again,” Lyon added.

According to court documents, Allen had only five days to contact a doctor to begin the evaluation process. If the doctor recommends treatment, she must follow it, including taking any medications that might be prescribed.

In addition to the usual general conditions of probation, Allen’s nearly five-year-long probation comes with other special conditions, including a mandatory curfew and a polygraph test.

(Argus Observer - March 3, 2015)

Earlier:

• Oregon: 'Swirling mass' of 68 suffering cats, some with eyeballs missing, found stuffed inside Cynthia Allen's shuttle bus. Five dead cats also found.

Oregon: 'Swirling mass' of 68 suffering cats, some with eyeballs missing, found stuffed inside Cynthia Allen's shuttle bus. Five dead cats also found.

OREGON -- Workers at an animal rescue operation in Oregon were caring Thursday for 68 cats found crammed into a van, many in wretched shape.

One of the rescue workers said there were only three litter boxes, and the stench was horrifying when the animals were found on Sunday.

"It was just a swirling mass of cats around your feet," Elizabeth Lyon of the Ontario Feral Cats Project said about the discovery on Sunday. "Every step I took down that center aisle, I had to wiggle my foot in so I didn't step on somebody."

The vehicle also held the bodies of five cats that died, the Ontario Argus Observer reported.

Many of the living cats were emaciated, Some had lost an eye to infection, a few were missing both eyes.

Officers made the discovery after getting a cat-hoarding complaint and have questioned 55-year-old Cynthia Allen, who has relinquished the van and cooperated with deputies, Malheur County Undersheriff Travis Johnson said.

Johnson said deputies haven't learned much about her background or how she came to have so many cats.

He said it appeared she had the cats before she left Eastern Oregon for Texas about three months ago. She had recently returned to the area, he said.

 

 

 

He said reports on the case have been turned over to the district attorney's office, which will determine if charges are filed. Allen couldn't be reached.

More than 20 volunteers and three veterinarians spent two hours getting the frightened animals out of the vehicle on Tuesday, Lyon said.

 

It was full of bedding and 32 cat carriers holding shoes and other possessions.

The cats have been treated for parasites and worms. One small male was to get surgery for an eye that was swollen out of its socket. As of Thursday, Johnson said, all the cats were reported still alive at the building where the rescue operation sheltered them.

Lyon described the cats as stressed and frightened but tame, friendly and sweet. Many were spayed or neutered, she said.

 

 

The rescue group appealed to the community for donations, and for cages to borrow. It promised the cages would be sanitized and disinfected before they are returned, in about a month.

"We'll be showing cats at the stores as soon as they are healthy enough to be shown," Lyon said.

(KGW - November 14, 2014)

New York: Entire family who looks like rejects from the Deliverance movie has been caught hoarding cats in horrific conditions again

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)