30 cats abandoned in trailer, starved
Gardiner, MT (US)Incident Date: Wednesday, Oct 4, 2006
County: Park
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Roy E. Wiedenmeyer, Jr.
Case Updates: 1 update(s) available
A former Gardiner resident faces 22 counts of cruelty to animals for allegedly abandoning more than 30 cats in a dark trailer house with no food, water or litter boxes, forcing them to survive by eating their young.
Roy E. Wiedenmeyer Jr., 57, who now lives in Stevensville, also faces a criminal mischief charge.
Court records say Wiedenmeyer rented a trailer from Gardiner resident Peter Dahn for more than a year, then abandoned the cats there in early October.
All of the cats had to be euthanized because of poor health, inbreeding and aggression, said Vicki Blakeman, director of the Stafford Animal Shelter in Livingston.
''The cats were not provided with any cat boxes, so the scat was at least 6 inches deep,'' court documents state. ''The cats that lived had to survive by eating the kittens.''
Dahn discovered that the cats had been abandoned when he went to serve Wiedenmeyer with eviction papers on Oct. 4, court records said. Between 30 and 40 cats were in the trailer at the time, he said.
Dahn said this week he wasn't sure if Wiedenmeyer had been living in the trailer with the cats or in his car, adding that the trailer's windows were covered with tinfoil and curtains.
Dahn called the Park County Sheriff's Department, Justice of the Peace Deanna Egeland signed a search warrant, and most of the cats were captured and taken to the Stafford Animal Shelter, where they were examined and euthanized.
The cats damaged the trailer with their waste and scratching on the cabinets and walls ''to the extent that the trailer must be destroyed to eliminate any future health risks,'' court documents said.
Blakeman estimated an original four cats ''ballooned into a great many more.''
Case UpdatesReferences« MT State Animal Cruelty Map
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