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Case #12504 Rating: 4.0 out of 5
Hoarding 53 cats, some resorting to cannibalism
Fort Shaw, MT (US)Incident Date: Friday, Aug 31, 2007
County: Cascade
Charges: Misdemeanor
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Eugena Fugate
A Fort Shaw woman pleaded guilty on Sept 19, 2007 in District Court to 20 counts of cruelty to animals after Cascade County Sheriff's deputies discovered 53 cats and cat corpses inside a pen on her property just off Montana Highway 200, authorities said.
Eugena Fugate, of 13479 Highway 200, was released from jail after coming to an agreement with prosecutors. She was originally charged with 57 counts of cruelty to animals and numerous counts of failure to properly dispose of an animal corpse, said Joshua Racki, deputy Cascade County attorney.
The remaining counts were dropped after Fugate agreed to stay away from the property until Friday, when authorities are expected to complete the euthanization process, Racki said. She also agreed to reimburse the state for all costs associated with euthanizing the animals, court records said.
"She was having difficulties and wasn't able to take care of them," Racki said.
The 26 cats and kittens found alive will be euthanized because many are feral, diseased or not sociable with humans, Racki said.
The Great Falls animal shelter is unable to take the surviving cats because officials are not sure what killed the dead animals, Racki said. The shelter recently began taking in cats again after recovering from a feline distemper outbreak earlier this summer.
A Great Falls veterinarian examined Fugate's cats and kittens, which were confined in "deplorable conditions" and suffering, veterinarian Kelly Manzer wrote in a report to the court.
The cats were so underfed they resorted to cannibalism, she wrote.
"Each day the cats are kept at the (property) only prolongs the cats' suffering," Manzer wrote in the report.
Deputies, several of who were sickened by the smell during the investigation, reported that the cats were inside a pen attached to a large Quonset hut, where some areas had feces piled as high as 12 inches. References« MT State Animal Cruelty Map
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