Hoarding - 38 cats starved to death
Jersey City, NJ (US)

Incident Date: Thursday, Nov 18, 2004
County: Hudson

Disposition: Alleged

Alleged: Geraldine Green

Animal Control officers have charged a Bayonne woman with 76 counts of animal cruelty, claiming she allowed 38 cats to starve to death inside a house she owns on Harrison Avenue in Jersey City.

Geraldine Green, who lives on West 34th Street in Bayonne, was charged with 38 counts of animal abandonment and 38 counts of failing to provide the cats with proper sustenance, according to Jersey City Animal Control Officer Joe Frank.

Police were first alerted to the Harrison Avenue house on Nov. 18 by neighbors who reported foul odors coming from the residence, Frank said. Inside, the officers discovered the dead cats and notified the city's animal control office, he said.

"We took over the operation and we tracked (Green) down and we issued her 76 counts of animal cruelty," Frank said.

According to the animal control officer, the 38 cats were at varying stages of decomposition when they were discovered. Frank estimated that the animals had been there for less than a month and described conditions inside the house as "deplorable" and as having "a very strong stench."

"She had personal belongings in the house, stuff stockpiled up to the ceiling," Frank said, adding that officials found several cat cages, along with plenty of cat food, though all of it was in cans.

"The house had to be closed down by the chief health investigator," Frank said. "He had it boarded up after we removed the cats . until we located Green."

A cleaning service was brought in to remove the debris inside so animal control officers could be sure that no other animals remained there, he said.

If convicted of the charges against her, Green faces up to $76,000 in fines - a mandatory $1,000 fine for each count of abandonment and fines up to $1,000 for each count of failure to provide the cats with food.

She could also spend up to six months in the Hudson County jail for each charge.

The first hearing on the case is scheduled for Dec. 20 in Jersey City Municipal Court.

Citing the court case, Frank declined to comment on what, if any, reasons Green had given for leaving the animals to die.

Green could not be reached for comment by telephone yesterday and no one responded to the bell at her Bayonne home, where a small green pine tree air freshener hung from the door knob. A box of garbage bags had been placed at the foot of her front door and a half-used bar of soap sat propped up on a door hinge.

Green's Harrison Avenue house - a narrow, three-story structure with a white railing around the front porch - was dark and also appeared empty yesterday. The small front yard, surrounded by a low wrought-iron fence, was overgrown and unraked.

To contact the prosecutor in this case and request that Green be fully prosecuted and assigned mandatory counseling if she is convicted, write to:

The Honorable Allen Pearlman
Chief Municipal Prosecutor, Jersey City
365 Summit Ave.
Jersey City, NJ 07306

References

« NJ State Animal Cruelty Map
« More cases in Hudson County, NJ

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