Hoarding 25 cats, 4 dogs
Lancaster, MA (US)Incident Date: Saturday, Dec 31, 2005
County: Worcester
Disposition: Not Charged
Person of Interest: Claudia J. Ezinicki
Town officials are trying to clean up a local property that has been criticized by the Board of Health, the building commissioner and neighbors.
Complaints about the house at 50 Vincent Ave. -- and concerns about the 25-plus animals sometimes living inside -- go back eight years, according to Nashoba Associated Boards of Health documents and town officials.
Lancaster Police Sgt. Edwin Burgnickel went to the house three weeks ago to investigate a neighbor's concern about abandoned animals.
"The roof has been stripped off and replaced with some sort of carpet," Burgnickel said. "The odor of animal urine was overwhelming."
"Considering how bad the odor of urine was outside, I could only believe the inside was worse," Burgnickel said.
Selectman and Board of Health Chair Shawn Winsor said the Board of Health would be working with the owner to clean the exterior of the house.
Winsor also said he plans to meet with the town's Animal Commission next week to talk about the issue.
Claudia Ezinicki has owned the house since 1998 and John Bottomly has been listed as a resident there as early as 2002, according to town reports.
She has declined to comment.
There are cars sitting on its front lawn, some of which are filled with garbage. There is also a smell of urine coming from a dumpster on the front lawn.
Sgt. Peter Oberton with the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Law Enforcement Department said he visited the house this week on two-hours notice and saw no violations of the animal cruelty statute.
There were 25 cats and four dogs at the residence, Oberton said.
But the file at the Nashoba Boards of Health contains more than 50 documents about the house, some going back as far as 1998.
Documents inside the file report:
* "The smell of cat urine and feces was noticeable inside the dwelling, but not outside," NABH Sanitarian Bill J. Brookings wrote in the spring of 1999.
* A neighbor complained to the NABH of an "odor of decomposing flesh" coming from the property during the same month.
* Former Building Commissioner Harold D. Avery said in a 2002 letter that four unregistered vehicles needed to be removed from the property.
* Former Building Commissioner James Shuris said there were five unregistered vehicles on the property and demanded that Ezinicki move them in March of 2004.
* Former Board of Selectman Chairman Joanne C. Foster formerly requested an investigation by the Board of Health, the building commissioner and the Fire Department just a month later.
* Police filed a report in September 2004 after a neighbor complained of something rotting on the property.
* The Board of Health formerly requested Ezinicki clean the property on Sept. 13, 2004, after an inspection showed that trash littered the property, and filled several cars.
* Building Commissioner Richard J. Pauley said in September 2004 that the property was in "acceptable condition" and "all of the problems of concern to this department have been rectified."
Pauley said he went back to the house last Friday and gave the residents two weeks to remove two unregistered cars.
There is usually eventual cooperation from Bottomly and Ezinicki, but it is often like "pulling teeth," Pauley said.
Brookings said there's not much the board can do despite the history of problems.
"We're not the aesthetic police," Brookings said. "We had great hopes in the MSPCA to do something about this."
But Oberton of the MSPCA said Lancaster is trying to pass the buck for its years of inaction.
"They may be miffed that nothing's been done, but they should look at themselves," Oberton said. "They've had more authority than anyone else to do something over the years, and they haven't done anything."
"There are a number of animals there, and the situation there when I've inspected has not been in violation of the law," Oberton said.
Bottomly said the concerns about the house and the animals are off base.
"The animals are very well taken care of," Bottomly said.
Bottomly said he did not see why the town should care about the trash around the house.
"We live at the end of a dead-end road," he said.
His neighbor, David Murphy, said Bottomly is "a really nice guy."
"I would help him clean up, if he asked," Murphy said. "I even offered to help him fix his roof."
Bottomly said Ezinicki takes in many stray cats before moving them on to other homes and shelters.
Bottomly said he started repairing the roof earlier last year, but it became too cold to continue work.
Offering to show all the different building supplies he has to fix the roof once the weather improves, Bottomly seemed eager to dispel any concerns of his house.
He said the urine smell came from old urine-stained carpets which had been thrown in the dumpster next to his house.
He put a tarp over the dumpster to reduce the smell, he said. References |
