 80 cats seized from backyard pen
Austin, TX (US)Date: Apr 7, 2006
County: Travis
Local Map: available
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Jane Alaniz
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The smell from the neighbor's house was so bad that Matilde Mendoza said she couldn't let her children play in the backyard. The smell was from the cats � more than 80 of them � living in a large wire mesh pen in back of Jane Alaniz's house on Paddington Street. When an animal control officer showed up a few weeks ago, he told Alaniz that she was breaking several city ordinances, including one allowing residents to have a maximum of five pets, said Lt. Pedro Hernandez of the Kyle Police Department. She said she would apply with the city for a special permit to keep the animals, but she never did, Hernandez said. The city seized the cats April 7, and now they are available for adoption at the PAWS Shelter and Humane Society in Kyle.
Police have not decided whether to file charges against Alaniz for breaking city ordinances, Hernandez said. Alaniz, who works at the Internal Revenue Service, said she had asked animal control for an extension because she was taking care of her daughter, who is pregnant with twins and has health problems.
City officials kept changing their minds about what they wanted from her, said Alaniz, who couldn't talk about her cats without crying. She now plans to resign from her job and move out of state because of the trauma of losing them, she said. "I had some of the friendliest, most loving pets, and they are trying to tell me they are neglected," Alaniz said. "I'm just somebody trying to help little innocent critters."
She said she had 77 cats that lived in a 30-foot-by-30-foot, 7-foot-high pen with a table and two park benches. She spread fresh cedar chips in the pen every night and fed the cats at least 50 cans of cat food a day and dry food, she said. Some of the cats are underfed, but their biggest problem has been ear mites, said Patti Rudick, the executive director of PAWS. Some have stress-related illnesses such as diarrhea or urinary tract infections, but they are all adoptable, said Samuel Ladach-Bark, a veterinary technician at the shelter. Alaniz voluntarily gave 15 to 20 cats to the shelter after the city first contacted her but never brought the rest of them, Rudick said.
About five to six years ago people started leaving their unwanted cats with her, and she also rescued abandoned cats from the streets, she said. Tom Alaniz, her husband and a former member of the Del Valle school board, said he and his wife always carry dog food, cat food and water in their car to help animals they see. When they moved from Austin to the Kyle house a few weeks ago, the owner in California said it was all right to have the cats as long as they were kept outside, Sara Alaniz said. Jane Alaniz said she had been planning with a pet store to put the cats up for adoption before they were seized from her. Mendoza, who lives next door, said she isn't the one who called animal control, but she's happy to have relief from the smell.
"People can have one or two or three cats, but 80-something is too many," she said. Neighborhood MapFor more information about the Interactive Animal Cruelty Maps, see the map notes.
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