Pet-Abuse.Com - Animal Abuse Case Details: Hoarding 31 cats and kittens

Hoarding 31 cats and kittens
Beaverton, OR (US)

Incident Date: Friday, Jun 9, 2006
County: Washington
Local Map: available
Disposition: Convicted

Abuser/Suspect: Jennifer Gaines

Case Updates: 4 update(s) available

Case ID: 8995

Classification: Hoarding

Animal: cat

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Child or elder neglect

Neighbors in the 14300 block of Southwest Teal Street in Beaverton complained of a heavy ammonia smell. Searching for the odor's source, Beaverton police came to Jennifer Gaines' two-bedroom apartment at 4 p.m. June 9. They found 31 cats and kittens.

Dirty and ridden with fleas and ear mites, none had been spayed or neutered to prevent overpopulation. Some had upper respiratory viruses and eye infections. Others were polydactyl, with six toes on each paw, due to inbreeding.

Many were skittish, a result of poor socialization to people.

After Beaverton police seized them, all were immediately taken to Bonnie Hays Small Animal Shelter on Tualatin Valley Highway in Hillsboro.

Though charges have not yet been filed against Gaines, the owner, the case is under investigation, according to Mark Hyde, Beaverton Police Department spokesman. Until it is resolved, the cats cannot be adopted.

Meanwhile, the shelter is overwhelmed by the task and expense of caring for them. Thirteen of the cats have been sent to foster homes. The others remain at the shelter. Males, females and pregnant mom cats are separated to prevent further breeding.

They can't be spayed or neutered until the case is resolved and the animals are released from protective custody and cleared for adoption.

Karen Riley, veterinary technician, Loree Shannon, animal care technician, and other shelter staff spend much of their time working with them. They bathe, medicate and hold the felines to get them used to people. The care is expensive. One dose of antibiotic Clavamox or Amoxycillin is $9.

Shelter Spokesman Susan Field figures it costs the shelter at least $50 a day per cat for food, litter, medicine and staff time.

One veterinarian donated antibiotics and a few donations of food have come in. Yet additional help is desperately needed, Fields said: "We are looking for more foster homes and we need donations of medicine, food and litter."

Case Updates

New York Knicks center Kelvin Cato wants custody of his 6-year-old son, who was found living in a urine-soaked apartment with more than 30 cats last year.

Cato's lawyers in Oregon said their client learned of the child's plight only after they told him about news accounts of the criminal case against the boy's mother, Jennifer Gaines.

Gaines, 36, was convicted in Washington County Circuit Court of criminal mistreatment of her son and of animal neglect. She was sentenced this week to five years of probation and 100 hours of community service.

"We had no knowledge of the living conditions whatsoever," Cato's mother, Carolyn Cato of Atlanta, told The Oregonian newspaper.

The police officer who investigated the apartment on a tip last June wrote in his report that the smell of cat urine burned his eyes and throat.

"It was unsafe for the children to spend another minute inside of the residence," the officer wrote. "The odor was so overwhelming that I almost vomited."

Court records say the boy's mattress was stained with cat urine and he was covered in flea bites. Gaines told authorities she took in a few homeless cats, the cats rapidly reproduced, and things got out of hand.

Now Cato, 32, wants custody of his son.

"He just doesn't want his little boy to be stuck in this mess," said Gary Bullock, Cato's attorney.

Cato and Gaines met in 1997, just as Cato was starting his NBA career for the Blazers, said Gaines, who spoke with The Oregonian on Friday. They began an on-again, off-again romance that ended in 1999 when she became pregnant, she said. Cato moved to Houston to play for the Rockets.

After the boy was born in May 2000, and a paternity test showed Cato was the father, Gaines sought child support of $15,000 a month from the player, who was earning $5 million a year. A judge sided with Cato, saying roughly $2,100 a month in child support was adequate.

Gaines' attorney, Paul Aubry, said Cato is seizing upon an "isolated incident" to gain custody. As proof that Gaines is a good and caring mother, Aubry said, the state Department of Human Services has let her retain custody.

A department spokeswoman said a caseworker is regularly monitoring Gaines, the boy and their new home.

Source: NY Newsday - Jan 27, 2007
Update posted on Jan 29, 2007 - 12:41AM

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A Washington County judge on Friday found a 36-year-old woman guilty of criminal mistreatment for letting her 6-year-old son live in filthy conditions with 31 cats in their Beaverton apartment.

After listening to two days of testimony and arguments without a jury, Circuit Judge Steven L. Price took about 25 minutes to convict Jennifer Megan Gaines.

"I think she was in denial," Price said. "This apartment was in terrible, terrible condition."

Photos presented by Megan Johnson, Washington County deputy district attorney, showed stains on walls, carpeting and the son's mattress; overflowing litter boxes; and shredded carpet. One neighbor testified she was afraid that the strong urine smell seeping from Gaines' apartment would harm her own children.

Dustin Moore, a maintenance worker at the Sterling Pointe apartments on Southwest Teal Boulevard in Beaverton, testified that he had to wear a mask for the first time when he was cleaning Gaines' apartment to rent to a new tenant after she moved out at the end of September.

Moore said he has readied two or three apartments a week for the past eight months for new tenants. Gaines' apartment, he said, "was beyond any pet damage I had ever seen, it was worse than all of them combined."

Gaines said she took in three stray cats and within a year had 31 because she allowed the animals to have several generations of kittens. Animal-control workers had to euthanize nine of the original cats and 15 kittens born at the shelter.

Price found Gaines guilty of second-degree animal neglect; he acquitted her of first-degree animal neglect. The cats were dehydrated and had corneal ulcers, upper respiratory infections, ear mites and fleas.

"I had too many cats," Gaines said on cross-examination.

She said she wasn't supposed to have any pets under her lease and actually was relieved when police came to her door June 9 to check on a neighbor's complaint. Gaines said she had tried to get the cats into shelters before, but they were full and some required her to have the animals spayed or neutered.

Gaines said she routinely spent 20 minutes in the morning and half an hour at night cleaning litter boxes and mopping up messes but had missed her regular maintenance for two days before the police came.

Public defender Paul Aubry said Gaines is working with the Oregon Department of Human Services to keep custody of her son. Gaines has met all the state's conditions and passed all the caseworker's inspections since June, when police seized the cats, Aubry said.

"She is mostly worried about her son," Aubry said after the verdicts were announced.

Gaines will be sentenced Jan. 24. Johnson said she would ask for two years of probation and a condition that Gaines not be allowed to have any pets.

Source: The Oregonian - Jan 13, 2007
Update posted on Jan 14, 2007 - 4:04PM

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Some began life in a haze of ammonia fumes from the urine at a small Beaverton apartment with wall-to-wall cats. Tiny, blind and depending on milk from sick mothers, the kittens in a home with 31 cats were soon covered with fleas and ear mites.

Several had upper respiratory viruses and eye infections. Others were nervous from not being petted. Still more were too sick to have a chance at a real life.

All were dirty, their fur matted with feces, and none had been spayed or neutered to prevent overpopulation.

The cats were seized June 9 from Jennifer Gaines' home in the 14300 block of Southwest Teal Street. Released by the owner, they were brought to Bonnie L. Hays Small Animal Shelter on Southeast 24th Avenue in Hillsboro.

There they were bathed, examined by a vet and treated, spayed or neutered, then petted and socialized to people. Yet seven of the seized cats still remain caged in the shelter's cat room. They watch and wait as other shelter feline companions are adopted.

Most of the seven are young, from 9 months to 3 years old. A mix of males and females, they are domestic shorthairs, black and white or orange or gray tabby. They are still a bit shy, so a home with adults or older children would be ideal, said Susan Field, a shelter spokesman.

"They still need some socialization," she said.

The case against their former owner is pending, Field added.

To help the cats find homes, adoption prices are reduced until Saturday, Nov. 18, to $40 for adult cats and $60 for kittens.

For more information, call Bonnie L. Hays Small Animal Shelter at 503-846-7041.

Source: Hillsboro Argus - Nov 10, 206
Update posted on Nov 10, 2006 - 2:18PM

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A 36-year-old Murrayhill woman will appear next month in Washington County Circuit Court for several animal neglect charges.

Beaverton police July 27 cited Jennifer Meagan Gaines with 31 counts of second-degree animal neglect, eight counts of first-degree animal neglect, first-degree criminal mistreatment and second-degree child neglect.

The charges were prompted by a June 9 incident where nearly three-dozen cats, from young kittens to older adult felines, were seized from Gaines� home, 14337 S.W. Teal Blvd. Apt. 78B.

Many of the cats were in terrible shape, with health problems ranging from eye ulcers and respiratory infections to ear mites and dehydration. Four of the cats were pregnant.

Beaverton police investigated the case after a concerned neighbor reported a suspicious odor coming from the apartment next door.

Officer Ryan Potter met with the witness, who took him into her apartment and garage where he could smell a strong ammonia odor apparently coming from the shared walls connecting the units.

The two walked outside to inspect something seeping from the bottom of the neighbor�s attached garage that smelled like cat urine.

Because of the distinct ammonia odor and the neighbor�s concern for two children residing in the smelly home, Officer Mark Groshong joined the investigation.

After gaining the tenant�s permission, the two officers walked through the woman�s apartment where they were overwhelmed by the stench.

A search of the home revealed about 15 cats in the garage, several more in the upstairs bedrooms and floors soaked with cat urine.

At the time, Gaines reportedly told police that she took in three pregnant stray cats about eight months prior. Those cats had kittens, which in turn had litters of their own.

Many of the kittens were three to six months old. There also was another group that was six to 10 months old.

Sgt. Robert Davis and Sgt. Darren Fletchall went to the apartment and called Larry McClintock of Critter Gitter to remove the adult cats and kittens. Fletchall helped McClintock round up all 31 felines.

The cats were taken to the Bonnie L. Hays Small Animal Shelter in Hillsboro for evaluation and placed in protective custody.

Eleven cats suffered from conjunctivitis and 10 were dehydrated. Three felines had active corneal ulcers and four others had healing corneal ulcers, which could lead to blindness, said Karen Riley of Washington County Animal Control.

One cat had a wound that required the amputation of its tail.

The case was forwarded to the Washington County district attorney�s office for review. Criminal charges were decided last week, and Officer Potter returned to Gaines� apartment to cite and release her.

Gaines will appear in court to face the charges at 9 a.m. Sept. 5.

Source: Beaverton Valley Times - Aug 3, 2006
Update posted on Aug 3, 2006 - 11:49AM

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References

	Hillsboro Argus - June 15, 2006
	The Oregonian - Sept 6, 2006

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Hoarding 31 cats and kittensBeaverton, OR (US)

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Hoarding 31 cats and kittens
Beaverton, OR (US)