 Hoarding - approx 28 cats seized
Saint Clair Shores, MI (US)Incident Date: Thursday, May 12, 1994
County: Macomb
Local Map: available
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Anthony Pinarelli
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The Humane Society's investigators had made 13 visits to Anthony Pinarelli's home in ten months, asking him to give them 26 sick or dead cats and trying to get him to clean up his home, spay and neuter his cats to keep them from multiplying. They were not successful in all these visits.
On May 12 another visit to Anthony Pinarelli's home by the Humane Society resulted in a search warrant being issued. The search warrant was carried out by a code enforcement officer from the St Clair Shores building department and a Department of Social Services workers.
Pinarelli, 45, is living on Social Security disability benefits. At the time of the inspection had at least 20 cats running through his home, including a litter of kittens. They were unsocialized to the human touch, seemed to all be feral cats.
His home was filled with trash and cat feces, inches deep in corners and heaped in piles on the kitchen counter top. Pinarelli was eating a peanut butter sandwich, when the Michigan Human Society investigators pointed to a dead kitten, which was covered with flies, on the floor. Pinarelli, said, "Oh, it died this morning." He just kept on eating his peanut butter sandwich.
It was reported the stench in the home was worse than any outhouse. The air was heavy with ammonia from the cat urine.
Workers from the Humane Society in knee-high rubber boots chased cats through Pinarelli's home. He said he just started off with two cats and the number just kept growing.
The Humane Society was only able catch about 12 cats and needed to set box traps for the remainder. Most of the cats are too wild or sick to be adopted and were euthanized. The police asked Pinarelli to go to the St Joseph Mercy Hospital East in Mt Clemens for an evaluation.
After all the box traps were collected, there were about 28 cats removed from the property.
The City of St Clair Shores will have the house cleaned up and with his permission, add the bill to his property taxes.
The Humane Society kept his two favorite tom cats, Eight Ball and Snowy, he will get hem back after the clean up, but they will be neutered.
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