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Case #9337 Rating: 2.3 out of 5
26 cats living in pickup truck
Bristol, PA (US)Incident Date: Tuesday, Jul 18, 2006
County: Bucks
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: John Santino, Jr.
Case Updates: 1 update(s) available
John Santino Jr. pulled his bike up to his home on the afternoon of July 18. Inside the Wal-Mart bag dangling from the handlebars were eight cans of cat food and batteries.
Bristol Township police were waiting for him outside the Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck that Santino had been living in with 26 cats.
Police, checking out a resident's complaint, found the heatstressed felines, many of them panting, locked inside the truck, which had been parked in the shade of a big tree off Ashby Avenue.
There was no water inside the filthy truck, but jugs of water were on top of the truck. Some of the cats were in crates. Nine were lying on tattered blankets in the cab of the truck while the rest were kept in the truck's bed. The stench of the urine and feces slipped through a cracked-open window.
"We could see them breathing heavily," said Bristol Township Officer Thomas Gaffney, a police dog handler who has a cat at home. "It's never a good idea to have this many cats together, let alone in conditions like this."
Police measured the temperature inside the back of the truck: 87 degrees Fahrenheit. So they cited Santino for animal cruelty. District Judge Joanne Kline held a hearing later in the day and found him guilty. The 45-year-old former Falls resident paid the $169.50 fine. Homeless, he had been living in the pickup truck with the cats, police said. The truck was later towed.
Gaffney and Bristol Township Animal Control Officer William Kurko removed the cats, which were turned over to the Bucks County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. They can be adopted once Santino gives consent, Bucks SPCA Director Anne Irwin said.
Officer James Tully investigated the resident's complaint about the eyesore truck and found the cats. Tully checked the truck's license plate and contacted Santino, who said he was at Wal-Mart buying cat food and batteries. Santino pulled his bike up to the truck and was taken into custody.
Police don't believe Santino wanted to harm the cats by keeping them in the extreme heat of a vehicle, Bristol Township Lt. Terry Hughes said.
"I think he's trying to do what he can, but he's having a hard time taking care of himself, let alone all these cats," Hughes said.
Hughes said the resident's tip came during a meeting Tuesday morning for Weed and Seed, a federally funded anti-crime program that's ongoing in several Bristol Township neighborhoods.
Case UpdatesHe starts out about 10 in the morning, after he finishes his night shift stocking shelves at the Kohl's department store.
From the blue collar neighborhoods of Fairless Hills, he navigates the shoulder of the road on his mountain bike as the landscape gradually shifts to the expansive farms and lush lawns of Solebury.
By 11:30, John Santino Jr. has covered 20 miles to reach his destination, the Bucks County SPCA on Street Road in Lahaska.
The best part of his long, solitary day is beginning.
As Santino, 46, walks into the building, his cats rise, stretch and move to the front of their large caged rooms. It's clear they recognize him.
"I love them and I want them back," he said of his 15 pets that remain at the animal shelter.
He walks down the concrete floor, unlatching the locks, calling them each by name. Rocky's about to turn 13, Lady's 14. "I've had these cats a long time, since they were born."
Santino's life revolves around the multi-colored creatures that were taken from him last July, after he was found living with 25 of them in his Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck on a Bristol Township street.
"That was awful," he said, remembering the swarm of police that descended on him after a neighbor complained about the unsanitary conditions inside the truck, where the temperature had reached 87 degrees.
He was cited for animal cruelty and paid a $169.50 fine.
Homeless since his mother died, leaving him with one income and unable to make the rent, Santino had been living in the broken-down vehicle for three months.
"I know I had too many but I took care of them," he said. "I did the best I could."
Since that sweltering day, Santino's cats have been housed at the county's only animal shelter. Ten have been adopted. Living in a $150 per week motel room, he's trying to hold on to as many as he can until he can find a place to live that will allow him to have his cats again.
Hoping his pets won't forget him, Santino braves the elements and careless drivers almost every day, making the often treacherous trip with a can of tuna or a bit of mackerel stashed in his backpack.
With only an estranged sister in New Jersey, Santino said the cats are all he has.
"I don't have any family; I don't bother with anybody really. I just want to live with my cats again."
Anne Irwin, the executive director of the SPCA, said the shelter is trying to work with Santino to keep a "reasonable number" of cats until he has a home of his own.
With the cost of food, litter and veterinary care, she said a good number might be four.
Over the years, Santino has faced eviction and problems with the health department too, when he and his mother were found living with more than 40 cats. At one time, the SPCA came and neutered as many of the animals as it could find.
"We want him to come up with a list of his favorites," said Irwin, but that's proving difficult.
"I love them all," said Santino, who can recite each one's birthday.
In a perfect world, he suggests, someone would be able to offer him a barn where the cats could live until he's back on his feet. Santino said he would be able to pay for their food and care.
Just how much time they have left at the SPCA is hard to say. Irwin estimates the nonprofit shelter has already spent thousands of dollars on the animals, neutering and vaccinating them. Much of the food is donated.
They are housed in their own building, one that would not have been heated this winter were the animals not in it, Irwin added.
Santino said he appreciates all the shelter has done, including the volunteer who gave him a new Schwinn bicycle after he was hit on his way home from work in December by a young driver.
As the sky begins to darken and the shelter is closing for the day, Santino starts his goodbye ritual. Stroking each cat, he says, "See you soon," and guides them back into their rooms.
"It's kind of sad when I have to leave."
Walking out to his bike, propped against the side of the main shelter, Santino looks up. "Well, at least it stopped raining." | Source: Courier Times - Jan 16, 2007
Update posted on Jan 16, 2007 - 11:18AM |
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