Hoarder, arrested again, more than 100 cats
East Meadow, NY (US)Incident Date: Monday, May 2, 1994
County: Nassau
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Frances Palermo
Frances Palermo, 60, has been arrested again for keeping more than 100 sickly cats in an East Meadow house.
Palermo was previously evicted from an apartment on Front Street in East Meadow when authorities found more than 200 cats in her home. That Sept she was convicted of cruelty to animals. A condition of probation was for her to get rid of all but three of her cats.
She used vans to transport the cats from the home of an earlier conviction to a vacant house on Byrd Drive that belonged to her ex-husband. She was arrested at the Byrd Drive address after neighbors complained to the authorities.
The neighbors saw her carrying jugs of water and cat food into the house. When the wind blew in the right direction, they could smell the cats in the home. The cats were living in the home and Palermo was living out of her car.
Approximately 120 sickly cats were taken from the house which had no electricity or running water. The cats were taken to the Hempstead Town animal shelter. The shelter will try to find homes for the healthy cats. "The chances of that are extremely remote, because they're entirely undomesticated, like wild animals." The shelter is testing the cats for diseases, those too sick to treat will be euthanized.
The run down maroon home was said to stand out like a sore thumb among the block of well-tended homes. There were cracked windows in the home and a green dumpster in the driveway. The front yard was littered with plastic garbage bags and a rusting air conditioner.
Palermo is now charged with trespassing for keeping cats in the Byrd Drive home, violating probation and has been held on $200 bail at her arraignment in Hempstead District Court yesterday.
References- NY Daily News - May 4, 1994
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