‘THEY WERE SAFE AND WARM’
Authorities take away 90 cats from North Hills man
By Susan Abram Staff Writer
NORTH HILLS — James Howard wants to save lives.
But the city told him 90 meowing cats and their litterboxes confined to a single RV trailer was too many.
Howard, 57, watched on Wednesday as officers with the Los Angeles Police Department’s Animal Cruelty Task Force carted off the cats, mostly strays, that he had sheltered in a retrofitted RV trailer with an extended porch.
They took them all, Howard said, standing in the middle of a hollow trailer lined with kitty litterboxes. Only a bunny rabbit named Alice, a small dog named Scruffy and his own broken heart was left, Howard said.
“I know what people say about hoarders, but this is the opposite,” Howard said. “Ninety cats is a lot, but they had plenty of room. They were safe and they were warm.” Officers with the task force and with Los Angeles Animal Services would not speak about the case, saying only that more information would be released today.
But Howard believes they were tipped off by a veterinarian “who may have gotten mad.”
He said the worst condition any cat suffered was drippy eyes.
The city cited him with a $19,000 fine.
Howard said he’s been saving cats for 14 years. He got into some trouble with it before and left Los Angeles County. But he returned recently to purchase a large swath of land in North Hills where he said he was working with the Rascal & Chloe Fund, Inc., a nonprofit that helps find homes for stray animals, to potentially build a sanctuary on his property.
“My hope is that they’ll keep them together,” Howard said of the cats. “We’re hoping they don’t euthanize them.”
susan.abram@dailynews.com, 818-713-3664
1 comment:
Let me try to understand this. A man had 90 cats in a mobile home. He was caring for the cats. He wanted the cats. They go and take all the cats, fine him up the wazoo, write him up.
On Leadwell Avenue in an apartment there are over 100 cats. The owner told animal service to take them. They refused. Animal rescuers begged animal services to take the sick, dying cats. They refused. The owner doesn't want the cats.
Why did the ACTF bust the person who wanted the cats vs the one who begged animal services to take them? Are they trying to get on animal planet again?
Also why did they go after the poor elderly person instead of the person with money? Because it's easier. They'll get this guy to plead guilty easily. The Leadwell woman would have gotten a lawyer.
Justice? No.
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