A woman and her eight cats lived in a rubbish-strewn house that had door-blocking mounds of mouldy poo, and was covered in diarrhoea, stale food and urine stains.
The RSPCA rescued the felines from the wretched bungalow in Hirwaun, Wales, and rescuers have said they were hit with a “pungent smell” from the moment they entered the Greenwood Drive property.
RSPCA deputy chief inspector Emma Smith told Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates’ Court that the state of the home was one of the worst scenes she has seen in her 14 years with the organisation, reports Wales Online.
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There was one door she couldn’t even fully open because of the amount of faeces that had built up behind it, with the smell leaving her eyes and nose streaming.
She told the court: “The smell inside the bungalow was incredibly pungent from the minute you walked in. It was extremely unkempt inside the location with household items strewn everywhere, bags of rubbish piled up and grime and mess on the floors.”
As she entered the living room she saw two cats and a cat food bowl in the room which was empty but there was water present. Two litter trays contained multiple lumps of faeces and there was some diarrhoea on the floor.
DCI Smith said she then walked through the living room to a small hallway which led to a toilet and a bedroom.
“The overwhelming smell of urine and ammonia continued throughout the bungalow along with the grime and rubbish,” she said.
She found a third cat in the bedroom which “appeared nervous” and ran off. This cat had access to a bathroom which contained a bowl of water and bowl with some dry cat food. There were also two litter trays present which contained multiple lumps of faeces.
DCI Smith said she then came to a closed door which said ‘Please do not open door cats in here loose’. She was only able to open the door a third of the way.
She said: “I was able to squeeze through the gap and look behind the door and could see that the resistance was coming from piles and piles of mouldy faeces which had built up behind the door, stopping it from opening.
“The sight and smell in this room was the worst I have seen in 14 years of being an RSPCA Inspector and I had to keep taking breaks from the room to stop my eyes watering and my nose lining stinging.
“The room was caked in old and new faeces throughout. Urine stains were all over the floor along with rubbish and ground in old and stale food. There were piles of cat fur which were caked in faeces and knotted up and there was no clear part of the floor that was not smeared or caked in faeces.”
Jolene Collette Harris, 39, from Merthyr Tydfil was sentenced at Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, May 8, after pleading guilty to four offences under the Animal Welfare Act in April.
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