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Weber County officials are in a kitty conundrum after more than 50 cats were taken from a single Ogden home over the weekend — ballooning an already-high population of felines in the county animal shelter.
Weber County Sheriff's Lt. Chad Ferrin said Tuesday that the county's animal services center is sheltering about 186 cats at its location at 1373 Fairgrounds Drive.
The shelter received 38 cats from a single home Friday, and, by Tuesday, the number had topped 50 felines, Ferrin said.
John Harvey, spokesman for Ogden police, said officers went to a home in the 100 block of Jefferson Avenue on Friday after the homeowner's family reported concerns about the number of cats in the residence.
Harvey said the family arrived to take the homeowner to the hospital and discovered the man had been living with the large number of cats, and that his home had cockroaches and feces throughout. The home's plumbing — including its sinks and toilets — had also been torn out, Harvey said.
The house was condemned by the health department, Harvey said, and police are working to trap the cats and bring them to the shelter.
"We still have traps out and are capturing more," he said, adding that they believe some 70 cats may have been in the home.
Police don't plan to pursue charges against the man, whom Harvey said is a veteran suffering from mental and physical health issues. The health department is working with Veteran Affairs to get the homeowner help, Harvey said.
Ferrin said the animal shelter can hold up to 200 cats — if they are all healthy. But while the most recent cats came into the shelter "in better condition than originally anticipated," Ferrin said there are still some cats that are sick and can't be mixed with the healthy population.
"There are some that are so sick that we are going to have to euthanize them," Ferrin said, adding that some of the cats have a respiratory disease.
Ferrin said shelter will observe the cats over the next five days to see if they are healthy and adoptable, but added that there are a number of cats already at the shelter that are ready for new homes. Cat adoption prices range from $40 to $55.
Ferrin said the shelter works with adoption programs and pet stores like PetSmart and Petco to get the animals adopted, saying that they won't euthanize the cats because of space issues or if they have been with the shelter for a long period of time.
"Our goal is to do everything we can to save every cat," Ferrin said. "But the rescue [shelters] are full. The fosters are full."
The animal shelter is also in need of donations and items, especially kitten milk replacer powder, hard kitten food and cat litter, Ferrin said.
"With this number of cats, we are going through unbelievable amounts of litter," he said. "Financial donations [are also accepted.] There's lots of vaccines. ... We're going through our budget a lot quicker."
The Weber County Animal Shelter can be reached at 801-399-8244.
Harvey urged anyone who knows of a similar situation to call the local police departments and leave a tip.
"It's an unhealthy environment," he said. "If somebody lives in a neighborhood and has this number of cats, it's not good for the neighborhood."
Twitter: @jm_miller