130 cats removed from south side house Felines rove in walls as bugs root through filth; building condemned Wearing a white moon suit, an air filter and duct tape covering his shoes, Donn Jacobson marched into his own private war zone Friday. Jacobson, 35, has been trudging into a south side house twice a day for a week, carrying out cats that have crawled into the walls, ducts and ceilings of the house in the 2300 block of W. Barnard Ave. So far, he's brought out 130 of them. "I haven't seen any mice," said Jacobson, an animal control officer for the Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission. He's also brought out one dog, a beagle. Jacobson said the dog looked well-fed. Last week, neighbors complained about smells coming from the three-bedroom house, which is assessed for tax purposes at $144,800. When city officials checked out the house Sept. 11, they found "unbelievable squalor and filth," said Martin Collins, the head of the Department of Neighborhood Services. Collins said he believed the number of cats to be a city record, smashing the old mark of 82, set in the late 1980s. When inspectors and animal control officers first went into the house, cats were everywhere. They had overrun the furniture, destroyed the two cars in the garage and used the whole house as their litter box. It wasn't pretty, and still isn't. "I go home at night and my clothes still smell, even though I have this suit over them," he said. The smell. Oh, the smell. Without his air filter, Jacobson can't stand in the doorway without flinching. Neither can anyone else, for that matter. "The health department told me to close as many windows as I could to give the neighbors a break," Jacobson said. But because of the piles of trash and cat feces, which are 2 to 3 feet deep at some points in the house, he's not been able to close them all. The brown muck that covers the floors is topped with an endless stream of ants and other bugs. The yellowed walls are stained with urine. As bad as the scene is, it's better than it was when Jacobson first started. In 45 minutes Friday, he brought out nine black, gray and white cats, which he baited into metal cages with canned tuna. "It's going kinda slow now," he said. The house has been condemned by the city. Because the cats have infested the walls of the house, the building may have to be razed, Collins said. "Once the cats breed inside the walls, its economically impossible to clean it up," he said. "You can imagine what's inside those walls, and what the house is going to smell like forever." The house's listed owner is Irene Kustra, but she died in 1997. Collins said her adult son, Marvin Kustra, returned regularly to feed the animals. When inspectors first arrived, they found the sinks and bathtubs filled with cat food. The cats had also ripped open a 50-pound bag of dog food and "did a pretty good job" eating it, Jacobson said. They drank water from the house's three toilets and a leaky basement pipe, he added. The cats, and the dog, all appear to be healthy and have been transported to animal control's W. Burnham St. headquarters until authorities can figure out what to do with them, said John McDowell, a field commander for the agency. As for Jacobson, he'll return to the house Monday morning with his traps, and surely will come out with another batch of felines. "I'm hoping it will end soon," he said. "I'm sick of coming down here."
I have been to places with several cats and and notice a slight smell. I cant imagine what that would be like. I wonder how much he gets paid to do a job like that...
I don't understand people who keep lots of animals, in filthy conditions (of course; there's only room for so many cats in a house), and can actually stand to go in there and feed them or, worse, live with them. I guess they're used to the smell and something is "off" mentally, since they don't notice anything weird about the whole situation. Poor kitties. Not sure what they'll be able to do with them. They're probably not used to much human contact, so they might not be adoptable. (I only keep one kitty, who lives with plenty of space and constant personal attention. Probably too spoiled.)
I saw an animal cops episode where some guy had almost 300 cats in a relatively small house. I believe they were all euthanized since they were all pretty much feral.
I heard a rumor that a prominent member of the BBS has something like 216 cats and they were going to evacuate them from Hurricane Isabel in 3 freight train box cars.
That picture is disgusting. Is that piled up cat poop on the carpet? Sick. I've never liked cats, either. Kinda creepy animals.
Yup, went there for a while. I'm from El Paso originally and have grown up as a UTEP fan... When did your dad go there? Both of my parents graduated from there in '69...
Technically, a feral cat is a standard domesticated cat that has not been domesticated. They are often found in urban areas where they breed outdoors and live off of our garbage or food left out by humans. There are numerous organizations throughout the US who care for them. We have quite a few that live here in the Heights.
I know a lot of people who feed and keeps lots of cat like this person do it out of kindness but in the end, all these cats or most are going to be destroyed. This kindness could be pretty cruel to the cats. I guessed the son who been feeding the cats didn't report about this because he knows that most are going to be destroy so his kindness pretty much backfired right in his face when the public found out. I wonder if they are charging the son.
