The property owner was at work when officials arrived and agreed to come home and let them in. The house is in foreclosure and she is in the process of moving, said Dan Chatfield, Clark County director of environmental health. He declined to release the woman’s name. A 2009 Clark County foreclosure filing names the owner as Kimberly Guillory.
When the woman arrived at the house, she refused officials access and instead handed 24 cats to them one at a time through a back window. She eventually let Humane Society Director James Straley climb through a back window to help her catch the last few cats that were hiding.
All of the cats were sick, including five that tested positive for feline leukemia, Straley said Friday evening. Most have respiratory issues and all were dehydrated. “Their skin was like leather, it was hard to draw blood,” he said.
All but the five cats with leukemia should be adoptable once they are nursed back to health.
Humane Society officials will tag the cats, provide the appropriate care and spay and neuter if necessary. The owner signed ownership over to the humane society, which in turn agreed to try to find homes for them.
Health officials will now work with both the homeowner and the bank, which is foreclosing on the house to get it cleaned up, Chatfield said. He will ask the Board of Health to declare the house a public nuisance.
Neighbors who watched officials remove the cats said they had complained about the smell for more than a year. They were happy to see some action.
“The health department was right on this,” said Steve Smith, who lives next door to the house. “I called the health department last night and Dan Chatfield called me back before I could flip my phone shut.”
Smith said he is anxious to be rid of the smell and the possible health effects from breathing in the fumes for so long.
“My little girl is 18 months old and she has respiratory problems,” he said. “We just wonder if it isn’t from the cats and from the urine.
“As you can tell right now, we’re 30 feet from an open window and you can smell it. It’s horrible.”
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