The cats were discovered Saturday, but residents in the apartment building had been complaining about the smell coming from the unit for months, CTV News reported.
Toronto Cat Rescue and Toronto Animal Services worked over the weekend to remove the felines from the apartment. Workers had to wear protective gear due to "air quality issues," Mary Lou Leiher, of Toronto Animal Services, told CBC.
As of Monday, 171 cats had been removed from the apartment, Leiher said. Thirty-eight of those cats were taken to Birch Dan Animal Hospital.
"Surprisingly, most of them [the cats], pretty much all of them were healthy," said Karley Lux, an employee of Birch Dan Animal Hospital. "There's no fleas or infection … which is pretty surprising."
The cats are in foster homes, where they will be spayed or neutered, vaccinated and observed before being put up for adoption, said Belinda Vandersluis, executive director of Toronto Cat Rescue.
The residents of the apartment are no longer living there, Leiher said. Other information on the residents is unclear.
This is the second recent case of cat hoarding in a Toronto home. Toronto Cat Rescue found 105 cats in a home at the end of March, according to previous Cox Media Group reports.
A city of Toronto bylaw prohibits residents from owning more than six cats in one home.
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