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Hundreds of dead cats found in woman's yard
E. Orange resident operates rescue agency
Friday, May 20, 2005
BY BRIAN T. MURRAY AND KASI ADDISON
Star-Ledger Staff
Over two decades, Marlene Kess built a reputation in Manhattan as a caregiver of last resort for homeless and dying cats. If her rescue and adoption agency, KittyKind, couldn't place a sick animal, she took it home herself, overseeing its recuperation or caring for it until its death.
Yesterday, authorities discovered what Kess' philosophy looked like in practice. Summoned to the woman's East Orange home by a neighbor complaining about a stench, city health inspectors found 48 cats inside the house -- 38 of them in one room -- and more than 200 dead cats stuffed into garbage bags in the back yard.
The sight of so many decomposing corpses -- and the fetid odor they produced -- sickened animal-welfare officers and others who responded to the two-story home on State Street.
"Oh my God, it was awful," said Michael Fowler of the Associated Humane Societies, the state's largest shelter group. "The smell was horrible."
Kess -- the 56-year-old founder and executive director of KittyKind, which operates one of New York City's few no-kill shelters -- moved to East Orange from Manhattan in July. Dozens of cats, apparently, moved with her. More arrived while she was there.
"She claims that she takes in sick cats -- cats with feline leukemia -- and that she is a known rescuer who people will bring their cats to when they're dying," said Sgt. Joseph Bierman of the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
When those cats did die, they went into large, heavy-duty garbage bags. Then they went into the yard, which backs to a parking lot used by the East Orange Board of Education and the East Orange Community Charter School.
Bierman said he counted 21 garbage bags, each containing 10 or more vermin-infested carcasses. In some cases, he said, the cats had become so decomposed a precise number of bodies could not be determined. Kess had been placing dead cats in the yard since she moved in, Bierman said.
"I haven't seen anything quite like this," Bierman said. "Certainly it's an unusual incident."
Kess, seen arguing with animal-welfare officials outside the home, declined to comment.
She was cited for several East Orange health code violations, among them keeping an unlawful number of animals, harboring dead animals and creating a potential environmental hazard by keeping the corpses on her property, city sanitary inspector Frank Habegger said last night.
In addition, the SPCA charged her with 38 counts of failing to properly shelter cats. The counts stem from the cats being locked together in a front room. Some of the cats were healthy, while others were ill. Under state regulations, anyone keeping large numbers of animals must separate the sick from the healthy.
Ten other healthy cats were roaming free in the house.
Both investigations were continuing. This morning, public works crews were expected to remove the carcasses from the back yard, and necropsies were to be performed on some of the animals to determine a cause of death, said Darryl Jeffries, a city spokesman.
Kess was allowed to keep the 48 living cats in her home because she said she would separate the sick and healthy animals, Bierman said. SPCA officers were planning to return to the home to ensure she does, he said.
She apparently planned to bury the corpse-laden garbage bags in a large hole that had been recently dug in the back yard, Bierman said.
"It was almost like a grave," he said, describing it as about 5 feet deep and 7 feet wide. Kess told investigators she planned to plant a tree in the spot but hadn't yet gotten around to buying one, Bierman said. A handyman employed by Kess told investigators he dug the hole for a pool, the investigator said.
Kess is well-known in cat rescue circles in Manhattan, where KittyKind operates a shelter within a Petco at Union Square. A longtime resident of Greenwich Village, she has been quoted frequently in small community newspapers about her efforts -- and struggles -- to care for cats that nobody else wants.
"Animal overpopulation is a big problem," she told one community newspaper, the New York Resident, in 2002. "People are very irresponsible."
Despite the difficulty placing cats, she has criticized New York City's high euthanasia rate, and she has championed the idea of seeing cats through even terminal illnesses.
Not all animal-welfare advocates agree with that philosophy.
"There are some things worse than death for animals, especially when they are sick and people are trying to needlessly extend their lives because they want to save every animal," said Roseanne Trezza, executive director of the Associated Humane Societies. "They refuse to recognize that we simply can't save them all, no matter how much we all care for these creatures, and no matter how much it hurts to euthanize them."
E. Orange resident operates rescue agency
Friday, May 20, 2005
BY BRIAN T. MURRAY AND KASI ADDISON
Star-Ledger Staff
Over two decades, Marlene Kess built a reputation in Manhattan as a caregiver of last resort for homeless and dying cats. If her rescue and adoption agency, KittyKind, couldn't place a sick animal, she took it home herself, overseeing its recuperation or caring for it until its death.
Yesterday, authorities discovered what Kess' philosophy looked like in practice. Summoned to the woman's East Orange home by a neighbor complaining about a stench, city health inspectors found 48 cats inside the house -- 38 of them in one room -- and more than 200 dead cats stuffed into garbage bags in the back yard.
The sight of so many decomposing corpses -- and the fetid odor they produced -- sickened animal-welfare officers and others who responded to the two-story home on State Street.
"Oh my God, it was awful," said Michael Fowler of the Associated Humane Societies, the state's largest shelter group. "The smell was horrible."
Kess -- the 56-year-old founder and executive director of KittyKind, which operates one of New York City's few no-kill shelters -- moved to East Orange from Manhattan in July. Dozens of cats, apparently, moved with her. More arrived while she was there.
"She claims that she takes in sick cats -- cats with feline leukemia -- and that she is a known rescuer who people will bring their cats to when they're dying," said Sgt. Joseph Bierman of the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
When those cats did die, they went into large, heavy-duty garbage bags. Then they went into the yard, which backs to a parking lot used by the East Orange Board of Education and the East Orange Community Charter School.
Bierman said he counted 21 garbage bags, each containing 10 or more vermin-infested carcasses. In some cases, he said, the cats had become so decomposed a precise number of bodies could not be determined. Kess had been placing dead cats in the yard since she moved in, Bierman said.
"I haven't seen anything quite like this," Bierman said. "Certainly it's an unusual incident."
Kess, seen arguing with animal-welfare officials outside the home, declined to comment.
She was cited for several East Orange health code violations, among them keeping an unlawful number of animals, harboring dead animals and creating a potential environmental hazard by keeping the corpses on her property, city sanitary inspector Frank Habegger said last night.
In addition, the SPCA charged her with 38 counts of failing to properly shelter cats. The counts stem from the cats being locked together in a front room. Some of the cats were healthy, while others were ill. Under state regulations, anyone keeping large numbers of animals must separate the sick from the healthy.
Ten other healthy cats were roaming free in the house.
Both investigations were continuing. This morning, public works crews were expected to remove the carcasses from the back yard, and necropsies were to be performed on some of the animals to determine a cause of death, said Darryl Jeffries, a city spokesman.
Kess was allowed to keep the 48 living cats in her home because she said she would separate the sick and healthy animals, Bierman said. SPCA officers were planning to return to the home to ensure she does, he said.
She apparently planned to bury the corpse-laden garbage bags in a large hole that had been recently dug in the back yard, Bierman said.
"It was almost like a grave," he said, describing it as about 5 feet deep and 7 feet wide. Kess told investigators she planned to plant a tree in the spot but hadn't yet gotten around to buying one, Bierman said. A handyman employed by Kess told investigators he dug the hole for a pool, the investigator said.
Kess is well-known in cat rescue circles in Manhattan, where KittyKind operates a shelter within a Petco at Union Square. A longtime resident of Greenwich Village, she has been quoted frequently in small community newspapers about her efforts -- and struggles -- to care for cats that nobody else wants.
"Animal overpopulation is a big problem," she told one community newspaper, the New York Resident, in 2002. "People are very irresponsible."
Despite the difficulty placing cats, she has criticized New York City's high euthanasia rate, and she has championed the idea of seeing cats through even terminal illnesses.
Not all animal-welfare advocates agree with that philosophy.
"There are some things worse than death for animals, especially when they are sick and people are trying to needlessly extend their lives because they want to save every animal," said Roseanne Trezza, executive director of the Associated Humane Societies. "They refuse to recognize that we simply can't save them all, no matter how much we all care for these creatures, and no matter how much it hurts to euthanize them."
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