A 47-year-old woman has fronted court on animal cruelty charges after authorities found more than 100 diseased and malnourished cats at her Warrawong home.
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RSPCA officers seized the animals from the Greene Street home of Vesna Acevska on July 24, after allegedly discovering the felines in various states of ill-health, requiring some to later be euthanased.
In documents tendered to Port Kembla Local Court on Tuesday, officers described the conditions inside the home as "filthy", claiming many of the animals had cat influenza and ringworm, and were suffering from infected ears, gingivitis and malnourishment.
A total of 103 cats were seized and taken to the RSPCA's Unanderra and Yagoona shelters, where they have remained in quarantine receiving veterinary treatment for the past five months, at a cost of more than half a million dollars to the not-for-profit organisation.
Acevska was charged with 17 animal cruelty offences, including failing to provide sufficient food to the animals and failing to provide veterinary treatment. She has pleaded not guilty and is seeking for the matter to be set down for a week-long hearing in the local court.
The RSPCA alleges of the 103 cats seized at the home;
- 45 were malnourished;
- 53 had gingivitis or another form of dental disease;
- 58 were suffering from ringworm;
- 87 had cat flu;
- 48 had infected ears;
- 20 were suffering from diarrhoea, and;
- 26 had a flea infestation.
Among the more serious cases officers allegedly discovered at the home was a tortoiseshell cat with an injured right eye that eventually required full removal; an emaciated tortoiseshell kitten too weak to stand; a urine-stained ginger kitten with a severe respiratory infection whose face was covered in crusty, thick green mucous; and an adult ginger cat that had contracted the highly infectious, and fatal, feline infectious peritonitis virus.
Of these, all but the first cat were immediately euthanased, along with three other "seriously disabled" cats found at the house, documents before the court said.
In court on Tuesday, Magistrate Mark Richardson granted the RSPCA permission to sell the healthy cats - with the money to be held in trust pending the outcome of the criminal case against Acevska - and euthanase those the chief veterinary officer deemed unsuitable or too sick for rehoming.
The court heard some animals had behavioural issues which might make them difficult to sell.
Mr Richardson said any of the animals not sold or euthanased had to be kept until further court orders were made.
