Fulton County Animal Services hopes to find new homes for a dog and two dozen cats after rescuing them from allegedly squalid conditions inside a Johns Creek home.
Neighbors complained to Johns Creek police last week about a large number of animals at a home in the 700 block of Niles Avenue. The residents told Channel 2 Action News that the situation was a "nightmare" for the subdivision off Nesbit Ferry Road.
The first police officers at the scene learned the home’s occupant was at a hospital for an undisclosed medical condition. Police saw animals outside and called Fulton animal services.
Later that day, the pets’ owner came home and let officers inside. There, police and animal control officers found a dog -- believed to be a Lhasa Apso mix -- and 20 cats of various breeds living in squalid conditions.
“There was a lot of fecal matter in the house,” said Tony Phillips, assistant director for environment and community development for Fulton County. “It’s very difficult – a monumental undertaking – to maintain a sanitary house with that many cats.”
With the owner’s consent, the county removed the animals. In subsequent visits over the next few days, animal control officers collected five more cats.
The pets were suffering “varying incidental things you’d expect to find in animals confined to a residential property – ear mites, fleas and sanitary issues, and the dog had mange,” Phillips said.
Officials are still investigating how so many pets ended up in the house, Phillips said.
“There is the possibility of charges of animal cruelty” against their owner, he said. “As we evaluate the medical condition of these animals, we’ll make a determination of that and decide how to move forward.”
One cat had a severe upper respiratory infection and had to be euthanized, he said. The other animals are in the Fulton animal shelter being treated and evaluated, in the hopes all might eventually be put up for adoption.
“Some of the cats have some socialization issues,” Phillips said. “That’s not uncommon with a large number of cats in a confined space like that. They generally don’t get to interact with people that much.”
“We have at least two or three kittens that are adoptable immediately, and our hope is to have all of them available for adoption in fairly shortly order – weeks, not months.”
All animals offered for adoption will be inoculated, spayed and neutered, he said. Information about adoptions can be obtained by calling Fulton animal services at 404-613-0358 or by going to its website.
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