Hundreds of cats receive care after sanctuary raid

The owner of the sanctuary has been charged with animal cruelty and neglect.

SHIPPENVILLE, Pa. (AP) — As the 3-day-old gray kitten cried softly for food Tuesday, a volunteer swaddled him in a towel and fed him formula from a dropper.

Veterinarians and dozens of volunteers have been working round-the-clock since Thursday trying to nurse back to health hundreds of sick cats removed in a raid from a suburban Pittsburgh animal sanctuary.

Some, like the gray kitten’s mother, have died since the rescue operation.

But officials hope many of the 350 cats they say have been treated for illness and neglect, and remain alive, will survive and maybe one day find new homes. Dozens of other cats have either died or had to be euthanized.

The cats are being treated in northwestern Pennsylvania in a vacant building, once housing the Clarion County Humane Society, that has been turned into a makeshift animal hospital.

In a large room designed to hold dogs, 250 cats are stacked in carriers placed several high in each kennel. A small office, meanwhile, has been converted into a makeshift birthing room. Cats with feline leukemia or feline AIDS have been segregated outside the main building.

Most of the workers wear white protective suits, gloves and face masks to prevent the spread of disease.

The owner of the animal sanctuary, Linda Bruno, 45, has been charged with 14 counts of animal cruelty and neglect, and authorities say more charges are expected.

The woman’s attorney, Ron Valasek, strongly defended her operation this week, describing the charges as unwarranted.

“All operations were going well on Thursday, and the place was a ‘menace’ by Thursday night,” he told the Valley News Dispatch in Tarentum. He did not return messages left by The Associated Press.

Valasek told the newspaper the no-kill shelter is a “superb facility” that includes an air-conditioned dying room where animals could die with dignity.

Officials with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said Bruno failed to provide adequate care for the cats on the 29-acre property, in part because there were more than she could handle. Valasek said she could have taken in even more cats.

The cats are being treated for calicivirus, a common feline virus that can lead to respiratory problems, pneumonia, and tongue lacerations that make eating difficult, according to Ravi Murarka, a veterinarian and director of animal health at the Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania SPCA.

He said the illness can be fatal, “but it’s not going to kill in one or two days. It’s a slow death.”

“I’m working round-the-clock since Thursday,” Murarka said.

Basic veterinary care would have prevented the virus, said Murarka, who said it was the largest such animal seizure he’s been involved with.

Though people have already come forward with offers to adopt the cats, they are now evidence against Bruno, said Howard Nelson, director of the Pennsylvania SPCA.

The organization organized the raid after being shown footage gathered by a woman working undercover with a hidden camera to expose the alleged neglect.

Nelson said he’s trying to persuade Bruno to surrender ownership of the cats. Even so, they won’t be able to be placed until the criminal case is resolved and they’re healthy, he said.

Valasek said Bruno wants the cats back.

The raid also uncovered burial pits containing perhaps thousands of cats, Nelson said. About 100 dead cats were found in freezers.

Valasek said Bruno needed some place to store them until she could get a backhoe so she wasn’t constantly burying them.

Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 3.