A man in New York has been charged with animal cruelty after police found almost 100 cats in his home, including nearly two dozen dead kittens stored inside his freezer.
Stephen Glantz, 75, turned himself into police on Wednesday, according to the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
He has been charged with 18 misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals and animal neglect, according to CBS News.
Glantz’s home — approximately 50 miles east of Manhattan — has been condemned as uninhabitable due to the overwhelming smell of urine and feces inside, according to police.
Police found 69 cats living inside the home, many of which were suffering from medical issued including respiratory infections and eye diseases. On Saturday, police found 28 cats dead inside the man’s home.
Investigators received a tip that the animals were being forced to live in deplorable conditions inside the house, according to the SPCA. Three of the living cats were suffering and had to be euthanized.
In addition to the living cats, investigators also found approximately two dozen dead kittens wrapped together inside his freezer.
The SPCA said that the cats were “living in alarming conditions with wet urine, smeared feces, grime and filth covering the floors, walls and stairs.”
The cats that were rescued and not put down are being treated at the Islip town animal shelter with assistance from the SPCA’s mobile animal and surgical hospital.
Local officials are trying to find new homes for the cats and are asking for donations to help pay for their care and housing until they can be adopted. More than two dozen are being transported to upstate New York where they will be put up for adoption.
Roy Gross, the chief of the Suffolk County SPCA, told CBS News that the house was in “absolute deplorable condition.”
“Feces covered the floors, sprayed on the walls, saturated in urine. The floors were spongy, most likely from the urine. And the ammonia was so extremely high – the ammonia smell from the urine – that the town of Islip fire marshal condemned the house,” he said.
Gross said Glantz’s wife died a month ago and that the couple had lived in the house for more than 30 years. Authorities do not know why the man kept so many cats in his home.
