20 cats seized from Cape Girardeau home

At least twenty cats were seized from a Cape Girardeau mobile home stuffed with junk and boxes Wednesday, said the director of the local Humane Society.

The Humane Society of Southeast Missouri learned of the cats living in unsanitary conditions after a neighbor called about the abundance of cats, said humane society director Requi Salter.

Twenty cats from age five months to four years were recovered from the mobile home, many of them with an upper respiratory infection. The woman who lived in the trailer was in her late 50s and disabled, Salter said, and as she took in more and more cats, she was unable to care for them properly or get them vaccinated or spayed or neutered.

Authorities have agreed not to file charges because the woman willfully turned the animals over to the Humane Society, Salter said. Some of the cats will be put up for adoption once they've gotten a clean bill of health.

The name of the cats' owner has not been released.

For more information on this story check back at semissourian.com or read Friday's Southeast Missourian.