BEDFORD COUNTY, Pa. — State police found that a woman in Bedford was seriously neglecting over a dozen cats at her home and have charged her with over 90 counts of animal cruelty and torture.
Barbara Smith, 72, was charged with keeping the cats in dirty places and not giving them food, clean shelter, or medical care.
On April 11, troopers were sent to her home in Bedford County to look into a case of animal cruelty. A police officer wrote in court papers that when he got out of his patrol car, he could smell a “very strong order of cat urine and feces that is consistent with the smell of ammonia.”
State cops were told that Smith kept the cats in a shed behind his house. An affidavit of probable cause says that when the policeman went to talk to Smith, he saw several cats in the front of the house, along with feces and wet urine on the floor.
When the trooper asked Smith about her cats, she said that she feeds and looks for several on the property, including five males that were not spayed or neutered. State police say that the five cats seen at the front door, all of which were younger than a year, looked like they had eye discharge. The trooper who was looking into the case also said that an older cat with “multiple piles of feces” in its litter box was seen in an open kennel.
The statement says that Smith then told the trooper that she “thinks” there were eleven cats in the shed behind the house and that they had been there since they were kittens. The policeman said that as they walked toward the back of the house, a strong smell of feces and ammonia began to burn his eyes, throat, and nose. The policeman told Smith that the area outside the shed for the cats to go was an “outdoor yard.” Smith had described it as a plywood box with a roof and caged wire.
The policeman saw that both the plywood box and the shed were dirty with poop and urine. He also saw that 12 cats in the shed had dirty, matted fur. Smith gave the cats to the Bedford County Humane Society instead of keeping them.
Court papers say that 19 cats were rescued from Smith’s home and that the cats were taken away over the course of five days with the help of several rescues and humane societies.
Smith is facing 66 other animal cruelty and aggravated cruelty to animals charges, as well as 13 criminal counts of torturing animals and 13 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty. She was charged on Tuesday and given $50,000 unsecured bail before being freed.
