NITRO, W.Va. — Police in West Virginia found a man’s body and more than 50 cats inside a home while conducting a welfare check on Monday, authorities said.
According to Nitro Police Department Chief Chris Fleming, relatives reached out to emergency crews when they had not heard from their relative for several weeks, WSAZ-TV reported. Neighbors said that overgrown grass, tree branches on the ground and unclaimed packages at the front door was another cause for concern.
Fleming added that officers responding to the scene found more than 50 cats inside the home, according to the television station.
You could tell though something was going on because of the smell,” Chris Snodgrass, who lives next door to the house, told WSAZ. “This whole mountain is normally quiet as can be. We’ve lived up here (for) 14 years here now. Here about 13 years up the mountain and you don’t have anybody’s petty problems up here, no noise no nothing really, it’s one of the best places we’ve ever lived actually.”
Most of the cats inside the home were dead, WOWK-TV reported.
Putnam County Chief Humane Officer John Davis told the television station that 31 cats were removed from the home on Monday night.
Crews returned to the home on Tuesday to remove the remaining felines. Some of the cats were dead while others were in poor condition, Davis told WOWK.
Fleming said foul play is not suspected in the man’s death, WSAZ reported. He was not identified.
His body was taken to the medical examiner’s office for an autopsy, according to the television station.
The surviving cats have been taken to various agencies. The Putnam County Animal Shelter, the Kanawha-Charleston Humane Association and the Chase Healing Fund were on the scene removing the animals, WOWK reported.
