A Cobble Hill man in his mid-80s has died and his wife remains in hospital after the RCMP discovered the couple in medical distress and living with 49 cats.
Responding to a call for medical aid on Saturday, Shawnigan RCMP officers went to a home on Vanland Road and found an elderly man on the floor where it’s believed he had been for several days.
It was the man’s elderly wife, who is believed to suffer from dementia, who finally called police, Sgt. Rob Webb of Shawnigan Lake RCMP said on Tuesday.
The man was taken to Cowichan District Hospital with life-threatening injuries but died late Monday. His wife was also hospitalized. Details on the nature of their injuries were not immediately available.
The house was overrun with cats. The RCMP and SPCA executed a search warrant Monday morning and seized the cats, 40 of which were found inside and further nine outside. Two dead kittens were also found in the two-bedroom bungalow.
“There was a very strong odour that you could almost smell as you came up to the door,” said Webb.
“Certainly as you opened the door … it was overwhelming,” Webb said.
A dead kitten was within view at the top of a staircase, he said.
“The conditions were very poor, very poor -Â it’s a sad situation all the way around,” Duncan SPCA manager Sandi Trent said on Tuesday. “It’s a tragedy for the people and the tragedy for the cats.”
The elderly couple lived amidst cat waste, with the smell of ammonia “off the charts,” said Trent.
“There were 49 cats in a small dwelling so you can only imagine – it’s a nightmare,” she said.
While the couple had lots of cat food in the house, they didn’t have much food for themselves, said Webb.
The elderly woman is in the care of the Vancouver Island Health Authority and will be placed in a care home.
Aside from being “incredibly hungry” the cats are in good condition, Trent said.
“Most of them are medically sound. There are a number of eye issues but I’m not necessarily sure it’s not because of the ammonia level in the house as opposed to eye injuries.”
Fourteen cats will be moved to the Victoria SPCA on Wednesday. A pregnant female has gone into foster care. Most are them are young unneutered adult males and young females, said Trent.
Three had already been fixed.
The cats will be held for 14 days, after which time they will be spayed and neutered and put up for adoption.
It’s bad timing for the SPCA with the south Island shelters being swamped with unwanted kittens.
“Forty-nine cats are a lot of animals to try and place,” Trent said.
It’s unclear how the couple came to have so many cats. Trent said she had no prior knowledge of the couple’s situation.
“It’s just heart-breaking, all the way around,” she said. “These people had obviously lived like this for some time. It was a nightmare for all of us.”
Webb recommends people keep an eye on elderly neighbours and not to hesitate to call the RCMP if they haven’t been seen in awhile.
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