70 cats seized from Toronto apartment

WATCH ABOVE: Toronto Animal Services says the conditions in a one-bedroom apartment where 70 cats were seized were terrible. Peter Kim reports.

TORONTO — Officials say 70 cats were seized from a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto this week.

Toronto Animal Services says the cats, which were between one and 10 years old, could have been living in filth and squalor for years.

“The investigation is ongoing,” said Fiona Venedam, supervisor of the organization’s Enforcement and Mobile Response Unit.

“The conditions were terrible.”

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A few of the cats were euthanized and many suffered from eye and respiratory-tract infections. The lucky ones are healthy enough, and will be put up for adoption through Toronto Animal Services and Toronto Cat Rescue.

Last month around 20 felines were rescued from a farm north of Toronto.

The rescue was organized by Gabrielle Herman, owner of the Bay Cat Hospital in Toronto’s Corktown neighbourhood.

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One of the female cats, Moira, “came in half dead, trying to nurse kittens. Before we could get her well she was already at term with the next litter,” said Herman, adding that many of the breeding cats were too young.

“It was like kittens having kittens”

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“They were happy cats as soon as they got here, but from a health point of view there was definitely a lot that needed fixing,” said Dr. Ryan Aguanno, veterinarian at the Bay Cat Hospital.

“They were very thin. They definitely had fleas and GI parasites.”

The city of Toronto has set up a special task force known as SPIDER to address the problem of hoarding in the community.

The task force is comprised of a number of front-line city agencies like Toronto Public Health and Toronto Fire Services.

The problem of hoarding came into the spotlight in 2013 when more than 50 cats were eventually seized from the now-infamous Beach “cat house,” which has since been cleaned up.