Forty-two Ziploc bags, each filled with the rotting remains of a different kitten.
That’s what State Police said Arthur Millard dumped behind his father’s home on River Road. The bags were stuffed into a five-gallon buckets along with the carcasses of two adult cats wrapped in towels.
The cats were found Thursday on railroad property behind 90 River Road, and troopers brought the remains to the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society hoping to sort out what happened to the doomed felines. But the animals were so badly decomposed it may not be possible to tell when they died.
“It’s literally just skin and bones,” said Brad Shear, the shelter’s executive director. “The entire situation is extremely disturbing. We’ve never really run into a hoarding case like this.”
Millard, 53, has been connected to two cat-hoarding cases since July. What makes the cases unusual is that they involve multiple people and locations.
On March 31, Millard, his son, Earl Millard, and his sister-in-law, Mary Ryan, were all charged with animal neglect after 136 cats were found in their trailer at D&R Trailer Park in Halfmoon. Two of the cats were dead, 19 were euthanized.
Last summer, Arthur Millard, Ryan, and her sister, Bertha Ryan, were accused of animal cruelty for allegedly hoarding another 130 cats at a home in Schaghticoke. That case was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, meaning the charges would be dropped if the defendants stayed out of trouble..." More
Apr 10, 2012: NY man charged as hoarder also dumped cats
State police say a man already facing charges of hoarding more than 130 cats also dumped the carcasses of several dead cats.
Arthur Millard of Halfmoon, near Albany, told troopers he dumped a number of carcasses of cats that died from natural causes. Police say they found 42 zipper-locked bags containing the remains of two adult cats and numerous kittens.
Millard, his son Earl and sister-in-law, Mary Ryan, already face charges of animal neglect after a kitten's death led investigators to 134 cats kept in a mobile home in Halfmoon. Nineteen of the animals had to be euthanized and two were found dead..." More
Apr 4, 2012: Repeat offenders
by
Earlier this week 3 people were charged with animal cruelty for having 134 cats in unsanitary conditions in a trailer in Halfmoon. The names of the arrested were immediately familiar to me – you see I have written about them before. First two sisters, Bertha Ryan and Regina Millard, were arrested in Vermont with almost 80 cats in their cars. They had the cats in their cars because they were fleeing an investigation into the care of their cats in Rensselaer County. A few days after their arrest in Vermont our cruelty investigators accompanied State Police to their Schaghticoke home where another 53 cats were seized and brought to the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society.
So 133 cats were seized from deplorable conditions in one home last year and another 134 seized from the same people in their Halfmoon home. In both cases they claimed to have picked up the cats from the streets of Troy. It is unclear where the cats actually came from, but since few were spayed or neutered it is clear that many were born at their homes. Allowing cats to breed in large numbers in your home seems to be a strange way to go about rescuing them.
My guess is that the cats in Halfmoon were already being collected when Ryan and Millard were arrested in Vermont and Schaghticoke so they were likely in violation of their probation as soon as they plead guilty. Their sentences were suspended for 18 months with one of the requirements being that they could not possess animals. I think they violated that order about 134 times.
In total almost 270 cats suffered at the hands of the Ryan/Millard family. My hope is that the probation department and courts will bring their cases back for review and see that the initial suspended sentences were woefully insufficient to prevent future offenses. Hopefully this time we can get it right and prevent more animals from suffering..." Link
Mar 27, 2012: Police seize 135 cats from Halfmoon trailer, charges pending against homeowner
By MICHAEL CIGNOLI
The Saratoga County Animal Shelter received an unprecedented 135 cats on Monday, the result of a “hoarding situation” at a Saratoga County trailer park, the shelter supervisor said Tuesday.
Supervisor Dan Butler said state police took the animals from a woman at the D & R Village Trailer Park near the Halfmoon-Clifton Park border and sent them to the Saratoga County Animal Shelter, where they’ll be available for adoption after authorities decide whether to charge the owner.
State Police said a woman, whose name was not released, had been picking up stray cats off the streets of Troy and within the trailer park “in an attempt to rescue them.” Police began a month-long investigation into the property after an animal hospital reported the owner brought in a kitten that suffered from “severe medical issues.” That cat died within an hour of its arrival, police said.
Butler said Halfmoon Animal Control called on Monday morning to inform the shelter a woman was suspected of hoarding between 60 and 65 cats and kittens at her trailer home, Butler said, but authorities found more than double that amount of animals living in “filthy, horrible conditions” upon executing a search warrant. Police found two dead cats at the home, which has since been deemed uninhabitable..." More
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