News Photo by Julie Riddle Cages of rescued cats fill a cell in the former Alpena County Jail building on Monday.

ALPENA — A fatal New Year’s Eve crash north of Alpena led police to discover dozens of malnourished cats, surrounded by debris and feces, in a home that also served as the headquarters for a breeder of one of the world’s rare cat breeds.

According to police, up to 100 cats have apparently lived for years among mountains of trash, hundreds of empty cat food cans, and the corpses of other animals not able to survive the conditions in the Alpena Township home.

The former Alpena County Jail building has been set up as a temporary shelter for the rescued cats, their numbers too great to fit in the Alpena County animal control facility.

On Monday, cats stared from cages lined on metal bunks in the former cells, some emaciated and shivering, meowing in raspy voices, others silent and still.

Searchers found the cats in conditions “deplorable, to say the least,” said Michelle Reid, Alpena County animal control officer, who led the animals’ removal from the home.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Seen through the window of a cell door, Alpena County Animal Control Officer Michelle Reid attempts to catch a panicked cat that fled when several dozen rescued cats were moved into the former Alpena County Jail building this weekend. Reid caught the cat safely.

The home’s resident, Candice Massey, died in what police suspect to have been a medical-related crash at the intersection of U.S. 23-North and Golf Course Road around 10 p.m. on Friday.

Called to the scene because responders found four cats in Massey’s vehicle, Reid recognized the cats as Havana browns, an extremely rare cat breed raised by Massey.

When she peered in the garage window of Massey’s home the next morning, “there were just cats everywhere,” Reid said.

Reid and workers from the Otsego County Animal Control removed 38 cats, three ducks, and a chicken from the house over the weekend.

Reid estimated another 40 or 50 cats remained in the house, many cowering in spaces above ceiling tiles or hidden under mounds of hoarded household goods and garbage.

News Photo by Julie Riddle A Siamese-type variant of a Havana brown cat peers between cell bars from a cage in the former Alpena County Jail building on Monday.

‘BROWN BEAUTIES’

Known for its agreeable, affectionate temperament as much as its chocolate-brown color and distinctive head shape, the Havana brown’s ancestry includes the dignified Siamese cat, a lineage written on the black-masked faces of some of the cats and kittens taken from Massey’s home.

Rescuers also found some domestic shorthair cats, apparently used for breeding, Reid said.

According to cat enthusiast websites, Massey raised Havana browns for 35 years under the business name Acapella cattery and had affiliation with several national cat associations.

In cat-enthusiast online forum posts dating back decades, Massey enthusiastically advocated for the “brown beauties” she raised, encouraging other breeders to be ethical and generous in their care for the breed.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Feces cover the floor of an Alpena Township home where several dozen rare cats were rescued this weekend.

According to some online sites, Massey helped spearhead a movement to strengthen the breed’s delicate line through a genetic diversity program.

Several websites list Massey as the contact person for a Havana brown rescue group.

Reid, who knew the breeder when the deputy worked for an Alpena veterinarian several decades ago, called Massey a brilliant and “super-nice” woman.

“I had no idea this was going on,” Reid said.

UNLIVABLE CONDITIONS

News Photo by Julie Riddle Alpena County Animal Control Officer Michelle Reid wipes away tears as she searches for cats amid debris in the Alpena Township home of a breeder of rare cats on Monday.

Surrounded by woods at the end of a dead-end road, Massey’s house showed signs its resident suffered from a mental illness, its extreme disorder giving evidence of the hoarding impulses Massey’s brother said the breeder had long battled, Reid said.

On Monday, hundreds of empty Special Kitty cat food cans, some of them coated with rust, filled the floors of the garage and passageways. In a side room, several inches of feces coated the floor, while a row of cat show ribbons hung in a doorway.

Amid the detritus lay small bones, picked clean.

“They’re literally eating one another to stay alive,” Reid said.

Other small bodies, still intact, lay on a tarp in the back yard, removed by workers during the previous day’s rescue efforts.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Stacked litter boxes on Monday lean in a precarious pile in the living room of an Alpena Township home where police found dozens of malnourished cats this weekend.

The unlivable conditions explained why Massey’s car showed signs she had been living in it, Reid said.

Reid, who had expected to find cats in the dozen or so live traps she’d left in the house overnight baited with food, pulled only one caged cat from the home.

“Well, that’s beyond disappointing,” she said, fretting at the eerie silence of the house where she believed several dozen cats still hid. “I’m so scared they’re dying, damn it.”

Faint noises above a ceiling tile gave the officer hope some cats might still make it out of the house, though the beam of her flashlight came up empty as she stood on a rickety table to peer through a hole in the ceiling.

“There are so many cats in here, still,” the animal control officer said, tears in her eyes as she agonized over how to find the remaining cats before they died. “How do you explain to a cat that you’re trying to save them?”

‘SAY SOMETHING’

Apparently, nobody saw how Massey lived with her cats, “and if they have, shame on them for not reporting what they saw,” Reid said.

Michigan law dictates how breeders raise dogs, but the state has no regulatory oversight over cat breeders, according to Pollyanne McKillop, animal shelter program manager for the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Local governments may regulate the care and keeping of animals, including the number and kinds of animals people may have, McKillop said.

The Alpena Township website does not list an ordinance specific to animal care.

Police believe other animals may live in similar squalid conditions in the Alpena area. They need the help of residents willing to speak up when they notice something amiss, said Alpena County Sheriff Steven Kieliszewski outside Massey’s home on Monday.

“If you see something, say something,” Kieliszewski said, gesturing at the front window of the home. “There’s more of these.”

Had Massey’s cats been discovered before her death, police could have charged her for a violation of state cruelty and neglect laws.

Or, Kieliszewski said, she could have gotten the mental health help she needed.

NEW HOMES

Massey’s brother granted police jurisdiction over the rescued cats, Reid said.

Most of the cats have upper respiratory illnesses, and many — especially the Havana browns, with a less-hardy constitution than domestic shorthairs — are underfed, some unable to eat regular cat food because their thin bodies can’t process it.

The cats will stay at the old jail while workers conduct health checks and make sure those already spoken for by people who did business with Massey are united with their cats.

Once the dust settles, the county will host an adoption day for some cats, sending others to animal rescues and shelters, Reid said.

County workers will spay and neuter all animals before they go to new homes, Reid said.

To contribute

Donations to help pay for the care of Havana brown cats rescued from a hoarding situation this weekend, and other animals rescued from dangerous living situations, can be given to the Alpena County Sheriff’s Office at 4900 M-32 West in Alpena, with checks made out to Alpena County Animal Control.

News Photo by Julie Riddle With cat show awards hanging in the foreground, Kat Tomaszewski, of the Alpena County Sheriff’s Department, on Monday puts fresh food in a live trap left in a home in Alpena Township where police this weekend found dozens of rare cats in a hoarding situation.

News Photo by Julie Riddle A cat skull lies among old cat food cans and debris in the garage of an Alpena Township home where several dozen cats were found in a hoarding situation this weekend.

News Photo by Julie Riddle Malnourished Havana brown cats stare nervously from a cage in the former Alpena County Jail building on Monday after being rescued from a hoarding situation in an Alpena Township home this weekend.