RSPCA: Eight cats rescued from rubbish-filled home with 'diarrhoea on the floor' and 'piles of mouldy faeces'

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Eight cats left behind in a filthy house in a Welsh village have been rescued - and most are now free to find new homes.

Jolene Collette Harris, 39, of Cefn Coed, was last week sentenced at Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates’ Court, after previously pleading guilty to four offences under the Animal Welfare Act. She was handed a five year animal ban and ordered to pay £680 in fines and court costs - and was told to sign over an elderly female cat still in her care to the RSPCA.

The cats, which were all long-haired Maine Coons and ragdoll breeds, were found abandoned in the Hirwaun house and seized by police in August last year. The court heard a witness statement from RSPCA Deputy Chief Inspector (DCI) Emma Smith, who visited the Greenwood Drive property alongside police. “The smell inside the bungalow was incredibly pungent from the minute you walked in. It was extremely unkempt inside the location with household items strewn everywhere, bags of rubbish piled up and grime and mess on the floors.”

As she entered the living room she saw two cats - one cream ragdoll and another which ran off. A food bowl in the room was empty, although the cats did have access to water. Two litter trays contained multiple lumps of faeces, and there was also diarrhoea on the floor.

DCI Smith said she then walked through the living room to a small hallway, which led to a toilet and a bedroom. “The overwhelming smell of urine and ammonia continued throughout the bungalow along with the grime and rubbish,” she said.

She found a third, “nervous” cat in the bedroom, which had access to food and water - although its litter trays were also dirty. She then came across a closed door, which said ‘Please do not open door cats in here loose’. She was only able to open it a third of the way.

“I was able to squeeze through the gap and look behind the door and could see that the resistance was coming from piles and piles of mouldy faeces which had built up behind the door, stopping it from opening,” she said. “The sight and smell in this room was the worst I have seen in 14 years of being an RSPCA Inspector and I had to keep taking breaks from the room to stop my eyes watering and my nose lining stinging.

“The room was caked in old and new faeces throughout. Urine stains were all over the floor along with rubbish and ground in old and stale food. There were piles of cat fur which were caked in faeces and knotted up and there was no clear part of the floor that was not smeared or caked in faeces,” DCI Smith continued.

She found water bowls, but the contents were yellow where the cats had obviously urinated in them. There were a number of cat carriers in the room, all completely caked with faeces. Five cats with “stained and smelly” coats had been confined inside, she said, with no clean space or bedding. “There was no ventilation in this room and no way of escaping the conditions.”

All eight cats were removed from the property, and taken the RSPCA’s Merthyr Tydfil Veterinary Clinic. Five of the cats were signed over by the owner - four of which have been rehomed. Following sentencing, the others will now also be made available for rehoming. 

In mitigation, the court heard that Harris had no previous convictions, and had been experiencing personal difficulties. She also appeared to have genuine remorse about the situation.