Cartons of kittens were found on the doorstep of the Orem Animal Shelter about the same time a couple of dozen cats disappeared from the Pleasant Grove apartment that allegedly housed as many as 60 felines.
Shelter officials were left without clues as to where the cats came from or who dropped them off.Most of the cats were young and in poor health. All but a few had to be destroyed, said a secretary at the shelter.
Pleasant Grove Police Sgt. Steve Frampton said it is interesting the cats were left just after news reports of the problems at the apartment were made public.
Lt. Mike Blackhurst also thinks it is a curious coincidence. However, the police have not determined where the cats came from.
Animal-rights activist Larayn Halton alerted the media and authorities about a situation she described as gross neglect and animal abuse at the apartment at 254 W. Center in Pleasant Grove.
Cindy Maloney, who was renting the apartment, apparently went to live with family in California during the first week in July, according to police, leaving the cats in the care of Sue Fox. Fox runs the Humane Society of Pleasant Grove.
Fox discovered a filthy apartment overrun by cats when she stopped to assess the situation. She fed and watered the animals for nearly 10 days but did not call authorities. Fox said she was trying to deal with the situation without sentencing the cats to die. She told authorities she'd found homes for 29 of the cats and discounted accounts that listed as many as 60 cats in the home.
Halton called police after a neighbor told her of the gravity of the situation, but by the time animal control officer Mike Bartell gained access to the residence, only two animals were inside. They bolted out open windows and a back door that had been left open on July 28.
Halton said she and the neighbor counted 51 cats when she toured the apartment on July 20. Halton was concerned the cats might be diseased or sick and set free into the community. She was also worried about dead and dying animals that she claimed had been euthanized by Maloney's son and tossed in a garbage bin.
She has asked authorities to bring charges of neglect and abuse against Cindy Maloney.
Utah County Health director Joseph Miner said there isn't an ongoing public health concern unless dependent children or adults were living in the home. "If an adult chooses to live in squalor, there's really not much we can do," said Miner.
Miner does not believe the cats were suffering from diseases that humans could contract.
"Rabies is not that common in cats." He said. He added that it isn't unusual for people to dispose of dead animals in landfills.