300 Cats Found In Feces-Covered Central Florida Home
Homeowner Arrested On Animal Cruelty Charges
POSTED: Friday, April 13, 2007
UPDATED: 6:25 am EDT April 16,
2007
OCALA, Fla. -- A Central Florida man was arrested on animal cruelty charges after officials said they discovered as many as 300 cats -- dead and alive -- inside his house with a layer of animal feces between two and three inches deep.
IMAGES: Photos From House
Johnathon Terpstra, 61, was charged with animal cruelty, tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice after Marion County authorities made the discovery at his house, which is located at 8345 SW 146th Court in Florida Highlands. The cats and some other animals were found by a sheriff's deputy at about 10:30 a.m. Friday while she was serving civil papers to the residence in connection with another matter. She said she saw the remains of a cat in the yard of the house before finding hundreds of animals inside the home. The deputy requested a hazmat team due to strong fumes inside the house. A hazmat team tested the air quality and the ammonia level was at 31 parts per million, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office. The lethal level is 20 parts per million. Animal control officers were gathering the live animals from the home late Friday. They will be kept as evidence or taken to an animal shelter, officials told Local 6 News. Watch Local 6 News for more information about this story.
IMAGES: Photos From House Johnathon Terpstra, 61, was charged with animal cruelty, tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice after Marion County authorities made the discovery at his house, which is located at 8345 SW 146th Court in Florida Highlands. The cats and some other animals were found by a sheriff's deputy at about 10:30 a.m. Friday while she was serving civil papers to the residence in connection with another matter. She said she saw the remains of a cat in the yard of the house before finding hundreds of animals inside the home. The deputy requested a hazmat team due to strong fumes inside the house. A hazmat team tested the air quality and the ammonia level was at 31 parts per million, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office. The lethal level is 20 parts per million. Animal control officers were gathering the live animals from the home late Friday. They will be kept as evidence or taken to an animal shelter, officials told Local 6 News. Watch Local 6 News for more information about this story.
Copyright 2007 by Internet Broadcasting Systems and Local6.com.
All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten
or redistributed.
Authorities release a chilling 911 call from a 19-year-old woman who hid in the back bedroom of a Central Florida home while four men attempted to break into the house.
An ex-wife of the man who found the remains of Caylee Anthony says that she thought her ex-husband was responsible for or involved in the girl's death.
Officials question the credibility of a female deputy who called 911 in September to report a masked man had attacked her.
Dashcam video shows a Florida woman offering an officer sex instead of getting a ticket.
A woman tired of hearing her son say he lost another sock has come up with an idea to prevent it from happening again.
South Carolina police say an obese man died after not moving from his recliner for the past eight months. Police say the man's body was physically stuck to the chair and firefighters had to cut him out. He died a few hours later at the hospital.
A Nebraska man says romance turned to revenge when he was victimized by his girlfriend and then exposed on Facebook. 
It really works! An Iowa man makes a Halloween costume that switches from robot to truck in seconds.
Take a quick look at the flicks headed to your multiplex. Check out the trailer, too.
Thirty Victoria's Secret supermodels take over New York's Times Square this week.
Get your daily dose of the cute and unusual right here.
A new motion filed by the Casey Anthony defense team focuses on the former meter reader who found Caylee's remains.
Email Alerts
RSS News Feeds
Mobile
Live Streams
Slideshows
Video
Search
