Douglas Walker

dwalker@muncie.gannett.com

DALEVILLE – Muncie Animal Shelter officials have removed 68 cats from a condemned Daleville house, and their work is not done.

“I’d say there are still 30 in the house, minimum,” shelter superintendent Phil Peckinpaugh said Wednesday evening.

The effort began early Tuesday evening after a 75-year-old woman died in the house, in the 13900 block of West Daleville Road, two houses east of the Salem Township Fire Department.

Authorities called there as a result of her death – believed to be from natural causes – found the house packed with cats.

Fifteen cats and two dogs were removed from the house on Tuesday night.

A child who apparently lived in the house with three adults, including the woman who died, was placed in the care of Child Protective Services workers, Peckinpaugh said.

On Wednesday morning, the animal shelter superintendent and about a half-dozen of his employees returned to the property. Clad in protective gear and wearing breathing masks – the odor of cat urine was nearly overwhelming when they would open the front door – they began the task of catching and removing the remaining cats.

They removed 53 more felines by late afternoon. Their work will resume on Thursday.

Within an hour of their arrival Wednesday, about 25 cats – some sadly meowing when a human would approach – were in pet carriers in the front yard, awaiting transfer to the shelter.

“I’ve seen a lot of things, but I’ve never seen anything like this,” Peckinpaugh said.

The animal population at the Gharkey Street shelter was already at capacity when the Daleville situation was discovered.

“I am incredibly worried about the situation that we have right now,” Peckinpaugh said. “I have never been more concerned.”

He said citizens could help by either adopting pets or taking them on a temporary basis to open space in the shelter. Donations of money and supplies would also be appreciated.

He noted the cost of providing routine medical care to what might end up being 100 cats would be about $9,000, nearly a quarter of the shelter’s yearly budget for medical expenses.

Peckinpaugh said the shelter was “very committed” to not euthanizing animals that are healthy and non-aggressive.

“All of these cats are 100 percent adoptable,” he said.

The superintendent said the cats appeared to belong to the other adults living in the house, not the woman who died Tuesday. There were no cats in her bedroom, he said.

Those people are being “very cooperative,” he said, and have agreed to surrender their animals.

They have also been ordered to stay away from the Daleville Road house, which was built in 2014, according to Delaware County tax records.

Daleville Police Chief James King said he believed water service to the house had been shut off prior to Tuesday’s events.

The chief said his department would review paperwork in the case on Thursday, and decide whether to ask prosecutors to consider neglect-related charges.

An autopsy conducted Wednesday at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital produced no indications the 75-year-old woman’s death was not the result of natural causes, Delaware County Coroner Scott Hahn said.

The woman had apparently been in declining health.

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. Follow him on Twitter: @DouglasWalkerSP.