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Article Archive > Forty cats seized from four-room Highlands apartment Forty cats seized from four-room Highlands apartment Monmouth County SPCA workers seized 40 cats from an apartment this afternoon after a real estate agent attempting to show the home found unsanitary and unlivable conditions inside. The four-room unit above Highlands Hardware on Bay Avenue reeked of urine and feces when investigators arrived late this morning, said Victor "Buddy" Amato, chief of the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Amato charged each of the home's three occupants, Henry Deininger, 59, Joan Deininger, 54, and Jessica Deininger, 30, with a single count of animal cruelty for failing to provide adequate sustenance for the animals. The cats were not under the care of a veterinarian and some suffered from tumors or blindness, Amato said, but otherwise were healthy. "They all had good body weight, but there shouldn't have been more than two cats for an apartment that size," Amato said. The Deininger family will have to appear in municipal court on April 28 to answer the cruelty charges, which carry up to a $1,000 fine each. The SPCA is unlikely to pursue that amount, Amato said, and will only seek to recoup the costs of removing the cats and relocating them to the Monmouth County Animal Shelter in Eatontown. "These weren't bad people. They were trying to do the right thing and it just got out of hand," he said. The cats, which include five kittens, are available for immediate adoption through the shelter. Anyone interested is asked to call (732) 542-0040. "We're going to work real hard to find homes for these cats," Amato said.
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