Animal shelter woman had 200 rotting dead cats at her home

A WOMAN who founded a ‘no-kill’ animal shelter was charged with health and animal welfare violations after 200 dead cats were discovered rotting in rubbish bags in her backyard.

Marlene Kess, who has built a reputation in Manhattan as a caretaker of homeless and dying cats, had 48 cats inside her house, including 38 in one room, authorities said.

Two-hundred vermin-infested cat corpses were stuffed into rubbish bags and apparently were to be buried in a large hole that had recently been dug, said Sgt Joseph Bierman of the state’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).