Woman kept 200 animals in apartment

A woman kept about 200 creatures – including alligators, scorpions and beetles - in an apartment in Milwaukee.

Authorities found the menagerie after neighbours had complained about a foul smell.

“The smell was just unbelievable,” said William Mitchell, a state conservation warden who found about 70 ducks cramped in a basement pen with droppings covering the floor. “It was really stinking. ... It made my eyes water.”

Animal carcasses were in a freezer and decaying carcasses were in an adjacent garage. Among the dead animals were racoons, rabbits, and squirrels.

Mitchell said the apartment was occupied by Jamie Verburgt.

“She said the dead animals had been killed by cars,” Mitchell said. “The dead animals were used to feed the live animals, and some were given to flesh-eating beetles.”

Among the other live animals found were snakes, rats, turtles and toads.

The live animals were seized by the Washington County Humane Society, pending investigation by the Fish and Wildlife Service, Mitchell said.

Verburgt’s boyfriend, John Walters, was prosecuted in 2000 for mistreatment of exotic animals.

At that time, police found a female cougar, female leopard, silver-tailed fox, monitor lizard, two caracals, a coatimundi, chinchilla and a reticulated python in Walter’s apartment in Greenfield, another Milwaukee suburb.