Three surviving cats won?t be returned to the Columbia house from which more than 100 diseased and dead cats were removed last fall.
“I want the cats back; there?s no reason I shouldn?t get them,” said Ayten Icgoren, who is accused of hoarding the cats, to the Howard Board of Appeals Monday.
The board denied Icgoren?s appeal of the Animal Matters Hearing Board?s decision to impound the three cats permanently.
“I see no unreasonableness in the process of rectifying a situation they thought was unhealthy and unsanitary,” said Board Member Albert Hayes of the initial ruling.
Given evidence of the condition of the house and Icgoren?s opportunity at the time to present her case thoroughly, the other board members agreed with the Animal Matters Board?s ruling.
Icgoren also faces related animal-cruelty charges, and her case is scheduled to begin Friday in Howard District Court. The Animal Matters Board decision was relating only to the three surviving cats, said Howard Police Spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn.
In August, Howard County animal control officers removed 58 sick cats from the house. Of them, 50 were euthanized, according to charging documents. Of the eight still alive, five later died. The three remaining cats have been kept in the county shelter.
Officers also removed 17 carcasses, leaving behind badly decomposed cat remains.
Icgoren, who denied that her pets were treated poorly, tried to show the board recent pictures of her house to prove it was clean and ready for the cats to return.
“I brought [the pictures] to show you the house is in very good condition now,” she said.
However, the board declined, saying the pictures were not part of the initial evidence and couldn?t be considered.
