68 Cats Pulled From House
Wednesday, March 14th, 2007A multi-year neighborhood feud in Oakland Park Estates ended Monday when animal control officers accompanied by Sheriff’s Office deputies served a court order and removed 68 cats from 2432 Kacie Lane.
Animal control officers, wearing masks to mute the overbearing urine smell of the cats, carried cages out of an out building for hours.
“It’s horrible in there,” one said.
Another 14 dogs and seven puppies had already been removed by the residents, Bonita A. Reid and her mother, Rose L. Reid.
Paul Studivant, supervisor for St. Johns County Animal Control, said living conditions were “filthy and disgusting” for the cats, who were kept in an outbuilding and inside the 4,000 square-foot main house.
“I’m all covered in cat hair,” Studivant said at the end of the day.
According to court documents, a motion for a summary judgment requested by Christos Laware of Boca Raton — owner of the property — was granted by Circuit Court Judge J. Michael Traynor on Friday. His order requires all animals on that property be removed by noon Monday and orders the two people living at that address, Bonita A. Reid and her mother, Rose L. Reid, to leave the property by noon Wednesday.
“Pictures provided by (Laware) show proof that the (Reids) are allowing numerous cats to run wild and freely throughout the house, creating damage and unsanitary living conditions within the home,” Traynor’s order said. “(The photos) show cats on the kitchen counter, several on a coffee table covered in cat food with newspaper on the floor directly below with what appears to be feces, and several cats in both a living room and bedroom.
While the cats were being loaded in animal-control vans, neighbors on the street were smiling at one another. None would give his name for publication, but one man said, “There is a God. This is a holiday for Kacie Lane.”
Since the Reids moved there in 2002, neighbors have filed dozens of complaints about the smell, about her animals wandering into their garages and laundry rooms, biting people and about animals becoming sick and dying on their patios and porches.
The Reids also converted their upstairs into small apartments, which they rented out for cash to people the neighbors feared, such as crack users and sexual offenders. The standoff culminated in the shooting of one of Reid’s Maltese dogs in 2005 because it escaped from her yard and threatened a neighbor. Reid had been under a court order to keep her animals on the property. Bonita Reid turns those claims around and says she was the victim of intimidation.
“I had neighbors from hell,” she said Monday.
More recently, a neighbor shot another of her cats in the leg and one of her Maltese bit a neighbor’s finger, Bonita Reid said. Rose Reid, 86, former owner of the house, said that on Wednesday she’ll pay for a team to come in and clean the place up.
“We’ve had such a rough time,” she said. “I miss the little ones so badly.”
Laware, a Boca Raton resident who is a former U.S. Marine and Secret Service officer, said he bought the $500,000 house in 2006. Part of that deal allowed the Reids to live there if they paid $20,000 to Laware for the right to repurchase the house in seven months. The Reids promised to put $35,000 into an escrow account to cover mortgage payments. But, court documents say, the Reids only put $13,600 into the escrow account. When the house could not be refinanced, Laware filed for eviction and the judge ruled against the Reids in that motion and the animal motion, which was not set to be heard until April.
“No issue of fact remains in dispute,” Traynor wrote.
Laware said he is “tens of thousands of dollars in the red” in this deal. He must now cover the $5,000 mortgage payments without having full use of the house yet.
“I’m too trusting,” Laware said. “Now I’m in a hole. I thought I was doing a good thing. But when I got inside the home, I was horrified. It was abominable, filthy. I don’t know where the end is. My financial consequences won’t be over for months. The house is on 2.5 acres. It needs a family or someone to take care of it.”
The cats will spend the night at the county’s new animal control shelter on Stratton Road. Studivant said he can’t technically keep them. They’ll be assessed and inoculated, and he isn’t sure if Reid must pay the $5 per day boarding and $20 processing fee per animal.
“Ninety percent are in decent health,” he said.
“She’s a classic hoarder.”
SOURCE: St.Augustine News
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