DIONNE WALKER
Firehouse.com News
Two Virginia, Minn. firefighters were injured after a complaint of a strong
odor coming from a house Friday lead to the discovery of over 130 wild cats
and kicked off a two-day effort to catch all of the felines.
One firefighter was scratched and another bitten three times while trying to
recover the cats on Friday and Monday, said Jeffrey Teasck, a fire equipment
operator for the Virginia Fire Department, Virginia, Minn. The firefighters
received tetanus shots and rabies treatment and are being monitored for
infection, he said.
Teasck, who was initially in charge of the incident, said firefighters
became involved after Virginia police called them requesting masks for an
unusual operation.
"The Virginia Police Department called us and asked if we had any kind of
masks," Teasck said. "[They] didn’t specify what kind of masks they needed."
Armed with dust masks, Teasck headed to the southwest Virginia home—but
quickly found the flimsy masks just wouldn’t do.
"After walking inside and getting a whiff, I could understand why it
wouldn’t work," he said, pointing out that the house was wrought with cat
urine and so much fecal matter that firefighters could barely open the front
door.
Health department officials soon determined that high levels of ammonia
emanating from the cat urine as well as potentially harmful bacteria made it
unsafe for anyone to enter the house without an air pack, Teasck said.
"Of course, the police department is not authorized to use them, so that’s
how we got involved," he said.
In full turn-out gear, five firefighters worked in shifts entering the
house, where they recovered the cats using nets and "cat grabbers," which
Teasck said most closely resemble a very large set of tongs.
The most challenging part was catching the cats and placing them in pet
containers for transport to the local humane society, Teasck said. Besides
being diseased and generally mangy, many of the cats had not interacted much
with humans and were very dangerous, he said.
"It was just chaos," he said. "They were basically wild. Wild, nasty little
cats."
Firefighters removed 96 cats over an 8-hour period Friday before deeming it
too difficult to catch the remainder, who were hiding in various places in
the house. Instead they postponed the operation until Monday hoping, Teasck
said, to "let the cats settle down and come out of their little hiding
spaces."
Another 39 cats were recovered in a five-hour operation Monday, bringing the
total to 135. At the time of this article, another 20 to 40 cats remained on
the scene and were being caught using live traps.
A spokesperson from nearby Mesabi Humane Society, where the animals were
transported, confirmed that all of the cats were euthanized.
Charges are pending against the owner of the house, Bonnie Kemppainen, who
is staying with friends, said Tom Krause, a detective with the Virginia
Police
Krause said while the department had responded to numerous instances of
homeowners with "a few more pets than they should have" in the past, even he
was taken aback by this unique case.
"I think it’s pretty unusual," he said. "I haven’t seen it this bad."
