Another Mason Case?

I wish I were in Los Angeles now to investigate this. I am in Phoenix for another week with my mom who is temporarily in a skilled nursing home. I certainly will check on this when I get back. From the Daily News today:


‘THEY WERE SAFE AND WARM’

Authorities take away 90 cats from North Hills man

By Susan Abram Staff Writer

NORTH HILLS — James Howard wants to save lives.

But the city told him 90 meowing cats and their litterboxes confined to a single RV trailer was too many.

Howard, 57, watched on Wednesday as officers with the Los Angeles Police Depart­ment’s Animal Cruelty Task Force carted off the cats, mostly strays, that he had sheltered in a retrofitted RV trailer with an extended porch.

They took them all, Howard said, standing in the middle of a hollow trailer lined with kitty litterboxes. Only a bunny rabbit named Alice, a small dog named Scruffy and his own broken heart was left, Howard said.

“I know what people say about hoarders, but this is the opposite,” Howard said. “Ninety cats is a lot, but they had plenty of room. They were safe and they were warm.” Officers with the task force and with Los Angeles Animal Services would not speak about the case, saying only that more informa­tion would be released today.

But Howard believes they were tipped off by a veterinarian “who may have gotten mad.”

He said the worst condition any cat suf­fered was drippy eyes.

The city cited him with a $19,000 fine.

Howard said he’s been saving cats for 14 years. He got into some trouble with it before and left Los Angeles County. But he returned recently to purchase a large swath of land in North Hills where he said he was working with the Rascal & Chloe Fund, Inc., a non­profit that helps find homes for stray ani­mals, to potentially build a sanctuary on his property.

“My hope is that they’ll keep them together,” Howard said of the cats. “We’re hoping they don’t euthanize them.”

susan.abram@dailynews.com, 818-713-3664