Pennie And Steve Lefkowitz Charged With Animal Cruelty After Nearly 700 Cats Seized (MUGSHOTS)

What started as a well-intended shelter ended up with a few hundred cats too many.

Pennie and Steven Lefkowitz have been charged with 47 counts of animal cruelty after authorities discovered and seized the 697 felines that the couple was hoarding at their Florida animal shelter, The Gainesville Sun reports.

The Humane Society of the United States called the June 7 raid on Alachua County's Haven Acres Cat Sanctuary "the largest case of cat hoarding the organization has ever seen," according to the North Florida Herald.

Finally, on Monday night, Pennie, 59, and Steven, 65, were charged with 46 counts regarding the cats and one additional count for a rooster, all third degree felonies.

State Attorney Bill Cervone said that the couple actually had their hearts in the right place before they became overwhelmed by caring for the mass of cats.

“I view this as a case of hoarding,” Cervone told The Gainesville Sun. “These people started out well intentioned ... but they were in way, way, way over their head. I am optimistic we will be able to resolve something with them that will address the mental health issues that I believe they have and prevent a recurrence.”

Pennie made a similar point in an earlier interview.

"I was just tired of seeing so much euthanasia and wanted to know what we could do personally," she said in June, according to MSNBC.

An adopt-a-thon is scheduled for Aug. 26-28.

WATCH:

Comments

[Ana Grupke]

07:37 PM on 09/15/2011

Yes, it is tragic that these people had good intentions but neglected to follow through with setting up adoptions. One can't just "love animals" to help animals on a large scale. It requires organizational and business skills not to mention hard work. It's wonderful that most of these babies will finally experience love and comfort in a forever home. Gratitude & blessings to all the volunteers who gave so compassionately.

[John M Cole]

11:22 PM on 08/24/2011

Very sad .

[Razrback11]

04:35 AM on 08/24/2011

Meow that's a lot of cats!

[Neil20]

11:16 AM on 08/19/2011

I am a cat lover. I have ten cats. Most people do not love cats but those that do make an effort to keep as many as possible. Of course, just keeping them is not sufficient. They have to be well fed as well. Fortunately cats can look after themselves pretty well. They are quite content with just a single meal each day.This couple may have started off with good intentions but ended up in the wrong gutter. Why is it that no animal charities came to their aid? Also, looking after needy animals earn blessings from God or the Universe. What is damaging about the reputation of cats is that cat lore is associated with witches. That's why there is still a general disdain for cats in many parts of the world including the US. People's attitude towards cats must change. I would that most people be converted to 'Cat -o- holics' meaning love and adore cats!

[cinemaven]

11:52 AM on 08/19/2011

Many charities came to their aid. They were getting tons (literally) of food from Purina and another supplier who pulled out when they were cited for not adopting cats out. They got 2 FEMA trailers and money from a pet store and they have donor buttons all over their website.

http://www.havenacres.org/
This is their website... compare that with the reality of how those poor animals were living as shown in the video.

[Christinaa]

09:02 AM on 08/19/2011

This is awful! There are some people with good intentions who want to give a lot animals a safe home but in doing so, they end up doing more harm than good. The sad thing is that they think they really are helping them.

[kareemachan]

03:35 PM on 08/20/2011

Some people just shouldn't try to be funny.

[ming099]

02:13 AM on 08/19/2011

They start off thinking they can save them all and it just snowballs from there. Their hearts are in the right place but the reality sets in too late and this type of thing happens ...it is sad for the animals AND the humans involved.

[afrayedknot2]

11:32 PM on 08/18/2011

I guess I'm one of the mentally ill ones. When I moved into my house there were three kittens living under my steps. I felt sorry for them and started feeding them then a lot of cats started coming to eat. I didn't want the cats but did not know what to do with them since my town will not pick up cats because they do not have a shelter for cats. They might come here and kill them. I guess I'm a terrible person because I don't want that to happen
I think it is a shame that people that want to help the cats, be they mentally ill or not get more criticism than the people who abandon the cats in the first place. People just move off and leave them. Save some of your righteous indignation for them!

[cinemaven]

12:04 PM on 08/19/2011

Did you watch the video?

700 cats
100 of them had to be put down because there was no way to save them. The cats were living in filthy cages and they were matted and dirty and starved for affection.
Now, people who were not responsible for creating this situation have to give up their time to heal and rehab 600 cats to get them ready for adoption. Sadly, there are too many cats out there needing homes so not all of them will find a place.

I have a wonderful cat. She's 8 years old and has lived the life of a princess. She was spayed as a kitten but she was one of about 3 dozen kittens my IRRESPONSIBLE neighbor allowed her 3 cats to have. She just loooooved kittens so she'd get very excited when her cats had litters and then, when she couldn't get anyone to take them (my cat was only 8 weeks old when I got her and she shouldn't have been taken from her mom but by 8 weeks, the woman had tired of kittens and was on her way to drop them at the pound) she just dumped them on the doorstep of our pound. If you ask her, she'll tell you she's a cat lover... I believe she's an abuser.

[Hajnal]

03:57 AM on 08/20/2011

You are absolutely right. I had a hard time convincing my father, who was neither a hoarder nor an irresponsible owner - but loved taking care of young kittens and had very outdated concepts about what was "natural" and what was not - that spaying and neutering his cats was the right thing to do.
We had up to 17 cats, all of them well fed and taken care of, and living in a big property in the countryside, mind you. In the end, I did not wait for his approval and took all the cats to the vet's and had them spayed and neutered. Retrospectively, he understood it had to be done, but always missed having kittens running all over the place.

[Yu Li Ooi]

11:14 PM on 08/18/2011

Wow! Can't believe the conditions these cats were kept it. So sad to see the state some of them were in. Happy to hear they've all been rescued and are in good hands now. A big pat on the back to all those rescuers.

[tbird1987]

09:26 PM on 08/18/2011

i hate cats! yuck

[averagezoe]

09:43 PM on 08/18/2011

And I'm sure that cats hate you.

[Hajnal]

04:35 AM on 08/20/2011

and rightly so.

[kareemachan]

03:37 PM on 08/20/2011

You hate them so much you read this article and commented on them, huh?

[ReadyForMyCloseup]

11:47 AM on 08/19/2011

And I'm sure there's a similar solution for YOU.

[DIAGUY]

06:32 PM on 08/18/2011

That poor rooster...........

[jonjojon]

06:01 PM on 08/18/2011

Strange that this should appear the same day that an article appeared in "USA Today" about a wealthy divorcee who has a 15 acre home for cats in California. The count is at 800 and thousands have been adopted from her home. Through her generosity so many have been saved and WELL CARED FOR having been checked by Vets, neutered, housed and displayed for adoption.

[cinemaven]

12:08 PM on 08/19/2011

There's a special place in heaven for people like her and there are amazing people who run sanctuaries that actually work and are responsible... these people give them all a black eye.

These people lost a sponsor because they never seemed to adopt out any of the cats. If you look at their website, you could be looking at the woman from Cali who actually cares for her cats. Stark contrast to their reality.
http://www.havenacres.org/ (their website)

[justtryintolive]

05:51 PM on 08/18/2011

I know quite a few of the Huff Po community are well informed because you follow the news...I was wondering if any of you had ever heard of Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy? It seems to be a mental disorder where a parent deliberately makes a child dangerously ill to garner pity and attention (not to mention donations) from the community. I read about a woman who had a child who she claimed was dying. There were bake sales, walkathons, etc. Turned out she was later arrested, convicted, and treated . Her house was condemned from years of hoarding junk. Luckily her son was taken away and raised by relatives, there was nothing wrong with him but the mother had been shopping doctors and the child was overmedicated, over radiated to the hilt. Could the Lefkowitz couple be substituting cats for children? Does anyone know if there is legitimate research on the links between hoarding, denial, attention seeking behavior, and the like? We always hear "they were well intentioned..." but you would have to be wired differently from the rest of humanity to house these poor beasts like this.

[novabird]

10:04 PM on 08/18/2011

Hoarding of animals and/or objects is a mental illness. Often, people who do this have concurrent serious mental health issues. There is something terrible wrong with their brains.

[catcrazee]

05:47 PM on 08/18/2011

Hoarding is a puzzling condition, especially as it often seems to draw people together into a combined sickness.

[Susan Marlowe CPA]

11:09 AM on 08/19/2011

My thoughts exactly. This seems not so much "good intentions gone wrong" as much as "these people need help"