Cops: Woman Broke Into Shelter to Get Cats Back

A Wisconsin woman lost her 17 cats to a Humane Society shelter after her unsanitary apartment was condemned earlier this month. Now Lee Ann Shore, 46, has been arrested for allegedly breaking into that shelter to steal her cats back. Police say she removed 15 cats from the Coulee Region Humane Society in Onalaska, only eight of which previously belonged to her, UPI reports. Others that were taken reportedly looked like her pets, notes CBS Minnesota. Police believe Shore gained access to the shelter by breaking a back window between Sunday evening and Monday morning.

"It was pretty chaotic, there was a lot of things tipped over, a lot of crates just kind of tossed about," says the shelter's executive director. All but three of the cats have been recovered following an anonymous tip that cats were seen in an open field. Shore faces charges of burglary, criminal damage to property, resisting an officer, and bail jumping, reports the La Crosse Tribune. Science 2.0 took a look at animal hoarders earlier this month, with Spanish researcher Paula Calvo noting that people with the disorder receive no attention after their animals are removed. "There are still no standardized action protocols for intervention in these cases," Calvo notes. (Read about a much more extreme case of animal hoarding.)