Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 31, 1993                   TAG: 9307310193
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RINER                                LENGTH: Medium

PET OWNER FACES CRUELTY CHARGE

Parts of the home at the Riner Trailer Park on Union Valley Road were filled with animal excrement several inches deep, authorities said.

The trailer was searched Thursday night after authorities got a telephone tip that the ill-kept cats were virtual prisoners inside.

"It's the most miserable thing I've ever seen," said Cyndi Kelley, manager of the Humane Society of Montgomery County's animal shelter.

Kelley was one of a team of Humane Society members who spent several hours trying to catch the cats inside the trailer. The animals were wary of humans and "extremely hungry," she said.

Nineteen have been taken to the Humane Society's shelter, where they are being kept in quarantine to test for communicable diseases.

A tentative court date of Aug. 10 has been set for the trailer's owner, Betty F. Flinchum of Radford. If convicted of the misdemeanor animal cruelty charge, she could receive up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

Flinchum could also be forced to pay costs incurred by the Humane Society for housing and treating the cats, said Lynda Oleksuk, a Montgomery County humane investigator.

Flinchum came to the trailer, which was unoccupied except for the cats, while the animals were being removed.

"She was of the opinion that she was taking care of the cats," said D.J. Trail, the Montgomery County sheriff's deputy who obtained the search warrant.

Authorities, alerted by the telephone call from a source they declined to identify, first inspected the trailer about 7 p.m.

Emaciated cats could be seen inside, Trail said.

After a hot day, several windows were opened only several inches and provided little ventilation for the cats, he said.

After obtaining the search warrant, Trail, Oleksuk, a veterinarian and humane society members returned and entered the trailer through a window.

The interior was "indescribable," Kelley said.

There was no food or water. Several cats were locked in rooms and closets. Two litter boxes overflowed with excrement, which also had been left throughout the trailer, Kelley said.

"I work around animals every day, and it was the worst I've ever smelled in my life," she said. "I don't understand it. I just don't understand."