Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Hoarding probed after 300 animals survive fire

FENELON FALLS, ONT. When firefighters crawled into the smoke pouring from a burning house in central Ontario, they were shocked to find dozens of frightened animals scampering underneath and overtop of them to escape.

It took less than 15 minutes to put out the fire in Fenelon Falls. What remained was an overwhelming stench and about 300 pets that had to be moved to safety, a task that took more than eight hours.

“It irritated a number of us that this condition was allowed to exist,” Patrick Twohey, deputy chief of the Kawartha Lakes fire department, said Monday.

“Obviously it had fallen through the cracks. Why, in a residential area, are these many animals housed in one home?”

Fire officials say they found 38 cats, four dogs, 100 birds and numerous rats, gerbils, hamsters and rabbits in the one-storey Queen Street home Saturday afternoon..." More

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