BOSTON, May 8 (UPI) -- Officials Thursday weighed possible animal cruelty criminal charges against the "Cat Lady of Beacon Hill."
Raids on two of her apartments turned up dozens of dead, frozen and sickly animals, police said.
"They took my family," Heidi Erickson, 42, complained Wednesday night after 52 live and a dozen dead cats were removed from her apartment in the Boston suburb of Watertown.
Authorities said the live cats appeared ill and emaciated and were taken to animal rescue shelters.
The raid was the second in as many weeks for Erickson, who describes herself as a third-generation breeder of Persian cats.
Last week police removed 60 cat and kitten carcasses from the freezer in her apartment on Boston's Beacon Hill, prompting the media to label her as the "Cat Lady of Beacon Hill."
Because of the rancid condition of that apartment, a Housing Court judge Wednesday condemned it and banned Erickson from living anywhere in Boston with cats.
As a result of publicity over the dead animals found in her Boston apartment, neighbors lodged complaints about animal noises and foul odors coming from her second apartment in Watertown.
Acting on a search warrant, police, animal control officials and the Board of Health discovered a dozen dead young cats in a freezer and 52 others alive.
"They really didn't look well at all," said Watertown Police Lt. Michael Lawn. "The smell of urine and cat feces was pretty bad."
Alan Borgal of the Animal Rescue League of Boston said the cats found in Watertown were "emaciated" and "very listless," many with upper respiratory infections.
Lawn said Erickson "was upset" and "asked us not to take the animals."
Erickson claimed alleged evidence of animal cruelty against her was "fabricated."
"Today has been a horrendous assault upon my privacy, my family, and my dear cats," Erickson said outside her apartment building Wednesday night.
"I have never mistreated my animals," she said. "I love my animals. My family has been taken from me and I'm working on trying to get it back."
Erickson has said she was trying to breed the perfect Persian.
"There isn't anything weird going on here," she said. "I'm not cloning cats. People think people are weird who have five cats. They don't understand."
Only other cat breeders would understand, she said.
Erickson was not arrested in Boston or Watertown, but Lawn said, "We do anticipate charges being brought" against her "along the lines of animal cruelty."
Police said last week that she would face similar charges in Boston.
