Last night, the Brick Township Police Department closed their investigation at a home on Mantoloking Rd, where over 100 animals were taken in by animal control. The incident was first reported by TLS.
The resident, Jeffrey Finlay, initiated the call for assistance for an excessive number of animals inside his own residence.
Due to limited resources, the removal of animals from the residence to appropriate care facilities took over twenty-four hours for all personnel involved. The total number of animals removed from the residence totaled 130 cats and three dogs.
Due to the nature of the situation, Brick Township Police Humane Law Enforcement Officer, Scott Smith, responded to the residence. Smith stated all animals appear to have been properly fed and are all pending veterinary reports. All animals are being sheltered at the Northern and Southern Ocean County Animal Facilities, which are under direction of the Ocean County Health Department.
Brick Township resident, Jeffrey Finlay was charged with NJ 4:22-17a(4) disorderly persons offense: failure to provide care of a living animal or creature, and two township ordinance violations: Failure to license an animal and violating the prohibition against harboring five or more cats/dogs/ combination.
When asked to comment on the difficulty of removing the animals from the residence and bringing them to the appropriate care facilities, one Brick Township official told reporters on Friday: “Well, the weather was extremely hectic. Have you ever tried to relocate that many animals when it’s raining cats and dogs outside, and inside?!
There’s also a lot of people who have more than the limit of cats and dogs as pets