The Ellis family in Valrico lives in a regular middle class neighborhood on Belfort Place, but there’s nothing regular about the inside of their home. Hillsborough County Code Enforcement is looking into the family, because they had too many cats.
“We had twenty cats, but not all lived inside,” said John Ellis.
Animal control found another sixty deceased cats located inside a freezer in the family’s garage.
“We ran out of room in the backyard to bury them, they multiplied and it just got out of hand,” said Ellis.
Laura Spaulding was contacted to give the home a cleanup. Her company, Spaulding-Decon, gave the family a free Christmas cleanup.
“The cats have torn up all the furniture, urinated on the floor and on the drywall,” said Spaulding.
She said it will take the company about five days to get the family’s home livable again.
“We are going to cut the drywall, extract the urine so this house is livable again,” said Spaulding.
Spaulding said many hoarders continue hoarding even after the cleanup, but Ellis said he was done hoarding.
“I’m not going to have anymore cats,” said Ellis.
