The town’s drive to have residents adopt the many cats being held at its Fairfield Hills animal shelter has made some progress, with people adopting five cats from the facility after reading about the situation in .a recent Newtown Bee article

Police Sergeant Aaron Bahamonde, who supervises municipal animal control for the police department said October 29, that five cats were adopted by people who learned of the situation through the story published online on  October 22.  

As an incentive, the town is waiving fees that would normally be charged people who adopt cats from the shelter.

The surge in cats at the shelter stems from the state Department of Agriculture’s (DOAG) June seizure of multiple animals, including more than 30 cats and two dogs, in an animal cruelty case at a Town’s End Road property. The animals were living in a poorly ventilated area heavily contaminated by urine and feces.

People interested in adopting a cat can visit the animal shelter at 21 Old Farm Road from 11 am to 4 pm on Mondays through Fridays. The shelter’s telephone number is 203-426-6900.

The animal shelter is designed to hold eight cats, so when the cats arrived from the Town’s End Road seizure, space at the shelter needed to be converted for use by those cats.

Aristedes “Steve” Gabriel, 54, of 40 Town’s End Road, and Patricia Twells Whitehead, 60, of Darien are facing ten counts and three counts of cruelty to animals, respectively, in connection with the keeping of animals at the Town’s End Road property.

On June 22, the DOAG seized nine horses that were found to be malnourished and living in unhealthy conditions. Town’s End Road is a long dead-end dirt road that extends westward from Eden Hill Road.

The seizure came after a DOAG investigation into complaints about the horses’ health and living conditions, including inadequate food, water, and shelter.

The horses, ranging in age from 4 to 27, were removed under a search-and-seizure warrant signed by a Danbury Superior Court judge. They were transported to the agriculture department’s Second Chance large-animal rehabilitation facility in Niantic.

Seven of the horses are owned by Gabriel and two horses are owned by Whitehead, according to a DOAG statement.