No charges yet, after more than 100 cats removed from home

WOODHULL TWP. - The removal of more than 100 cats from a home south of Laingsburg on Wednesday had been in the works for weeks, Shiawassee County officials said.

The initial complaint came in at the end of July, said Shiawassee County Under Sheriff Walter McPherson. The county condemned the building August 1.

"There's no way anybody lived in the home," McPherson said. "The odor was unbelievable, going into the buildings."

McPherson said no charges have been filed against Nancy Bischof, the veterinarian who owns the home and appears to have been running a no-kill shelter on the property. He said officials are still working to process what they found Wednesday after executing a search warrant.

The situation is currently being treated as an animal welfare matter, said McPherson.

Workers spent much of the day moving the often-yowling animals in carriers from the house and other buildings at a residence in the 6000 block of Winegar Road, between Perry and Laingsburg.

"We were basically removing animals from the location," he said. "We categorized and photographed them."

The cats are being held in three separate locations, McPherson said. Officials can't do anything besides take care of them because they still belong to Bischof.

Most of the cats remained at the Capital Area Humane Society shelter in Watertown Township on Thursday afternoon, said Julia Willson, the agency's president and CEO. It could take three or four days to finish documenting the condition of the animals for investigation purposes, she said. She declined to discuss the overall health of the cats or other aspects of the investigation. The sheriff's department has determined that 111 cats were removed from the property, she said.

The Winegar Road property where the cats were being kept is the same address listed for The Cat Project, a no-kill shelter run by Bischof. A cached version of the organization’s now-defunct website describes it as “a volunteer-based, no-kill, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization started by a local veterinarian in Michigan.”

"She was attempting to take care of the cats," McPherson said. "I don't believe they were abandoned, I don't believe they were starving."

Troy Clarke, an East Lansing attorney who represents Bischof, said Wednesday that the animals were being cared for and given food and water on a daily basis.

“Any sort of inference or claim that she has somehow abandoned these animals and left them to die is completely untrue,” he said.

Bischof on Thursday declined to comment through Clarke, and the attorney wouldn't say whether his client still lives in the area.

Bischof was listed on the website of a Banfield Pet Hospital near Phoenix, Arizona, as one of its veterinarians.

On Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Vancouver, Washington-based Banfield chain said Bischof has been suspended while the company conducts its own investigation.

"We were recently made aware of allegations against Dr. Bischof," the company said in an email. "The alleged actions are unacceptable and not in line with what we expect of a Banfield associate."

Contact Christopher Haxel at 517-377-1261 or chaxel@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisHaxel.