Hundreds Of Animals Rescued From Downtown Apartment
Posted March 25, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It was a foul smell that brought them there, and when police and Humane Society officials arrived at a downtown high rise Sunday, what they saw inside one apartment was even more disturbing.
Hundreds of pigeons, rats and mice were allegedly being kept in a 15th-floor apartment in a building on Bleecker Street , near Sherbourne and Wellesley.
The scene was an absolute nightmare, and while many of the mice were caged, the scores of birds were free to fly around inside the apartment.
Even seasoned animal welfare workers were distraught by what they witnessed.
“It’s unbelievable, I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Karen Brown, wildlife supervisor for the Toronto Humane Society.
“There’s about 300-400 pigeons inside a bedroom in an apartment, he has mice contained in cages and aquariums that are just house mice with no food and water.
“The pigeons don’t have adequate food, they’re sick, they’re injured, they’re deformed.”
The male resident of the apartment is in custody under the Mental Health Act, but even though he’s been temporarily removed, the stench left from his twisted collection has officials telling tenants to put towels under their doors.
Some residents claimed they’d been calling the city with complaints about the smell for almost two years, but Sunday was the first time any officials entered the apartment. People in the building are understandably upset.
“If these rats and mice got out they could just as easily go and infest somebody else’s house,” said neighbour Justin Layvala.
What’s worse, this is the second time in just over a month that a police have uncovered something like this.
On February 24 officials entered an abandoned building in the Dundas and Sherbourne area where more than 100 sheep carcasses were discovered.
In that instance the owner was attempting to process and dispose of the sheep remains.
The mice and pigeons are now in the care of the Humane Society, where they’ll be treated and then released.
