Motel 6 officials call the existence of 28 cars in a single room a “unique situation that just got out of hand very quickly.”
That’s what Motel 6 exec Mike McGeehan told USA Today about the cat hoarder in Columbia, Mo.
Columbia animal control authorities last week responded to a complaint about odor in Room 328 at the hotel and discovered a mess: 28 cats, overflowing litter boxes, a thick stench of urine and four dead kittens in a freezer.
The local Columbia Tribune covered the story, noting that the local Humane Society chapter rescued the cats. The discovery came about three months after animal control visited the same room to respond to a similar complaint, the newspaper had reported.
The guest faces charges of having too many animals, animal abuse, no vaccinations and unsanitary living conditions, according to the Tribune.
Motel 6 officials were surprised by the discovery, as were the hotel’s owners, McGeehan said.
"We were absolutely, very surprised that something like this could happen – that many pets could be in one room and that it happened so quickly," McGeehan said.
The hotel is owned by a family that has historically run a reliable hotel, he said. He declined to identify the owners by name. The owners told McGeehan that the situation escalated quickly.
"She had been there for a short period of time, and when they checked her in she had no pets."
By David Wilkening
