HELENA, Mont. – A man in Lewis and Clark County was charged with animal cruelty in connection to a Helena police investigation into a camper full of kittens.
Court documents filed by Lewis and Clark County deputy county attorney Deanna Rothwell say the Helena Police Department first encountered the incident on April 10.
Court documents say Helena Police officer Daren Chavers responded that day to a call about cats inside a camper with no food or water in the parking lot of a hotel.
Documents say Chavers responded, found the camper and spent time looking for the owner of the camper. During his search, Officer Chavers was approached by the woman who first called the police.
She was holding a small kitten, documents say, and told Chavers she brought the kitten from the camper because she had believed her cat was inside. She had previously given the cat to the camper’s owner to watch and said the owner had not returned any of her calls about getting it back.
Chavers said, in court documents, that he examined the kitten and could see its spine. He added that the eyes of the kitten were crusted over and not able to open.
Documents say Chavers obtained a search warrant for the camper and found it smelling of urine and feces, with large amounts of feces around the interior. There was no water inside and the only food was a bowl of tomato soup in a cat bowl and some cat food left by the woman who reported the camper.
The Humane Society helped Chavers remove the cats, which included six kittens, one of which died the day after, and three older cats. One other kitten was found dead on the floor of the camper.
The owner of the camper was charged with aggravated animal cruelty and a warrant was requested for his arrest, according to court documents.