"It's a good property," said Neil Chadwick, who owns the North Avenue house with his wife, Gunnel.
PITMAN -- The owners of a rental property where more than 140 cats were rescued last month say that although the job comes with a hefty price tag, they're committed to rehabilitating the structure.
"It's a good property," said Neil Chadwick, who owns the North Avenue house with his wife, Gunnel. "The outside is in good shape, it has a big yard for the Grove and I'm carrying a mortgage on it. I have no choice but to rehabilitate it."
The cats were seized from the house on Dec. 17 when multiple agencies, including Pitman police and the NJSPCA, descended on the property in response to neighborhood complaints. An overwhelming ammonia smell had spread through the surrounding blocks as emergency responders worked in hazmat suits.
The animals were given medical evaluations and put up for adoption by various local shelters and rescue groups. A spokesman from the NJSPCA did not return requests for comment Wednesday about whether the tenant of the house would be charged with a crime.
Borough officials said in late December that the Chadwicks had 10 days to remediate the house or demolish it. Although the couple spent $2,700 on basic cleanup after regaining control of the property on Dec. 26, work is currently stalled while they work with an attorney to convince their insurance company to front $38,000 for an interior rehab job. That includes new flooring and appliances, as well as the possibility of new sheetrock walls.
Chadwick described his tenant as quiet, and said the woman had never made trouble in the 11 years she'd rented the house. The woman's mother had recently fallen ill, however, and she did not seem to be spending much of her time at home when the cats were rescued.
"Apparently she was no longer living there, which I did not know," he said. "When we got there, it was clear no one could've lived there for long. The depth of the feces in some places was unimaginable."
Chadwick said that neighbors reported seeing the tenant coming and going, and that the smell of cat waste first began attracting attention in the summer. Residents of the historic Grove neighborhood complained to the borough, but it took some time to get a response.
"There was a neighbor who months ago called the town and said something was coming from the house. The town sent a sewer guy. He lifted a manhole," said Chadwick. I don't know how he couldn't tell the difference between sewer and cat smell."
Pitman Mayor Russ Johnson said he was not at liberty to comment further on the matter, and the borough's solicitor did not immediately return phone calls.
For his own part, Chadwick said that he wished he had insisted on occasionally visiting the house. Usually the tenant paid her rent electronically, he said, or left payment in a shed in the backyard.
"I used to do an annual walkthrough," he said. "She was a good tenant, so after the first few years, I didn't follow through. I didn't make a point of asking to go in. If I'd done it a year ago, I could've nipped it in the bud."
He noted that Animal Control officials had told him the cats seemed to have all been bred from the same handful of pets.
"They just multiplied," he said. "I don't know if she realized how much they'd bred."
The rehabilitation is good news for Lorrie Marquis, head of the neighborhood group Friends of the Pitman Grove.
"It's an original Grove home," she said. "If it's possible for it to be saved, I'd like to see that. There are people who have been rather emphatic that they'd like to see it torn down, [but] if it can be saved it can be a great home for somebody."
Gloucester County officials said this week that there were 23 of the Pitman cats left at the animal shelter in Clayton. People For Animals, an organization that operates a spay and neuter clinic at the county complex, worked with the shelter and obtained a grant that lowered the adoption fee for the Pitman cats to $25. The group also took in 14 of the cats.
Facebook posts by the shelter indicate that two of the cats have been adopted from the county so far. Officials did not say whether any had been euthanized.
For more information on the adoption process, call the shelter at 856-881-2828, ext. 1, or visit the Gloucester County Animal Shelter on Facebook.
Andy Polhamus may be reached at apolhamus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ajpolhamus. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.