Police are investigating the suspicious death of a Motueka man whose house was swarming with up to 100 cats.
Detective Sergeant Mark Kaveney, of Nelson, said officers were called to the house in Whakarewa St about 11.30am on Wednesday after the 64-year-old man's employer broke into the house and found him
dead.
A post-mortem examination was to be completed yesterday.
The house was cordoned off while police officers, Tasman District Council staff and the SPCA tried to deal with the large number of cats there.
Mr Kaveney said the man had used two rooms and left the rest of the house to the cats.
"They had the run of the place and used it as a playroom, toilet - you name it," he said. "There were cats jumping up the chimney, in cupboards and under furniture - they were all over the place. We tried to catch them without destroying the crime scene.
"It was not a great smell and it looks like they had been there for years - the place is uninhabitable."
He believed feed would be laid to entice the cats back to the house and they would be killed with gas.
Mr Kaveney said 18 cats, some as big as small dogs, were taken from the house and put down on Wednesday and the remaining animals were to be euthanased yesterday.
"The council do not want these cats running around. They are feral and full of weird and wonderful things."
- NZPA
