Accused cat hoarder’s home smelled so bad, city crews refused to enter

A Myrtle Beach woman accused of mistreating animals after 29 cats and three dogs were found in her apartment had a pretrial hearing in municipal court Wednesday.

Forty-nine-year-old Shaye Gynell Creamer asked for a jury trial after she was cited Feb. 22 for mistreating animals and creating a nuisance with the pets in her home. The date of that trial has not been set.

The stench of cat urine and feces in Creamer’s 26th Avenue South apartment became so bad that city maintenance crews refused to enter the area to work last month. The fire marshal’s office turned to police.

A Myrtle Beach animal control officer responded to the apartment on Feb. 18 and “made a quick count of 14 cats just in the main room and kitchen,” according to an incident report. “None of them appeared malnourished,” Officer B. Ewing noted in her report, but several appeared to have “runny and crusty faces,” symptoms, she said that were consistent with “upper respiratory infections.”

“There was a strong pungent odor of feces and ammonia” or cat urine, Ewing stated in the report. Three litter boxes “were absolutely overflowing, causing a hazardous condition for the animals as well as humans.”

Creamer showed Ewing a “vile of ‘eye meds,’ which was close to empty,” but couldn’t “seem to provide any veterinary documentation,” according to the report. One bedroom and a storage room were off-limits on Ewing’s first visit, but the officer noted Creamer also had two rottweilers and a “terrier-type dog” in one room.

The dogs “were healthy,” Ewing reported.

Creamer told the officer she had been in contact with a rescue worker to find homes for the cats and showed her an exchange of text messages.

“She claimed ownership of five cats and said the others were just taken in and had babies,” Ewing said in the report.

Ewing gave Creamer four days to get the other cats to a rescue shelter and to clean her apartment, advising her that if those tasks were not completed, the animals would be seized on Ewing’s next visit.

The officer followed up with the rescue shelter Creamer had been in contact with on Feb. 22. The manager said she removed 17 cats, but reported there were still 10 to 15 there when she left, Ewing stated in the report. “She advised several of the 17 were sick and some had flea allergy reactions and … one was malnourished.”

“She said that she hid the actual number of cats she had from me and that she intends to hide them again when I came back,” Ewing said in her report.

Ewing obtained a search warrant and seized 10 cats from Creamer’s home, leaving her with two of the senior felines and the dogs.

“Access was made to the storage room and the odor of cat urine was so bad I had to hold my breath,” Ewing noted.

The cats were sent to the Grand Strand Humane Society for housing and medical treatment. Creamer was cited with violating two city ordinances.

This story was originally published March 22, 2017 at 8:09 PM with the headline "Accused cat hoarder’s home smelled so bad, city crews refused to enter."