Pet Rescuer Jailed For Starving Cats

A seemingly good deed years ago went horribly wrong for Cheryn Smilen. In 2018 Cheryn had a thing where she would feed stray cats nightly, and then began hoarding them as she took them into her apartment. The neighbors started to hear scratching and crying at the windows, but they never saw Chryn there, so they called animal control out to investigate. What they found was disturbing. When police entered her apartment they found some cats malnourished, and bones littering the apartment, suggesting that some cats eaten each other. Described by one investigator as dead cats, on dead cats, on dead cats suggesting they have been dead for months. They say the home was caked with cat poop and wreaked of cat piss. They say the A\C was working but not on, and there was plenty of bags and cans of cat food but she never fed them. Chryn pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and is now banned from owning or rescuing any animals.