City News, PUBLIC SAFETY

Salem residents charged with neglecting 87 cats

Two Salem residents were charged last week with neglecting 87 cats, three of which have died or been put down at a shelter.

Prosecutors charged Sherie A. Adams, 53, and Mitchell A. Farm, 52, in Polk County Circuit Court with 87 counts of second-degree animal neglect on Oct. 11, court records showed.

The charges allege they failed to provide minimum care for the cats.

Adams and Farm were cited the morning of Sept. 14 but not taken to jail, according to Angela Hedrick, Salem Police Department spokeswoman.

A Salem patrol officer responded to a report initially made to the Oregon Humane Society of a possible animal neglect in the 1400 block of Northwest Larkspur Lane.

The person who made the report was concerned about the welfare of the cats kept in Adams and Farms’ recreational vehicle, Hedrick said in an email Tuesday.

Police found the cats in varying health conditions, many with eye infections, abscesses on their faces, and others with feces covering their bodies, she said. They found some cats in small kennels with several inside, which didn’t allow them to move around.

One kitten was found dead in a kennel, according to Hedrick.

An animal services officer with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office took the cats to the Humane Society’s Salem campus, said Laura Klink, shelter spokeswoman.

Klink said the cats arrived at the shelter with upper respiratory infections, eye infections, weight loss, dental disease, fleas and skin conditions — all health conditions typically found among cats living in overcrowded conditions.

One cat had to be euthanized by a veterinarian “upon intake,” and one very young kitten did not survive, Klink said in an email Tuesday. 

Some of the cats have fully recovered and been adopted, while others are still recovering from surgery or in a foster home “to become healthy and old enough for adoption,” she said.

So far, 21 cats and kittens have been adopted from the Humane Society’s Salem Campus. Several have also been transferred to the shelter’s Portland campus for adoption.

Adams and Farm were arraigned Oct. 12 and ordered to not possess any animals, according to their release agreements.

Farm pleaded guilty to harassment in 1995 in Polk County. He later pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault in 1998, as well as first-degree burglary and fourth-degree assault in 2005 in Marion County. 

He was sentenced to probation in all three cases, court records showed.

Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.

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Ardeshir Tabrizian has covered criminal justice and housing for Salem Reporter since September 2021. As an Oregon native, his award-winning watchdog journalism has traversed the state. He has done reporting for The Oregonian, Eugene Weekly and Malheur Enterprise.