Owner kept 300 lab rats, other pets seized at KC home for ‘emotional support’
Kansas City officials spent several hours Monday removing about 300 lab rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, turtles and other animals from a home in a midtown neighborhood.
The animals were seized from a two-bedroom duplex in the 4000 block of Wabash Avenue, said John Baccala, a spokesman for the Kansas City Neighborhood and Housing Services.
It was one of the worst animal hoarding cases they have investigated, Baccala said.
Workers arriving at the home about 11:30 a.m. found the animals in cages, packed closely together. Officials have launched an animal cruelty investigation.
“It’s really an unfortunate circumstance,” Baccala said, adding the city wanted to help the owners. “These were not good conditions for any animal to be in.”
The owner, Mikabel Montero, 24, said he understood many people would consider 300 animals too many, but he said he did not see a problem so long as the animals were cared for.
Montero said he understood the need to follow city regulations, but said animal control arrived without warning. He said he would have preferred the chance to clean the duplex and prove he could care for the animals.
“I just feel like they didn’t give me a chance,” Montero said.
Baccala said crews visited the duplex six weeks ago and placed a notice on the front door for Montero to contact them. They did not hear from him, he said.
Montero and his girlfriend lived at the duplex, he said. They ended up there after staying at a Blue Springs motel where they could not keep pets. He previously lived in Virginia and had considered moving to New York, but the animal laws there were a strict, he said. He decided on Kansas City at the recommendation of a friend.
That now-former friend, he said, was the person who complained to the city about his animals.
At the duplex, city workers found there was very little room for anyone to move around. Conditions inside the duplex were “deplorable,” Baccala said. The horrible stench was noticeable from outside the home, he said.
“We have had cases like this before, but not to the extreme,” Baccala said. “We want to do what’s best for the animals.”
Kansas City Fire Department crews arrived to test ammonia levels. Montero was told the levels were high, he said.
Depending on the number of violations found during the investigation, Montero may be allowed to keep up to 20 animals, Baccala said.
Montero said an overwhelming majority were rats that multiplied beyond his intention. He also kept leopard geckos and tortoises.
Montero said he kept the pets as “emotional support” for his anxiety. Someday, Montero wanted to open a rescue and pet store or become a veterinarian, he said.
“We really care about the pets,” he told The Star.
‘Living next door to a zoo’
Montero’s neighbors said they had no idea so many animals were in the home.
Michaela Moore and her family have lived in the adjacent duplex for the last two months. The odor from their neighbor’s residence was unbearable.
“It’s been ridiculous,” said Moore, the mother of a 1-year-old child. “The smell is bad. We can’t even eat in our house. We have to go out because we can’t take the smell.”
Moore said they used various cleaning products to get rid of the smell, but nothing helped. She once called the landlord because they thought there was something beneath their duplex.
“We tried everything, but we didn’t know that we were living next door to all of these animals,” she said.
Moore said she and other housemates often heard something scratching through their bathroom wall. They never heard the animals make noise because Montero and his girlfriend played loud music throughout the day, she said.
It was difficult to sleep at night, Moore said. Their landlord prohibit them from keeping animals. Recently, Moore said, she began experiencing a cough and stomach pains.
“I really can’t believe that we’re living next door to a zoo,” Moore said. “It’s crazy because we never knew this.”
Tori Fugate, a spokeswoman for the KC Pet Project animal shelter, said shelter workers helped city crews and firefighters remove the animals. Many city workers and firefighters wore masks to protect against the smell.
“From our perspective, that’s a lot of animals in one house,” Fugate said. “A lot of times we see in these cases people who think that they are doing the right thing and in those cases it can get overwhelming with so many animals.”
The animals were housed in cages that were stacked side by side and on top of each other. One cage had as many as 30 lab rats.
It is very easy for the animals to multiply, Fugate said. Those 200 rats could have grown to 400, she said.
The animals were taken to the KC Pet Project, where they will be examined by veterinarians and placed in animal foster care. Many of the animals would become available for adoption, Fugate said.
Montero and his girlfriend were forced to leave the duplex because it was deemed uninhabitable.
While they gathered their belongings, an animal control worker noticed that Montero had placed several lab rats and other animals inside of his backpack.
“I hate being lied to,” the city worker yelled.
The animals were placed inside a city animal control truck.
Before authorities arrived, a delivery truck pulled up to the duplex and dropped off two large packages. Baccala said he believed the packages contained animal cages.
