Animals killed in cramped, filthy Mexico apartment

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By MARK STEVENSON – 2/25/2009

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The brutal deaths of more than two dozen dogs and cats kept for years in a cramped, feces-stained apartment have sparked outrage in the Mexican capital, where authorities and animal activists traded accusations Wednesday over who was to blame.

Both sides say assailants believed to be neighbors outraged by the smell and noise rammed down the door to the residence, but they disagree on how the animals died.

"Masked men ... opened the door to my apartment and killed my dogs," said Javier Cervantes, who kept 50 rescued dogs and 20 cats at the housing complex in the lower-middle-class community of Jaltenco, outside Mexico City.

Cervantes, who was not home at the time, said sympathetic neighbors told him the assailants used "machetes and steel pipes" to hack and bludgeon the animals to death.

Cervantes said he found 15 of the dogs and 10 of the cats dead.

"I can't say for certain who it was, but I can say the neighbors were involved, and the mayor," Cervantes said.

Jaltenco city council secretary Jorge Ramirez acknowledged that assailants, probably angry neighbors, broke into the apartment. But he said they apparently only tried to release the dogs and cats, and those found dead were likely killed by other animals.

He said Jaltenco authorities were not involved in the attack.

"There have been citizen complaints since 2006 ... about the noise and disgusting smell from having so many animals locked up," Ramirez said. "Just imagine, this is an apartment building."

He said some residents of the four-story building complained of respiratory difficulties.

"The problem continued and got worse, and the people organized — I imagine in secret, in the darkness of night — and they knocked down the door and the animals began to escape," said Ramirez. "There were in terrible condition, and hungry."

When police arrived, they found a bloodstained apartment with scattered animal corpses and a patio floor covered with years' worth of accumulated feces. Ramirez said dogs were found stuffed in a refrigerator, and police were investigating whether Cervantes intended to sell them for meat — an allegation Cervantes denied.

Animal rights activist Antemio Maya of the organization Pro-Perro, or "Pro-Dog," said Cervantes was a recognized animal-rescue activist. However, he also criticized the conditions in which Cervantes held the strays.

"The love for animals leads you to extreme measures, to doing things that aren't right even for the animals," Maya said.

He said activists had been raising money to buy a plot of land and move the animals out, and were getting close to their goal when the attack occurred.

Cervantes said he believes residents were angered by the failure of a lawsuit aiming to force him to move. He claimed neighbors had spit on him, kicked his door and otherwise harassed him since he arrived in Jaltenco with five or six dogs in 2006.

That number swelled as he took in more and more strays.

"Even when you couldn't fit one more," Cervantes said. "I took another in out of love for the dogs."

He said he recovered 35 of his dogs after the attack. He didn't say what happened with the surviving cats.