Residents living near the odor-emanating North Huntingdon house where some 70 cats had to be rescued want the township to tear it down now, not years from now.

“The place stinks,” is how James “Rick” Keenan described the neighboring house at 820 Leger Road, where Matthew Jacobs previously lived with the cats. The ammonia odor from cat urine is noticeable outside the residence.

Keenan challenged township officials to drive by the house and to get the full effect of the odor, keeping their car windows down.

“It has been a nuisance for over five years,” Keenan said. He said the chimney recently fell into the building.

Keenan criticized township officials for not doing enough to resolve matter, but Commissioner Zachary Haigis said the township staff is addressing the issue.

Commissioner Eric Gass said, when he went last week to see the house and walked up to the structure, the stench was terrible. He found his legs were covered with fleas.

Jacobs on Oct. 15 was charged with more than 80 animal cruelty and related charges, including aggravated cruelty resulting death of the animal, for allegedly keeping the cats in deplorable conditions, without proper food and water.

He turned himself in Thursday after he said he learned that the authorities were looking for him.

Jacobs, who told officers he abandoned the house in August because of the cats, remains free on $20,000 unsecured bond. He faces a preliminary hearing Nov. 4 before North Huntingdon District Justice Wayne Gongaware.

The cats were rescued from the home in September and taken to a New Kensington shelter. The cats suffered from starvation and fleas, according to police.

Another neighbor, David Balog, told township officials last week he was willing to demolish the house at no cost to the municipality because it’s in such deplorable condition.

“The smell is unbearable. It is unbearable to come out of my house,” Balog said. “It needs to be torn down now.”

North Huntingdon sent the owners a violation notice on Sept. 28, but township Solicitor Bruce Dice said the municipality must give the owner 30 days to respond. The township can’t override the owner’s property rights. It must conduct a hearing to present evidence, possibly from the engineer and code enforcement officer, that the house is uninhabitable.

CVI LCF Mortgage Trust I of Greenville, N.C., bought the property through a Westmoreland County sheriff’s sale in February for $1,340, according to county documents.

A representative of CVI LCF could not be reached for comment.

Even then, if the township commissioners agree that the house is uninhabitable, the owner has 30 days to appeal, Dice said.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)