Overview

• In February, RSPCA inspector Rowena Proctor found faeces covering floors, walls and window sills and feared the ammonia-damaged floor could collapse in the Frosts’ three-storey Chester-le-Street home
• Vets reported many cats were underweight and suffering from discharge, parasites and infectious diseases, prompting the immediate euthanasia of a critically ill kitten and the later deaths of two others
• At Peterlee Magistrates’ Court this June, Ernest Frost, 71, and Jean Frost, 68, pleaded guilty to an Animal Welfare Act offence and received three-year disqualifications from keeping animals along with £150 in costs
• The majority of surviving cats have already been adopted, and the final ten that Jean Frost initially withheld will be legally rehomed under a court-issued deprivation order
• The RSPCA warned that unintentional breeding and overcrowding of pedigree Maine Coon and Ragdoll cats had caused prolonged psychological and physical suffering