Couple pleads guilty in landmark Bucks animal-hoarding case

A Bristol Township couple pleaded guilty Monday to a litany of animal cruelty charges for hoarding dozens of cats and a few exotic birds in squalor inside their apartment.

Warren Muffler, 48, and Ann Reddy, 59, were sentenced to 36 months of probation in the case, according to court records. A condition of their probation bars them from owning animals in the future, under penalty of jail time.

This case is the first time that Bucks County's nonprofit humane society has successfully brought misdemeanor animal-cruelty charges against pet owners since state law was beefed up last June.

Investigators found the animals in November, after a months-long struggle by the management of the Stonebridge Run apartments to enter the couple's unit. Inside, township police and an officer from the Bucks County SPCA found unsanitary conditions, including an odor of urine and ammonia strong enough to cause some first responders to gag.

One of the birds had to be euthanized. Some of the cats required emergency surgery, including one female with an infected uterus and another, affectionately renamed "Captain," that lost his eye.

"I'm just hoping that this sends a message," Nicole Thompson, the SPCA animal control officer who helped investigate the case, said last month. "That it encourages people to just follow the law, rather than face the heavier penalties."

The case also represents the first time Thompson and her agency have successfully filed a petition under the state's Cost of Care Act, a law passed in 2013 that reimburses animal shelters for expenses incurred for treating seized animals. That victory allowed the animals to be quickly put up for adoption. Some of them have already found new homes.