Janice Lawniczak, the Butler County Humane Officer, holds one of three animal carriers found to be holding five dead cats and one live cat. The grisly discovery was made in Winfield Township, and the neighbor of the couple who discovered the carriers on their property will be charged with five felony counts of aggravated animal cruelty resulting in death.

WINFIELD TWP — Butler County Humane Officer Janice Lawniczak will charge a woman with five felony counts of aggravated animal cruelty resulting in death, after three animal carriers containing five dead cats and one live cat were found by a property owner on Bear Creek Road.

Lawniczak said John McCall of Bear Creek Road found the carriers on Monday on his property. Upon viewing the grisly sight, his wife, Stacey, recognized the carriers as belonging to the daughter of her 74-year-old neighbor.

Stacey said the daughter shows up occasionally and sleeps in a tent on the neighbor's property, which is occupied by her 74-year-old mother.

Stacey said the daughter always had a number of cats with her.

“I have seen the daughter living in the tent and having all these cats, but I've never seen them just left behind,” she said. “When she would go, the cats would go too.”

Stacey said her husband found the carriers in a remote, wooded part of the couple's 3-acre property, which is bisected by Bear Creek. She said small stuffed animals had also been placed in the carriers.

“So they had to cross the creek to put the carriers back there, and it's a pretty wide creek,” she said. “Maybe 18 feet or so.”

Making the situation even more disturbing, Lawniczak said, is the fact that the lone living cat survived by feeding on the deceased cat that it was caged with.

“It's completely reprehensible that someone would do this,” Lawniczak said. “They would have been better off letting the cats go to fend for themselves instead of leaving them in cages to die.”

She does not know how long the cats were on the McCall property, but said they were in a relatively advanced state of decay.

The living cat escaped when its carrier was opened, and the McCalls set up a trap in hopes of catching the feline.

Lawniczak, who did not name the perpetrator of the crime, said she will file the charges against the neighbor's daughter with District Judge Sue Haggerty as soon as possible. The woman will then be responsible for responding to the charges.

The situation marks the first time Lawniczak has filed felony charges since signing on as county humane officer one year ago.

“It's disgusting,” she said of the gruesome crime. “It's really bad.”