SHIPPENVILLE — As the 3-day-old gray kitten cried softly for food Tuesday, a volunteer swaddled him in a towel and fed him formula from a dropper.

Veterinarians and dozens of volunteers have been working round-the-clock since Thursday trying to nurse back to health hundreds of sick cats removed in a raid from a Frazer Township animal sanctuary.

Some, like the gray kitten's mother, have died since the rescue operation.

But officials hope many of the 350 cats that they say have been treated for illness and neglect, and remain alive, will survive and maybe one day find new homes. Dozens of other cats have either died or had to be euthanized.

The cats are being treated in northwestern Pennsylvania in a vacant building, once housing the Clarion County Humane Society, that has been turned into a makeshift animal hospital.

In a large room designed to hold dogs, 250 cats are stacked in carriers placed several high in each kennel. A small office, meanwhile, has been converted into a makeshift birthing room. Cats with feline leukemia or feline AIDS have been segregated outside the main building.

Most of the workers wear white protective suits, gloves and face masks to prevent the spread of disease.

The owner of the animal sanctuary, Linda Bruno, 45, has been charged with 14 counts of animal cruelty and neglect and authorities say more charges are expected.

Bruno strongly defended her operation in an interview with KDKA-TV on Tuesday.

"We take in cats that others will not take," Bruno said. "I am giving these cats a chance they otherwise wouldn't have. ... We keep the beds clean — the towels, the blankets, heating pads. If it's summer, it's air conditioning; if it's winter, it's heating. Food and water — we feed canned food."

Bruno also defended not euthanizing sick animals.

"Our vets have said provide fluids, provide comfort, provide heat," Bruno said. "We do have pain meds (and) provide that. ... Murder is not consistent with a Christian worldview."

Bruno told KDKA that her facility had medical supervision and veterinarian guidance. She vowed to reopen her operation and said she will get back the animals that had no health issues.

"Tiger Ranch will rise like a phoenix from the ashes," she said.

Her attorney, Ron Valasek, said the charges were unwarranted.

"All operations were going well on Thursday, and the place was a 'menace' by Thursday night," he told a Tarentum newspaper. He did not return messages left by The Associated Press.

Officials with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said Bruno failed to provide adequate care for the cats on the 29-acre property, in part because there were more than she could handle. Valasek said she could have taken in even more cats.