130-Cat Removal Came As Brick Tenants Faced Inspection, Landlords Say

BRICK, NJ — A Mantoloking Road home where 133 cats and dogs were removed late last week has been ruled unsafe due to unsanitary conditions, forcing the tenants out and leaving the homeowners with no idea what will happen to their rental property.

Jeffrey Finlay, who rents the Mantoloking Road home with his companion, Holly Hegarty, has been charged with failure to provide care of a living animal or creature, and two township ordinance violations — failure to license an animal and violating the prohibition against harboring five or more cats/dogs/combination — in the case, Brick Township police said.

Thomas and Deneen Fay, who own the Mantoloking Road home, say Finlay called the police about the animals because the Fays were scheduled to inspect the home on Friday, May 5, after repeated delays.

“We’ve been trying to get into the house for a month,” Tom Fay said.

A previous landlord of Finlay and Hegarty said this isn’t the first time the two have allowed animals to overwhelm and damage a rental home.

Messages left for Finlay and Hegarty seeking responses for this article were not answered.

The Fays say they have been reeling since Thursday night, when they happened upon the scene while driving along Mantoloking Road. The couple, who live in Brick, said they saw police and firefighters and a hazmat crew and were shocked when they realized the activity was at a home they owned.

“We had no idea. No one called us,” Tom said in a telephone interview with the Fays Sunday evening.

In addition to the fourth-degree charge of failing to care for the animals, an unsafe structure order was issued for the home due to unsanitary conditions, said Daniel F. Newman Jr., head of the Brick Township building department. The home had a strong odor of urine, full litter boxes and a flea infestation, he said.

Finlay and Hegarty had been renting from the Fays since September 2015 on a month-to-month lease, Tom and Deneen Fay said. The lease had a no-pets policy. They also required an annual inspection of the home — a condition the Fays have for each of the four rental properties they own.

Finlay and Hegarty had been through the inspections before, the Fays said. One year the Fays found the couple had two dogs living with them.

“They said the dogs belonged to their daughter and were only there temporarily,” Deneen Fay said. “Apparently they never got rid of them.”

The annual inspections had been disrupted because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fays said. But with the threat waning and life returning to a semblance of normal, the Fays said it was time to inspect the house again. Finlay and Hegarty, however, kept putting them off for a variety of reasons, Deneen Fay said.

The Fays said they finally reached a point where they’d had enough.

“We told them ‘We will be there at 10:30 a.m. Friday,’ ” Tom Fay said.

“They would never have called the police if we didn’t have an inspection scheduled,” Deneen said. “We don’t even know what we’re facing.”

Ryan Griffin, who rented to Finlay and Hegarty immediately before they became the Fays’ tenants, said he is hopeful the Fays aren’t facing conditions as bad as what he says he found after he evicted Finlay and Hegarty from one of his rental properties.

“The master bedroom closet became a litter box,” Griffin said, and the house was infested with fleas and bedbugs. Animals were allowed free access to the basement of the house, and there was damage to molding in the house where animals had chewed on it.

Griffin, who shared photos of the damage, alleges some of the damage, including to kitchen cabinets, happened after he notified Finlay and Hegarty that he was seeking eviction for nonpayment of rent. The couple had rented from him for nine years, but had not paid rent for six months when he moved to evict them, Griffin said.

The damage cost him $30,000 to repair, and he filed suit against the couple but has never collected damages because they filed for bankruptcy, Griffin said. A copy of the lawsuit filed in 2016 shows Griffin was granted a $15,000 judgment against the couple.

Griffin said he later learned the couple had at least nine cats inside the house along with an unknown number of feral cats that frequented the property, and at least two dogs.

His rental property was left uninhabitable and it was months before he was able to resume renting it, Griffin said.

By that time, Finlay and Hegarty had landed with the Fays.

“They were our first tenants” in the Mantoloking Road house, which the Fays bought in 2015. They had checked the couple’s references, including calling what they thought was the number for Finlay and Hegarty’s previous landlord.

Griffin said he never spoke to the Fays and would not have given a positive reference. Who the Fays spoke with is not known.

And now, the Fays are left wondering what comes next.

They have not been permitted into the house to see the extent of the conditions, Deneen said Monday.

Newman said the home “was not as bad as the previous situation on Arrowhead Park Drive,” referencing the home where 180 dogs and cats were being kept in crates stacked on top of each other until the animals were removed in December.

“A cleaning is required before the home can be reoccupied,” Newman said. “Following the cleaning an inspection will be conducted and if cleaned a Notice of Abatement will be issued,” which will allow the house to be reoccupied.

The Fays said they had notified Finlay and Hegarty that their lease was not going to be continued past May, and said they are pursuing their legal options.

“The sad part is that because Jeff called the police on himself, people are having sympathy for him,” the Fays said. “He only called because we were going to inspect.”

As for the cats, “overall their health is fair to good,” said Brian Lippai, spokesman for the Ocean County Health Department, which is caring for the cats. “All came in loaded with fleas while some had some other minor health issues such eye infections and upper respiratory issues.”

There was no breakdown of how many were adult cats and how many are kittens because the shelter workers are busy caring for them.

“We did have a mother give birth over the weekend to a litter,” he said.

Lippai said it’s easy for people to find themselves overwhelmed with cats in a hurry.

“The average cat can produce a litter three times a year. If each cat has a littler of three, if you do some math you’ll discover that number can grow exponentially in no time,” he said. “People need to know the importance of spaying and neutering your cats and dogs. This is what leads to overpopulation and overcrowding at our shelters all across the country.”

“Pet owners need to seek help long before it gets out of hand no matter what the best intentions may be,” Lippai said.

There are a number of resources available, including low-cost spay-neuter clinics, organizations that assist with the cost, trap-neuter-release programs — Brick Township has a TNR program — and rescues that can assist, though with the arrival of kitten season, many rescues are brimming with cats and kittens in need of homes.

Brick Township’s TNR program can be contacted at 732-262-4618 or by email at bricktnr@bricktownship.net. Additional resources are on the TNR Committee's webpage.