Apparent Animal Hoarder Charged With Animal Abuse

FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) -- An apparent South Florida animal hoarder has bonded out of jail just days after her arrest in Broward County on animal abuse charges.

According to the Broward Sheriff's Office, 55-year-old Margaret Peter was arrested Tuesday, January 25, 2011, more than four months after a warrant was issued for her arrest when BSO deputies discovered her apartment filled with dozens of malnourished cats.

The incident started back in August of 2010 when a BSO deputy was called to Peter's Hollywood apartment by her landlord due to a bad smell coming from inside the home. The landlord had been unable to contact his tenant so he called animal control and BSO. Inside the apartment, they found 44 cats, some of them locked in cages without food or water. The apartment floor was also covered with feces and urine and all of the cats appeared malnourished. Broward Animal Control removed all of the cats.

Margaret Peter wasn't arrested until this week. She appeared in bond court Wednesday on 44 charges of unlawful confinement and abandonment of her cats.