House rented by cat hoarder to be razed

BUTTE, Mont. (AP) — Butte-Silver Bow County health officials have determined that a rental house where officers found nearly 100 cats living in filthy conditions is not livable and ordered it demolished.

Assistant health director Dan Powers tells The Montana Standard the house was in such disrepair it couldn’t be cleaned to make it habitable.

Powers says the owner, who has been cooperative, will have to pay for the demolition work, which will cost between $5,000 and $10,000. 

The renter, 54-year-old Douglas Den Billman, faces seven counts of felony animal cruelty. He has not yet appeared in court on the charges.

Prosecutors say Billman confined the cats, failed to meet their general care needs and eventually abandoned them.  

About 50 of the cats rescued from the house were spayed or neutered last week.