Murfreesboro police officers were called around 5 p.m. June 30 to check on a possible domestic fight in a running SUV with a trailer on Joe B. Jackson Parkway. When they arrived they found an allegedly drunk man and a camping trailer filled with cats, according to reports from the Murfreesboro Police Department.
Officers discovered Damian Cecchini, 53, reportedly homeless, sitting in a Ford Expedition with an empty 40-oz. beer can in the center console, according to his arrest report.
Cecchini was asked to step out of the vehicle while they checked it and attached trailer for the other party, "at which point (officers) … saw numerous cats inside," the report said.
To be precise, there were 15 cats, one dead, in the camper.
"There was feces and urine all throughout the camper. The temperature in the camper was over 103ºF after the camper door had been open for approximately 30 minutes. All of the cats were in distress," an incident report said.
In fact, the conditions in the camper were so dire MPD officers called in a hazmat team from Murfreesboro Fire & Rescue Department to handle the evacuation of the cats.
The cats appeared to be overheated and malnourished, the officers reported.
Officers then spoke with Kathleen Shanahan, 75, of Murfreesboro, who told them the pair had been "rescuing" the cats and the animals had been in the camper for two months.
When officers called PAWS to collect the animals, Cecchini "became extremely belligerent, cussing and pacing back and forth," the report said.
He even reportedly trying to push his way through the officers back to the trailer and "a physical altercation ensued but Mr. Cecchini was quickly restrained," the report said.
The cats were confiscated by PAWS for safe-keeping and emergency veterinary treatment.
Cecchini was charged with aggravated animal cruelty, public intoxication and violation of the open container law.
Shanahan was charged with animal cruelty.