Animal cruelty charges filed after 40 dead cats were found in filthy Paso Robles apartment
Felony animal cruelty charges were filed against a Paso Robles apartment manager earlier this month after at least 40 dead cats and layers of feces were discovered inside one of the units, court records show.
The San Luis Obispo District Attorney’s Office filed seven animal cruelty charges against Laurie Bryant on Feb. 10. Under the penal code, animal cruelty includes intentional abuse, depriving animals of necessary sustenance, drink or shelter and subjecting animals to needless suffering.
The charges come about five months after SLO County Animal Services discovered the dead cats in “extremely unsanitary conditions” in Unit 4 of the Presidio Apartments, located at 1040 Chestnut St. in Paso Robles, in August.
Six live cats were also removed from the property, Animal Services manager Eric Anderson told The Tribune in October.
A warrant for Bryant’s arrest was issued on Wednesday, records show, but no bail or fine was requested at the time. Court documents show Bryant does not yet have a court date on the schedule and she is not in San Luis Obispo County Jail custody.
Dead cats found inside apartment filled with feces
A woman who was on the private hazmat team hired to clean up the second-floor apartment shared disturbing photos of the interior, showing rooms filled with piles of cat feces and assorted garbage, according to a story posted by the Paso Robles Daily News.
In the bathroom, cat feces filled the bathtub up to the brim. In other rooms, the feces mixed with empty cans and crushed bottles, dirty linens and other trash that appeared to have compacted in layers.
After the discovery, the city red-tagged the apartment.
Bryant was listed as the as the owner of “40 deceased cat remains” and “six live cats” on a seized item receipt posted at the apartment. She told the Daily News the apartment had been vacant since October 2023.
Bryant was a co-founder of the SLO County News Facebook page and has stepped down from her work with the organization.
Neighbors confirmed to The Tribune in October that the apartment had been vacant for about a year and named Bryant as the last tenant they knew of.
They also said they saw stray cats coming and going from the unoccupied apartment through a broken window screen.
Cleanup crew member Nicole Fernandes told the Daily News that neighbors indicated someone regularly visited the apartment to drop off large bags of cat food.
“The cats were dead for so long, there were no flies, there were no maggots or bugs,” she told the Paso Daily News. “This was not just a year or two of stuff,” she said. “It was years and years.”
This story was originally published February 21, 2025 at 10:32 AM.
