CANTON — Animal Control Officer Rich Burton was attempting Thursday to round up “dozens and dozens” of cats near a construction trailer on River Road where two frozen pit bulls and several kittens were rescued last month. 

He was trying to capture possibly as many as 50 cats while the Greater Androscoggin Humane Society and the groups Friends of Feral Felines were struggling to find space to house them. 

The colony was first discovered just days before Christmas after flooding forced a man out of a construction trailer on River Road. 

When several neighbors called Burton for help, he entered the trailer where he found the two pit bulls suffering from the intense cold and several 3-week-old kittens. 

Burton also found buckets full of human wastes and animal excrement covering the floors. Lacking a respirator, he was forced to flee the toxic environment. Before he did, he counted 24 cats scurrying in the trailer, which had no power or water service. 

It is estimated that there may be in excess of 50 feral cats in that community, some of them pregnant. 

The trailer, considered a biohazard, has since been condemned by the town. The man who had lived there, described as suffering mental health issues, has relocated.

In recent weeks and days, Burton has been working with the Greater Androscoggin Humane Society in Lewiston in hopes of finding room for the animals. Representatives from Friends of Felines reached out to the state-run Animal Welfare Program, which declined to get involved in the rescue effort.  

In an email, a representative from the state program advised the concerned parties to contact the humane societies but offered none of the state’s animal agents to assist with the operation. 

Meanwhile, the wild cats on River Road were being fed by a neighbor while a plan was put in place to round them up. 

This week, Burton was back in Canton trying to round up the cats himself. With freezing temperatures coming, Burton said, the effort has turned into a rescue operation. 

By the middle of the day Thursday, Burton had managed to trap 16 of the cats and was taking them to the shelter in Lewiston. The rescue effort was expected to continue for the rest of the week.

The Greater Androscoggin Humane Society and Friends of Feral Felines, based in Portland, were trying to make room for the rescued animals. Both groups were already short on space after getting involved in recent animal rescues in other parts of Maine.

The Lewiston shelter, for example, was asked to take in some of the 55 feral cats seized from a condemned home in Auburn on Thursday. 

“These cases tax local shelters like ours in many ways,” GAHS Director Katie Lisnik said, “but our mission is to save and enrich lives and we are doing exactly that. For community members wanting to help, please consider donating to your local animal shelter, and adopt a cat who is on the adoption floor. By adopting, you are freeing up space for another needy cat like these.”