CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) — Mingo County deputies arrested a Delbarton woman after 106 live cats and 12 dead cats were removed from her home over the weekend.

Glenn Faye Adair who is in her seventies now faces animal cruelty charges.

Cat rescuers described the conditions as ‘hellish’.

Guardians of Rescue and Pitiful Paws obtained the search warrant after a concerned neighbor complained about the residence.

“We always go into these situations thinking that we’ve seen it all, that we’ve seen the worst of the worst, but you know you can never really prepare for what you see in these things,” said James Houchins, Field Director with Guardians of Rescue.

More than 100 cats were held like prisoners in the decrepit basement of the Mingo County home.

“Our respirators are made for these things and the smell through our filters, and we had them double filtered and you could still smell the ammonia coming from out of that house,” he said.

Kentucky-based Guardians of Rescue focuses on animal hoarding cases in rural areas that lack animal control officers or adequate shelters.

A total of eight organizations helped.

According to Houchins, the cats could be heard having trouble breathing, several had swollen eyes, protruding eyes, protruding rectums, and other bacterial infections.

Houchins says the lucky ones will recover and eventually be put up for adoption, others will have to have amputations or eyes removed.

Cat hoarding is a mental illness, although there’s not much research on it.

“A lot of times in these hoarding situations when you start looking into the person behind it you find some type of traumatic incident or something that happened,” said Houchins.

But animal rescuers say, there’s no excuse for this kind of animal cruelty.

The cats have a long road to recovery, but will be put up for adoption.

You can follow their updates here.