Intro: This article is, I hope, an insight into the behavior of cat hoarder and abuser Julianne Westberry. It is written by a person who knew her and who had dealings with her. Click this link to see articles about her (the link opens a new tab/window).
My experience with her has always been positive and she has helped me in the past. I have known her for 10 years or better, she has always had far more cats that any one person should have.
Myself like many others just assumed all was well, she didn’t have to be a clean person to care for cats. She lived in Anderson when I first met her, the house she was in then had a horrible stench to it, but everyone just assumed again it was from all the cats.
There were deceased cats in the walls of that house when she moved. The house had to be completely remodelled… the entire house.
There were five gallon bucks of cat litter removed when she moved. Reading this now, all the signs were there way back then, but hindsight is 100%. The reason she moved from that house was because she was trying to adopt three little girls. I believe she was successful. They moved to Belton, the first house in Belton. I had over the years gotten cats from her as well as taken cats to her. If I had a question, she was my go to lady. So needless to say it was disturbing that this happen.
I went to her first house in Belton one day to get meds for a sick kitty that I had, she met me at the door and the stench was horrible, the flies were everywhere. I have a feeling this was going on then, now seeing the signs. I had to go home and shower to try and get the stench out of my nose.
Wasn’t too long after that she moved from that location to another location in Belton. I don’t know how she managed to keep those girls all these years, unless once the adoption is final they don’t do checks anymore. I really hate this to happen to her, because I think deep inside she is a good person with a good heart.
Her father did recently pass away, but all this was going on before that happened. The girls should be grown now, so maybe she was feeling alone again or something. I have never known her to have a husband, or boyfriend. She was always just the lonely “cat lady”. Again this is not to bash her name, or add fuel to the flames, but I do honestly believe this has been going on for many many years.
I hope that she will get the help she needs, and on that note she does need some consequences for her actions. She was a smart lady, she knew what she was doing was not right. I request that my name or identifying information be omitted from this, I do still know many people that know her. I will be glad to offer anything information that I have, that I may have missed, because it is puzzling how someone can do such a thing, and I don’t buy the story she snapped, I think this has been happening for years.
P.S. The section in the article that says someone was at her house a few months before this happen, well either she just moved in or that person is lying. Julianne has never had a clean house, always had very smelly stench, the entire time I have known her.
She is a destructive cow isn’t she 😉
There is discrimination against cats. There is good evidence for it.
I think she should be housed with Roger Owens, who got 10 years for dragging a dog. He was into torture as well. Pulled the toenails out of that poor dog. The two of them deserve each other.
I was at the house in late April and she was IN THE PROCESS of moving in. So that is why things were clean and in order at that time.
As I have said previously, other people were aware of the situation & did nothing. They too are accountable. If the house was in this condition then her children had to smell when they went to school, why didn’t the teachers report it? family members have stated she had a problem for years, why didn’t they report it? obviously from this anonymous letter some of her friends knew, why didn’t they report it? she went to church, why didn’t someone tell the pastor? and why would a man, boyfriend, whatever let someone dump 100’s of cats on his property? In my opinion there is HUGE accountability there because these cats were not being cared for or fed for that matter. If you think the pictures on-line tell a story you should see the cats in person & talk to some of the rescue people about the cats that were in the house of horrors -bite marks on the legs of the smaller cats because the bigger cats were trying to eat them while they were STILL ALIVE!! Letters like this should have been written years ago and even if they were anonymous at least you could say you tried. I know for a fact if anyone in cat rescue had gotten a letter like this they would have acted on it even if the authorities did not. And in this age of social media it’s just too easy to have reported something like this. I had several JW cats I was fostering for her. I asked for help right after this happened & rescues stepped up to the plate & helped me place these cats because I couldn’t handle them long term. Cat rescue people are serious!! Unfortunately evil lurks everywhere & now I am super cautious about everyone as perhaps I should have been to begin with. I continuously pray for the innocent victims in this situation, the cats she came into contact with & the children she adopted. They are truly the innocent victims. The people who knew what was going on are not!!!
You make a good point actually. It seems that no one intervened. They were all friendly with her it seems to me. That would have been a barrier to turning her in.