Judge Fashions Plan to Resolve Cat Lady Fight

The opera wasn’t over until the Cat Lady sang.

On Friday, a Newhall Municipal Court judge fashioned a plan to end a two-year legal squabble between the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Control and Elizabeth Kurrus, a 66-year-old schoolteacher from Newhall who spent two days in jail after she refused to cooperate with authorities in January.

The dispute involved allegations that Kurrus kept a dozen cats in unsanitary conditions at a mobile home in Placerita Canyon. Animal-control officers had complained since 1987 that Kurrus’ mobile home was cluttered inside and out with boxes, trash bags, cat feces and debris. Kurrus countered that her coach was messy but not dirty.

Kurrus, an English teacher at Placerita Canyon Junior High School, was convicted on two misdemeanor charges of keeping animals in unsanitary conditions on June 27 and placed on two years probation.

Judge H. Keith Byram ordered her to get rid of all but two cats, to cooperate with authorities and to clean up the mess. He also told her to neuter the two remaining animals.

Handcuffed and Jailed

When Kurrus refused to let animal-control officers inspect her property in January, Byram had her handcuffed and taken to the Sybil Brand Institute for Women.

On Friday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Bernadette de Barajas charged that Kurrus had still not cleaned up the property. John Land, manager of the mobile home park, said a strong odor of stale urine permeated the area around Kurrus’ home.

But Kurrus’ daughter and two friends testified that the mobile home was now clean, although still cluttered. Even Kurrus, comparing her home to how it was a few months ago, said: “I believe it was unsanitary and messy; now it’s unorganized.”

Byram, who had joked and smiled throughout the hearing, said he believed that the coach was indeed clean and sanitary.

But his mood changed when Kurrus invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to say whether her two remaining cats had been neutered.

“Mrs. Kurrus, I appreciate your fierce independence in this case,” Byram said. “I have no desire to put you in jail.” But, he said, a court order must be obeyed.

Kurrus finally admitted that the cats haven’t been neutered because they are wild and can’t be caught.

Finally, the judge offered a solution: Animal-control officers will trap the cats and let Kurrus deliver them to a new home. Kurrus will remain on probation and will have to cooperate with animal-control officers in the future.

“You have to cooperate,” Byram said. “You can’t shut the door on their faces as you’ve done in the past.” He added that she is still free to get two new cats as long as they are neutered.