FRAZER TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Hundreds of sick and dying cats were retrieved Friday from a western Pennsylvania animal sanctuary following an undercover investigation by a Humane Society officer who said the place had turned into a "slow-kill shelter."

Humane officials and volunteers said it could take at least until Saturday to remove all the animals from the secluded 29-acre property known as Tiger Ranch Farm on Miller Drive in Frazer Township.

Six hundred to 750 cats were found on the property and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dead ones were believed buried on the land, said Howard Nelson, director of the Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which organized the raid.

"It's billed as a sanctuary, but no one person can take care of 750 cats," he said.

Owner Linda Bruno apparently meant well but lost track of the needs of the animals she had hoarded for years, he said.

"I found her to be in denial of the condition of the cats," Nelson said. "It's been a hard couple of days. We haven't slept. We were here all night. It's hard, but how can you not do it when the cats are suffering?"

Bruno, also known as Linn Marie, 45, was arraigned Friday on animal cruelty charges. It was not immediately clear if she had an attorney. She was being held in the Allegheny County Jail, unable to post bond.

Animal control agents and sheriff's deputies arrived about 7 p.m. Thursday. By midday Friday, at least a dozen cats had been euthanized at the site and more than 400 had to be medicated because of highly contagious diseases, officials said.

The SPCA got a search warrant after a seven-month undercover investigation in which Butler County Humane Society officer Deborah Urmann, working Saturdays as a volunteer, videotaped the operations using a button camera purchased over the Internet, officials said.

"She claims she's a no-kill shelter, but really she's a slow-kill shelter," Urmann said.

Urmann compiled up to 1½ hours of video of the conditions in the fall.

"I was scared because I knew that I really, really needed to get a lot of evidence so that I could stop the cruelty," Urmann said. "And, you never know when you are found out when you're working undercover, you know, what is going to happen. ... I'm still having heart palpitations."

Three weeks before the raid occurred, Team 4 got a tip about the conditions for cats at the site. Team 4's Jim Parsons attempted to go inside with a hidden camera, but that didn’t happen.

Outside the property, Parsons watched as a humane agency from Ohio drove in to drop off cats.

But Team 4 was able to obtain undercover video taken inside the ranch earlier this week. Most of it is too gruesome to show, with dying and dead cats everywhere, including a mass grave.

The Humane Society of western Pennsylvania said it last inspected Tiger Ranch in October.

"We have not seen criminal acts," said Lee Nesler of the Western Pa. Humane Society. "They've been investigating probably since about 2002."

Workers wearing orange American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals hats and hooded sweatshirts on Friday carried animals in small cages to two small trucks.

Nelson estimated 75 percent of the cats need significant veterinary attention, but said he was hopeful that 60 to 70 percent of the cats could be saved.

Two animal ambulances were on-site Friday. An emergency shelter was set up at the Clarion County SPCA in Shippenville, Pa., to handle the animals that are being removed.

Nelson said the animals were found in various places and conditions all over the property. Besides the hundreds of cats, Bruno had several dogs, several horses, a chicken and a goat.

About 100 cats were living in a building that looked like a construction trailer. It was strewn with blood and feces and had two doors that enabled the cats to go out into a fenced area.

Dozens of cats lived with Bruno in her ranch-style home, too, Nelson said.

"You couldn't even breathe because of the ammonia," Nelson said, referring to the stench of cat urine.

Becky Morrow, a local veterinarian, said officials hope to find homes for the cats once they are rehabilitated. She said animal lovers had been complaining to Humane Society officers for years but had difficulty getting enforcement for a lack of specific information.

"You can't get anything on them unless you have an inside person, which we did," Morrow said.

Morrow said Nelson's group was spurred to act once they saw the undercover videotape, which showed dead and ill cats. Officials refused to release the tape Friday.

Dr. Carolyn DeForest, a psychologist from Sewickley involved in volunteer animal rescue work, and Rebecca Reid, of Pittsburgh, with Voices for Animals, were two of those who complained about alleged animal abuse at the shelter. They were near the farm Friday, watching as workers cared for and rounded up the animals.

One problem was that Bruno operated secretively and didn't allow people onto the property except from 10 p.m. to midnight, when she'd accept animals to shelter, DeForest said.

"The place is like Fort Knox," she said.

A clarification: Channel 4 Action News reported at noon Friday that guns were being used to euthanize some of the cats at the Tiger Ranch. The source for that information was an ASPCA veterinarian, who mistakenly believed that was happening after hearing gunshots at the ranch. A PSPCA spokeswoman said none of the cats was euthanized. She said the gunshots that were heard Friday came from a shooting range which is near Tiger Ranch.

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