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Couple Convicted Of Hoarding 100+ Animals In Their Bucks County Home

By Brad Segall

BEDMINSTER, Pa. (CBS) -- A Bucks County couple will spend the next nine years of their lives on probation.  A district justice has found them guilty of several dozen counts of animal cruelty and neglect in what officials are calling one of the worst animal hoarding cases they have ever seen.

William Cameron, 80, and Betty Jones, 61, of Bedminster are prohibited from having any animals on their property during the period of probation, and they have been ordered to surrender the five animals in their care to the SPCA for adoption.

A raid last April on their Deep Run Road property found more than 100 animals living in deplorable conditions, according to Bucks County SPCA executive director Anne Irwin.

"No matter how people choose to live themselves, there are certain minimum standards of care that they have to maintain for animals," she told KYW Newsradio today.  "We can't control how the people live, but we can set some minimum standards for how they care for animals."

Animal control officers seized dogs, cats, chickens, hamsters, parrots, and other animals from the home.  Most have already been adopted.

The couple has thirty days to appeal the judge's ruling.

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