MIDDLE TOWNSHIP – Officials have removed more than 30 cats and dogs from a Savannah Street house with so much accumulated clutter and animal excrement that two police officers wore hazard gear to get the animals.
Police arrested a resident of the house, Sandra Klochak, and charged her with animal cruelty and failure to provide proper shelter for some of the animals.
Klochak also was charged with abandonment and neglect of an elderly person, her mother Yvonne, who police said also lives in the house and is bedridden. Sandra Klochak is listed as her caregiver, police said.
The affidavit of probable cause supporting the charges against Klochak states that “there have been approximately 30 calls for service at the Klochak residence in the past year.” The affidavit also says the responding officer said that “officers have been responding to animal complaint calls at the aforementioned residence for years.”
The affidavit states that correction notices were served but “never adequately complied with.” The affidavit mentions no penalties or court follow-up due to the lack of full compliance.
Sandra Klochak pleaded guilty years before to aggravated animal cruelty charges in Pennsylvania, where 99 animals, including a deer, were removed from the home where she was living.
The latest incidents in Middle Township occurred over two days, Dec. 30, when police responded to complaints of elder abuse, and Dec. 31, when they responded to complaints about animal abuse at the house, at 1101 Savannah St.
On the second day police, fire personnel, Animal Control, the county Prosecutor’s Office and the county animal shelter were all at the house dealing with the removal of the animals. The house had so much trash and animal excrement that two police officers wore hazard gear.
On both days Sandra Klochak was arrested. She was charged with two indictable offences as well as a disorderly persons offense. On Dec. 30 the charge was a third-degree offense, abandonment and neglect of an elderly person, her mother. The next day she was charged with fourth-degree animal cruelty and for failure to provide proper shelter for some of the animals, a disorderly persons offense.
Information from the county animal shelter says that police removed 15 adult dogs, five puppies and 13 cats from the house. The police report states that the home contained 15 adult dogs, five puppies and 27 cats. It was not clear why there was a discrepancy in the count of the cats.
The affidavit states that many of the animals were in crates that were often stacked on top of each other, leaving the animals to live in their own waste.
The officer responding on Dec. 30 to the complaints of elder abuse was unable to gain entry to the house because the doors were “blocked by trash and household clutter.” The officer spoke with the bedridden Yvonne Klochak through a window which when opened allowed numerous flies to leave the house, the affidavit says.
The officer described a strong smell of animal feces and urine. In the room with the bedridden woman were seven to nine dogs in crates “which were defecating and urinating in the crates.” The affidavit says the bed was so surrounded by trash that the woman was “almost enclosed to her bed.” The bed itself was “covered with trash and insects.”
It goes on to say that “there is no room in the residence to walk through it as there are piles of trash, feces and other miscellaneous debris stacked to the ceiling.”
The affidavit says that Sandra Klochak often left her mother alone for 24 hours or more, denying her food and medication while she sat in her car with food. Residents of the area say that she was frequently seen sleeping in the car rather than in the home.
The Klochaks have also faced animal cruelty charges in Pennsylvania. In 2018-2019, according to Pennsylvania court filings, officers responsible for enforcing the state’s animal cruelty laws responded to complaints about neglect of animals at a home owned by Richard and Yvonne Klochak in Westmoreland County.
Richard and Yvonne Klochak had been living in Cape May Court House on Savannah Street since 1989; Sandra Klochak lived in the Pennsylvania home. Richard Klochak died in 2021 in Court House.
Officials had to obtain a search warrant to enter the Pennsylvania home and eventually removed 99 animals from the seven-room house. The animals included 30 dogs, 67 cats, one turtle and one deer. The condition of six of the animals required that they be euthanized.
Sandra Klochak, then going by the name Alexandra Klochak, pleaded guilty to 14 third-degree felony charges of aggravated animal cruelty. She was required to undergo a mental health evaluation and pay $5,000 to the nonprofit animal rescue organization that was caring for the animals.
She was then placed on probation for two years, during which time she was forbidden to have any pets. Prosecutors dismissed 224 summary charges of neglect and animal cruelty.
Her parents, who were charged with animal cruelty, were allowed to enter an accelerated rehabilitative disposition program for first-time nonviolent offenders, where their records were eventually expunged.
A civil case was also brought against Sandra Klochak, resulting in an order to pay $260,000 for the past care of the animals then housed at a nonprofit shelter, as well as $1,300 a day for ongoing care for more than 90 animals, many of them requiring veterinary services.
Aware of the newspaper publicity associated with the events in Pennsylvania, homeowners in the area of the Savannah Street home wondered in interviews how the same family could simply move and engage in the same animal neglect and cruelty again.
In Cape May County, 16 of the 20 dogs removed from the home Dec. 31 were relocated by the county animal shelter to larger shelters where adoptions would be more likely. The remaining dogs and the cats will be kept at the county shelter and put up for adoption.
Shelter Director Judith Davies-Dunhour, until recently the mayor of Stone Harbor and a retired police officer, said she could not release further details since there was an ongoing criminal investigation.
A resident from the neighborhood who has requested anonymity said Sandra and Yvonne Klochak are again living in the Savannah Street home.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
