A WOMAN described as a “cat hoarder” by an animal charity has been evicted from her home after a 15-month court battle with East Lothian Housing Association (ELHA).

Catherine Kenny, 61, who “encouraged cats from all around to visit her home and garden”, had faced repeated demands to reduce the number of felines in her Elphinstone home.

But after she failed to meet conditions imposed at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, she was evicted.

A team from Lothian Cat Rescue said they took more than 20 cats from the property after gaining entry following Mrs Kenny’s departure – with several more seen fleeing the house.

And they believed Mrs Kenny had given a home to more than 100 cats in her years at the house on Durie’s Park, with claims dozens were buried in the back garden.

ELHA said it had worked hard to resolve the issues caused by tenant Mrs Kenny’s cats.

It said: “Eviction is absolutely a last resort for us – we will always try to work with our tenants to resolve problems before eviction is considered – but sadly in this case we were left with absolutely no choice.

“The cats were causing real problems for neighbours.

“To begin with, we tried simply to limit the number of cats Mrs Kenny could keep and address the issues being reported to us.

“It quickly became apparent that Mrs Kenny had no intention of co-operating or changing her behaviour.  “The re-possession action, which followed unsuccessful attempts at Interdict and Action of Specific Implement, spanned over 15 months and eight court hearings, during which time Edinburgh Sheriff Court imposed numerous conditions on Mrs Kenny in an effort to resolve the problem with the cats and allow her to keep her home.

“Unfortunately, Mrs Kenny chose to continue to encourage cats from all around to visit her home and garden, refusing to accept the issues this was causing for her neighbours and leaving us with no option but to evict her.”

The eviction order was served on the house on July 12 and it is understood that Mrs Kenny has moved away from the village.

Nicola Zelent, warden at Lothian Cat Rescue, said that the charity had been dealing with concerns from neighbours about Mrs Kenny for six years.

She said: “She’s now basically disappeared through to Glasgow and just left her cats. She’s basically abandoned them.”

Nicola said the charity had now been out to the house three times to try and get all the cats and could still hear some of them in the property.

She said: “The lady lived there on her own and was a cat hoarder.”

In 2012, Mrs Kenny, who has multiple sclerosis appeared in the Courier after several of her cats died amid claims anti-freeze had been put down in her street to poison them.

At the time, she said that she had buried five cats while two remained missing over a period of months.

Commenting on her eviction on Facebook, Mrs Kenny claimed that neighbours had lied about her. She said: “My hell well and truly over, it’s been bad and took me to the edge.”