BRUNSWICK – An animal shelter has taken in more than 70 cats that were given up by their owner in what officials described as a case of “animal hoarding.”

Sharon Turner, director of the Coastal Humane Society, said the man who had the cats is a hoarder and that hoarding “is a bona fide mental illness” related to obsessive compulsive disorder.

An animal hoarder “is a person who amasses more animals than he-she can properly care for. Such individuals generally fail to recognize – or refuse to acknowledge – when the animals in their custody become victims of gross neglect,” the Humane Society of the United States said on its Web site.

Turner said the cats’ owner had been working with the shelter over a couple of years to build up trust. Finally, she said, he recognized his financial limitations and “did absolutely the right thing” by giving the cats to the shelter.

The shelter’s staff scrambled Wednesday to accommodate the frightened felines at the same time they were accepting 12 of the 92 English springer spaniel dogs and puppies seized last week from a kennel in Dover-Foxcroft.

Turner said the cats were in unusually good condition – given the circumstances. Some have wounds and burned paws from urine exposure, while others have upper respiratory illnesses that can affect the eyes. Other problems, she said, are a result of inbreeding.