Cage after cage of cats taken from a Crofton home arrived at the sunny, 2-year-old Anne Arundel County animal control facility on a brisk fall day last month.

But each of Stacie and Steven Canterbury's nearly 90 cats - some upbeat and playful, others flea-infested and sick - was fated to die.

Tahira Shane Thomas, Anne Arundel County's animal control administrator, said she knew immediately after talking with the Canterburys, who are now charged with animal cruelty, that the cats would have to be killed.

"The animals were in an environment so severe that they were not salvageable," she said. "It just would not have been fair to put them into a new household, where they would have exposed other animals to their problems."

The Canterbury case illustrates the quandary faced by local animal control departments when large numbers of pets are seized from individual homes.

Agency officials say they prefer adoption, but when they are overwhelmed by dozens of sick animals, they are left with few choices.

The week between when the Canterburys' cats were brought to the county's Millersville facility and when most of them were euthanized stretched agency resources and devastated employees there, said Patricia A. Landry, the kennel supervisor.

Never before had the agency taken so many cats from one family, employees said, and never before had the staff euthanized so many in one day.

"It was frustrating for the staff to look at the number of animals all from one place," she said yesterday. "All the diseases and infestations ... it was very difficult to handle."

On an average day, about 60 cats are housed in the kennel and about 10 cats are euthanized. So when the Canterbury cats arrived Oct. 25, the staff had to make quick adjustments.

To supplement their about 100 feline cages, employees converted the cat quarantine and critical care areas into a shelter for the Canterburys' cats.

"What a week," sighed Cheryl Shiflett, one of two technicians charged with euthanizing the cats. "We thought they were kidding when they told us how many cats were coming."

And they're still coming.

After the initial capture of 84 cats, five more cats were confiscated and killed, and several wild cats are still roaming into and around the couple's Ralston Place home, animal control employees said.

A dog and eight gerbils taken from the Canterburys were deemed safe for adoption. The dog, a German shepherd mix, was placed in a home several weeks ago, and the gerbils were adopted yesterday morning.

About one-fourth of the cats were so visibly sick that animal control employees said they had to be put down immediately, and the remaining 60 were euthanized on Halloween.

The Canterburys, both in their 40s, were each charged last week with 16 counts of animal cruelty. They could not be reached for comment yesterday.

A year ago, Steven Canterbury faced numerous charges in Prince George's County for failing to maintain their home on Twig Lane in Bowie. He was found guilty of many of those charges, including failure to maintain a clean area, early this year.

Although the Canterburys were not charged with animal cruelty in Prince George's County, former neighbors said the couple had many cats, and the house, fouled with cat feces and flies, was razed last month.

Thomas said an unclean environment on Ralston Place in Crofton contributed to the latest batch of cats' poor health.

The cats were pocked with flea bites, and many had terrible ear infections and worm infestations, employees said. One had feline leukemia, a contagious, fatal disease, and many had been inbred, which can create severe genetic problems, Thomas said.

Health issues combined with behavioral problems, such as not using a litter box, sealed the cats' fate, Thomas said.

But Ray Wills, co-founder of Cats R Us, a local feral cat rescue program, said that given time and more resources, some of the cats probably could have been saved.

"It shouldn't be an automatic death sentence," Wills said. To most government-run animal control agencies, euthanization is often the most practical option, he said.

Early this year, Katherine Richards, 79, of Howard County had nine adult dogs seized from her home in rural Glenwood.

Five of those were euthanized by Howard County Animal Control, as were 55 other animals removed from her home in two separate instances in the past five years.

"That's the mind-set of most animal controls," Wills said. "Considering their history and limitations, I can understand it. I don't agree with it, but I understand it."