Police and officers with an animal welfare group seized 21 cats from a Tiverton home Tuesday, after investigators found unsanitary conditions inside.

Police responded to 51 Adams St. on a report that there were five litters of kittens and several adult cats in the home. Tiverton Animal Control Officer Victoria Sartini and Tiverton police officers found five adult cats and 16 kittens inside; several adult cats likely ran from the home as police searched, police said.

During a search of the property police officers found the interior unsanitary and unsafe, and Tiverton Code Enforcement Officer Joseph Kaufman later deemed it uninhabitable. The residents were told to vacate the home until code violations could be corrected.

ACO Sartini, along with the assistance of the Portsmouth ACO and the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RISPCA), transported the cats to the RISPCA facility in Providence.

According to town records, the home is owned by Eric James Botelho.

This is the second mass seizure of animals from a Tiverton home in the past 14 months. Last May, the owner of a private dog rescue was found to have 36 animals in her Roseland Avenue home. They were removed and brought to the Potter League for Animals and other organizations.