SALEM, N.H. (AP) – Police have charged a Hampton, N.H., man with keeping cats in a self-storage unit in Salem.

Forty-six-year old Charles Adams is charged with 17 counts of cruelty to animals.

Police got a report about cats living at Uncle Bob’s Self Storage and found 15 of them in one unit on Oct. 6 and six more living nearby.

Police say Adams – who is not in custody – is a suspect in a similar case two years ago in Milford. There, police rescued more than 60 cats when they went to evict a man living in the storage unit illegally.

In Salem this month, the state police bomb squad had to remove a large artillery shell before rescuing the cats.

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Information from: WMUR-TV, http://wmur.com

AP-ES-10-27-08 1146EDT