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Kazem Shirinzad was charged with abandoning a domestic animal, inflicting unnecessary cruelty upon a living animal, failing to provide an animal with necessary food and water, and carrying an animal in an inhumane manner, Acting Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal said.
Shrinzad, a 35-year-old Iranian immigrant, was released on a summons.
"Nothing happened," Shirinzad told Daily Voice when reached at his Lemoine Avenue office by phone Thursday night. "What I told them was that we had the cat but we left it in the building."
Then he hung up.
Meanwhile, the Bergen County Animal Shelter in Teteboro was looking for someone to adopt the 6-month-old feline (CALL: 201-229-4600).
A resident walking his dog in front of the Atrium on Palisades Avenue around 10:15 p.m. on May 16 found the box near the front driveway, authorities said.
A security guard helped him open it.
Fort Lee police notified the SPCA, which took the cat to the Oradell Animal Hospital in Paramus for emergency treatment.
She was cleaned, treated, X-rayed -- and named Olive (as in: Olive Oil).
Meanwhile, investigators told Daily Voice that they had video showing the culprit dumping the box about 45 minutes before it was found. Summonses subsequently were issued, a source told Daily Voice Thursday morning.
Olive, meanwhile, remained at the shelter Thursday -- ready for adoption, authorities said.
"She seems really sweet in spite of what she has been through," a shelter representative said.
Since she has no known owner, the non-profit SPCA (which receives no government funding) covered Olive's emergency medical costs.
A GoFundMe account established by the Bergen County SPCA had raised $1,700 -- $200 more than its original goal -- as of Thursday morning.
TO DONATE: https://www.gofundme.com/bergenspca-org
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