REIDSVILLE, N.C. — A man who couldn't bear to see more than three dozen cats euthanized has admitted to breaking into the Rockingham County Animal Shelter and stealing the felines.

The News and Record of Greensboro says that Edward McIrvin decided last Monday night, hours before the animals were to be killed, that he would take them. Reidsville Police Lt. Wendell Neville said McIrvin, 43, of Greensboro, faces two felony charges each of  breaking-and-entering and larceny.

WFMY, a CBS affiliate in Greensboro, reports that McIrvin volunteers at the shelter.

"I think it is a waste of taxpayers' money to prosecute him. I think, you know, he's doing the right thing; he's making restitution," Kathe Nhey, a manager at Reidsville Veterinary Hospital, told WFMY.

Police are charging him because the animals are county property, Nhey explained.

When police contacted him about the theft, McIrvin returned the 37 cats, all in good shape.

But he didn't give up on saving them.

McIrvin gave $5,800 to the Reidsville Veterinary Hospital on Thursday for adoption fees and spaying and neutering the cats. They are at the hospital now awaiting adoption.

"He was trying to do a good thing. He loves cats. He's very passionate about cats," Nhey told WFMY.