A man and a woman kept 159 cats and seven dogs in 80 square meters: a court in Nice, southern France, sentenced a couple to a year in prison with probation and permanently banned them from keeping pets.
Given the “seriously impaired health” of the animals, the two were found guilty and their charges were dropped.
The suspects must also pay more than 150,000 euros in compensation to animal protection associations, including for the care of the animals found on them. The 68-year-old owner of the animals said after the conviction that she did not want to ‘give up’. ‘Who wouldn’t appeal against such an injustice? It’s like telling a woman she won’t have any more children,” she said.
The police also found carcasses
Police were called to a neighborhood dispute in 2023 and found dozens of malnourished animals covered in parasites and wounds in the couple’s apartment. Investigators also found the carcasses of at least two cats and two puppies in a bathroom.
The ARPA organization took care of the animals after they were found in July 2023:
“They were the loves of my life, but I slipped,” the woman said during the hearing. The apartment and the animals were only temporarily in poor condition. The 68-year-old said she searched for solutions but was helpless because the cats were suffering from an infection and the heat wave had made her sick herself.
“Noah syndrome” diagnosed
A psychological report has identified the “Noah syndrome”: an addiction to animal collecting in which there is a desire to keep more animals than normal, without the ability to adequately care for them.
The woman and her 52-year-old partner were threatened with eviction proceedings because they had accrued rental debts amounting to 8,000 euros. The two were already at the center of an investigation in 2014 when they lived in an 18 square meter apartment with 13 cats and a dog.
Several years later, the woman took in thirty cats she found in an abandoned building, believing the cats were at risk of being poisoned. Then the animals reproduced.
Source: Krone
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