French couple banned from owning pets after 159 cats and seven dogs found in flat
A FRENCH couple who shared their apartment with 159 cats and seven dogs have been banned from owning pets and handed suspended prison sentences.
They were found guilty of the offence of abandonment “given the very poor state of health of the animals”, a Nice criminal court ruled.
It also ordered the couple to pay more than €150,000 (£128,000) in damages to animal welfare charities.
Police officers responding to a neighbourhood dispute last year found dozens of dehydrated, malnourished animals covered in parasites and lesions in every room of the couple’s 860 sq ft apartment in Nice.
Detectives also found the bodies of at least two cats and two puppies in their bathroom. At the end of the trial the owner of the animals, a 68-year-old woman, said she had no intention of “giving up”.
“Who wouldn’t appeal against an injustice like this?” she said. “It’s like telling a woman she won’t have any more children,” she added. “They were the loves of my life but things have gone off track.” She insisted that the apart- ment’s state of disrepair and the condition of her animals were temporary.
She said she was looking for solutions but had found herself helpless because of an infection that affected the cats and a heatwave that had made her ill.
A psychiatric assessment revealed she had a mental condition known as “Noah syndrome” – or animal hoarding – characterised by an urge to keep large numbers of animals without the ability to properly look after them.
The woman and her 52-year-old partner were €8,000 behind on their rent and facing eviction.
In 2014, the couple were the subject of an investigation when they lived with 13 cats and a dog in a 195 sq ft studio.
Several years later the woman took in about 30 cats found in an abandoned building and they multiplied, the court was told.