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A French couple has been given a one-year suspended jail sentence and completely banned from retaining pets after over 100 dehydrated and malnourished cats and dogs had been discovered of their house.
The girl, 68, and a 52-year-old man had been additionally requested to pay greater than €150,000 (£129,000) in damages to animal welfare associations.
A complete of 159 cats and 7 dogs have been recovered from the couple’s 80sqm-apartment in Nice.
Police officers discovered the house crowded with pets in unhygienic situations in 2023 after a neighbourhood dispute name. The rooms had dozens of dehydrated and malnourished cats and dogs coated in parasites and lesions, together with carcasses of lifeless animals.
At least two cats and two puppies had been discovered lifeless in a rest room by the investigators.
The couple is “guilty of the offence of abandonment, given the very poor state of health” of all of the pet cats and dogs, the Nice Criminal Court dominated on Wednesday, in line with AFP.
The girl fought for the custody of the animals on the finish of the trial and mentioned: “It’s like telling a woman she won’t have any more children”.
“Who wouldn’t appeal against an injustice like this? They were the loves of my life but things have gone off track,” she advised the court docket, stating that she has no intention of “giving up”.
The girl claimed that the situation of her animals and the house was short-term.
The BBC reported {that a} psychiatric evaluation had identified her with the “Noah syndrome” – a situation involving animal hoarding by which a person has an urge to maintain a higher-than-usual variety of animals even when they don’t have the power to supply hygienic and humane situations for his or her maintenance.
The couple can also be going through one other investigation from 2014 the place they had been housing 13 cats and a canine in an 18sqm studio. As of 2023, the lady and her accomplice had been in rental debt of €8,000 (£6,855) and likewise eviction proceedings.
