About sixty cats were found frozen or buried by the owners of a house in Bellegarde-en-Forez (Loire) following the eviction of their occupants, we learned from the gendarmerie on Friday.
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Thirty-two cats, including six adults, carefully wrapped in cloth nappies, were discovered mixed with iced popsicles and breaded fish fillets in the freezer left behind by the tenant couple, evicted in mid-May for non-payment their rent, says the same source, confirming information from the regional daily
Le Progrès
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The remains of around thirty other small felines were discovered wrapped in fabric, buried in the earth of many flower pots scattered around the house in this town of Forez.
A necropsy, conducted on dead animals as part of the preliminary investigation entrusted by the Saint-Etienne prosecutor's office to the Montbrison gendarmerie, concluded that there were no acts of cruelty on the part of the tenants suffering from psychological problems.
They will be heard by the police.
A complaint for animal abuse was filed by an association for the protection of animals against this couple who lived, in deplorable hygienic conditions, in the company of two dogs and about thirty living cats when they were forced to leave. home, the same source said.