The surprise was great when it came time to regain possession of their property.
After the eviction of their tenants, who had not paid the rent for a year and a half, the owners of a house located in Bellegarde-en-Forez (Loire) made a macabre discovery.
They found on the spot about sixty corpses of cats.
Thirty-two, mainly kittens, were "carefully wrapped in cloth nappies" and stored in a freezer amid ice cream and pieces of breaded fish, said the gendarmerie, confirming information from
Progrès
.
The others, also covered with fabrics, were buried in flowerpots in the garden of the house.
No acts of cruelty according to the first elements of the investigation
The couple of tenants, originally from Isère, were evicted in mid-May.
The owners discovered numerous animal excrements and rooms in poor condition, from which escaped a pestilential odor.
"When my wife sees a cat, she can't help picking it up," the tenant told Le
Progrès
, adding that his wife used to put dead animals in the freezer before they could bury them with dignity. according to her.
The police opened an investigation.
The necropsy, performed on the corpses, concluded that there were no acts of cruelty.
The couple, who suffers from psychological problems, must be heard by the gendarmes.
Prior to their eviction, he lived with around 30 live cats and two dogs.
The deaths of cats follow one another without explanation in a village in the Oise
Investigation after the discovery of dead cats in Normandy
Company
Animals
Cat
Saint Etienne
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes