A French couple who kept nearly 160 cats and seven dogs in their apartment were given a one-year suspended sentence on Wednesday and a fine of more than 150,000 euros in damages to animal welfare associations.
The man and woman were also ordered to not keep any pets.
Police officers responded to a neighborhood dispute in 2023 and discovered 159 dehydrated, malnourished cats with parasites and lesions in every room of the couple’s 80-square meter apartment.
They also found the bodies of at least two cats and two puppies.
The Nice Criminal Court said the man and woman “were guilty of the offense of abandonment, given the very poor state of health” of the animals.
The owner of the animals, a 68-year-old woman, insisted she had no intention of “giving up.”
“It’s like telling a woman she won’t have any more children, she added.
The woman also stated the poor state of repair of the apartment and the animals’ condition were temporary.
A psychiatric examination showed a condition known as “Noah syndrome,” or animal hoarding, which involves an urge to keep an unusually large number of animals without the ability to properly care for them.
The woman and her 52-year-old partner were dealing with an eviction after a rental debt of 8,000 euros ($8,665).
The couple already faced an investigation in 2014 when they lived with 13 cats and a dog in an 18-square-meter studio.
Years later, the woman adopted about 30 cats from an abandoned building believing they were at risk of being poisoned, and the animals reproduced.
