A French Bengal cat breeder was arrested in Gers, Occitania, for animal cruelty by police, who confiscated about fifty cats from her home, some frozen and stuffed.
The cats were living in miserable hygienic conditions in a completely dilapidated kennel, according to police officers who visited the site after a veterinary service report.
Following the macabre discovery, the veterinary services were notified and the emaciated cats, the subject of a judicial requisition, were entrusted to the 30 Millions d’amis de Seine-et-Marne shelter on Friday, La Dépêche reported.
“We found dead cats in the freezer […] some were stuffed,” revealed Anne Puggioni, head of the organization, adding that the beds had become cat litter.
The neighbors, whom the 50-year-old breeder sometimes asked to look after when she was away, were shocked by what they discovered, according to the Chapatoune Animal Welfare Association.
The 50-year-old, who failed to respond to several formal requests from the veterinary services, was taken into police custody pending the prosecutor’s handling of her case, according to the Toulouse tabloid.