Police and animal welfare agents stumbled across a macabre discovery at an address in La Louvière, in the Walloon province of Hainaut, Le Soir reports.
After receiving reports of animal abuse, police conducted a search and discovered several bags across numerous freezers which contained corpses of elderly cats, dogs, kittens and cat foetuses, the Society Against Cruelty to Animals (SPA) in La Louvière reports. In total, 75 decomposing animal bodies were discovered in the freezers.
The discovery was especially distressing for animal welfare officers and police. This was the most gruesome case that one veterinary inspector had witnessed and one police officer struggled to contain their emotions.
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During the search, police also seized 25 living cats, which were brought to animal shelters across the region. There are fears that not all cats will survive.
"The cats were in very poor condition – one had his ear ripped off, another had his eye pierced and another lost a leg. It is clear that they have been mistreated here. Their environment here was an apocalypse, with heaps of garbage and excrement. It was total horror. It is downright animal abuse, even torture," SPA President Gaetan Sgualdino told Het Laatste Niewus.
