• Eighteen cats in distress, found by police in an apartment near Toulouse last week, had the greatest difficulty in finding a shelter.
  • This lack of reception places is the corollary of the explosion of judicial confiscations of abused animals.
  • A specialized police officer from Toulouse defends with her association the opening of shelters for these animals delivered from their owners.

Eighteen cats, one of which had a broken leg, crammed into a small, unsanitary apartment. The discovery took place on March 9, in Blagnac, near Toulouse. When the police, on a report of several neighbors worried to hear meowing constantly, entered the home of a forty-year-old probably suffering from "Noah's syndrome" which pushes to collect animals, even when we can not necessarily take care of them properly.



The man was taken into custody and the cats were confiscated from him by decision of the prosecutor's office. Given their number, the Toulouse Veterinary School (ENVT) could not examine them and the felines joined a veterinary clinic in Saint-Alban, before being placed at the SPA. "But for only one week," explains police captain Céline Gardel, also president of the animal protection association Les 4 pattounes. It is with this second hat that she scoured the other associations to find a base for the colony of Blagnac cats. Their fate is therefore settled. They may even be adopted. But "today the situation is complicated, shelters are saturated and refuse to welcome these animals that inevitably "block" places," says the specialized policewoman.

"We are touching the limits of the exercise"

Article 99-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure allows magistrates to confiscate and "place" animals found in cases of abuse. Prosecutors, police officers, gendarmes, are now trained and even experienced in these procedures. They are therefore multiplying, with their batches of judicial confiscations, for dogs, horses, donkeys, sometimes even cows. "We can only welcome the concrete application of the law," says Céline Gardel. But shelters are not extensible. "There, we really touch the limits of the exercise," deplores the policewoman who could multiply the examples of animals rescued from the clutches of their masters, such as these "three staff [dogs] recovered recently in Sarcelles" but that the SPA of Paris can not accommodate. Moreover, in complex cases, there is no question of offering animals for adoption during the procedure, while their owner is not found guilty. "For those, it's double punishment. They were mistreated and sometimes find themselves condemned to live in 5 m2. »

But Céline Gardel and Les 4 pattounes are not the type to let themselves be defeated. The association defends the idea of creating shelters specifically used to accommodate animals subject to judicial confiscation. The Toulousaine is in Paris this week to defend the file with his hierarchy. She was even invited to the Luxembourg Palace to try to convince senators.

  • Cruelty to animals
  • Animals
  • Toulouse
  • Inquiry
  • Police
  • Occitania
  • Society
  • Justice