BRUSSELS, June 16 — Seventy-eight frozen pet corpses were found in a Belgian house where cats and dogs had suffered severe neglect, an animal rescue group said yesterday.

When animal welfare services entered the house in southern Belgium, to save 25 cats, they found the remains of 75 cats and three dogs in freezers.

Some of the carcasses were decomposing and missing eyes.

There was "such negligence, such a lack of care” that some of the animals had died just hours after birth, said Gaetan Sgualdino, head of the local Society for the Protection of Animals branch.

"We’ve never seen anything like this,” he added. "I never imagined I would one day have to lay such a large number of bodies on the ground to be checked.”

The 25 cats found alive but were in poor health and taken for treatment, including for skin conditions linked to living in their own faeces.

Following a tip-off, and backed by police, the regional animal welfare unit intervened on Wednesday.

No details were given about the house’s precise whereabouts or the identity of its occupants.

State broadcaster RTBF said police were due to interview witnesses. The culprit could face time behind bars or a hefty fine. — AFP