Police find more than 200 carcasses of exotic birds in Dinant home: “House of the Devil” | Domestic

Franck Lorigiola, zookeeper and chairman of the bird sanctuary Au bonheur de ViCa, received a telephone call on Wednesday from the Animal Welfare Unit of the Walloon Region (UBEA), which informed him of the gruesome discovery. Once he arrived at the house, Lorigiola was nervous about what he would find inside. “We were immediately surprised by the stench,” he says.

But then the greatest horror was yet to come. As the zookeeper walked through the home with police officers and rescuers, he saw the floor littered with dead birds. “There were also cages containing live birds, but they looked very unkempt,” he says.

The same goes for the attic of the house. “The floor was covered with a carpet at least 25 centimeters thick consisting of carcasses, feces, birdseed, feathers and bones,” says Lorigiola. The cages contained “mummified birds”. “Cockroaches crawled up our legs. Everyone was in shock and called the house ‘the devil’s house’,” it said.

The rescue team cleared the house and seized a total of 202 carcasses. The live birds, including canaries, parakeets and parrots, were taken to a sanctuary in the neighboring municipality of Morlanwelz. Two birds died on the way to the sanctuary. 53 others could be saved, but are in poor condition. “They are very thin and dehydrated. Some animals have injured themselves trying to escape their cage. We think some birds have even survived by eating their own kind,” Lorigiola said.

Little is known about the residents of the house at the moment. According to ‘l’Avenir’ it concerns a family, but no further details are known. A judicial investigation into the case has now been opened.