The recent discovery in the Tarn and Nice of dozens of animals piled up at their owner’s house highlights an unknown disorder: Noah’s syndrome.
It is a “house of horror” that the gendarmes discovered in the Tarn at the beginning of July. Alerted by veterinarians, the soldiers found in the home of a septuagenarian dozens of pets piled up in a room of 40 m2. Dogs, cats, chickens, pigs but also horses survived there in appalling conditions, some being skin and bones.
More seriously, the gendarmes found the corpses of 28 dogs in three freezers. The owner, known as the “local Brigitte Bardot”, nevertheless presented herself as a protector of animals.
“Good People”
A substantially similar scene was discovered by the police in Nice. In one apartment, no less than 120 malnourished cats, living in their excrement. But also corpses.
Here again, the couple of owners are presented as “good people” who love their animals. “There is no abuse, the animals, it was everything for them, they never wanted to hurt them”, assure their children to Nice morning. This paradox has a name: the Noah syndrome.
This behavioral disorder, whose name refers to the biblical story of Noah’s Ark, is characterized by the fact of accumulating animals at home, without having the means to house them, feed them or treat them properly. From a certain number of animals, the owner is no longer able to take care of them and cases of mistreatment become inevitable.
A syndrome that hides a disease
“Noah’s syndrome is not a disease in itself. It is necessarily linked to a pathology such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s or a serious depression such as melancholic depression”, explains to BFMTV.com Jérôme Palazzolo, psychiatrist and researcher at the Nice-Cote d’Azur University.
In each person, “there is a notion of denial”, underlines the doctor. “In psychiatry, this is called morbid rationalism. The patient finds rational explanations for absurd behavior,” he explains.
In the case of Noah’s syndrome, sufferers will convince themselves that the animals they accumulate are safer at home than outside, where they could be knocked down by a car, for example.
single people
According to figures published in 2018 by the Quebec health department in 2018, 75% of people suffering from the syndrome are women, mostly living alone. “Social rupture is found in many people with Noah’s syndrome. We note that this rupture often occurs before the appearance of the syndrome”, underlines the psychiatrist.
Experience also shows that modern-day “Noahs” also suffer from syllogomania, or compulsive hoarding. A better known syndrome that consists of aimlessly accumulating objects and not throwing anything away. Its most serious form is the so-called “Diogenes” syndrome.
Beyond the mistreatment suffered by animals, “the person puts himself in danger and endangers others”, insists our expert.
Prohibition of owning animals
The penal code punishes “the fact by clumsiness, imprudence, inattention, negligence (…) to cause the death or the wound of a domestic animal or tamed or held in captivity” of a “fine envisaged for contraventions of 3rd class”.
If a psychiatric report confirms the Diogenes syndrome in the Tarn and Nice cases, there is a good chance that justice will be lenient with the defendants. The court can nevertheless impose a ban on owning animals for a certain period of time, or even for life if the person repeats the offence. This is what happened to a 33-year-old woman in Dordogne in February, reports South West. “The court can also request an obligation of care”, adds Jérôme Palazzolo. In this case, the treatment will depend on the psychiatric illness associated with the syndrome.
In the event of conviction of the owner, the law provides that the animals can be handed over “to an animal protection work recognized as being of public utility or declared”, by decision of the judge.
