Hearing in Bordeaux on 7 November 2023 against Richard Mandral, the ‘hunting’ dog breeder from the Périgord

Nothing, or almost nothing, has changed since our discovery of the Dordogne site where Mandral stored around a hundred ‘hunting’ dogs riddled with disease as though they were worthless tools, left at the mercy of the bad weather and boredom. The complaint filed for them in 2019 continues to be enriched with new elements, each more overwhelming than the last. In 2020, our rescue of sixteen animals kept by the breeder-hunter revealed that they were suffering from numerous health issues, to the point where their lives had been put in danger. As though this was not enough, the Departmental Directorate for the Protection of Populations (DDPP) also revealed irregularities during their checks. But the prefecture takes pleasure in doing nothing, preferring to blow hot air with ineffective approaches rather than taking real measures to protect the mistreated dogs that are right in front of their eyes. Following the Bordeaux Administrative Tribunal’s refusal to force the prefect to proceed with the protective removal of the animals, which we have been requesting for years, we have appealed.

We are asking for a new life for the victims of this hunter

Mandral has moved house, changing department. But we will not abandon the dogs subjected to the disgraceful treatment that they have been subjected to for years, chained up in the mud, shut into small vans, and so famished that some of them ended up eating the corpses of their companions who had not survived, as we revealed in our numerous investigations on site. The person responsible for this situation (known for having participated in the trafficking of dogs resold to laboratories in the 1980s), already sentenced in 2021 for not having his ‘kennel’ in order, must answer for his actions.

On 7 November at 9:30am at the Bordeaux Administrative Court of Appeal, we will be asking once again for the dogs to be taken away from this person who exploits them mercilessly. We are also still waiting for him to be tried for abandonment, acts of cruelty, and mistreatment committed by an owner.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice