An appeal trial in Agen: breeding or trafficking?
The appeal trial of 28 November in Agen will decide on the case of a breeder’s fraudulent practices. One Voice is hoping for an exemplary judgment. 37 cats, 19 dogs and 7 puppies, all in a deplorable state, were seized from her breeding establishment in February 2015.
In this farm of Lot-et-Garonne, it is first the smell of ammonia that takes your breath away. The floor is littered with excrement. Cats are crammed into small makeshift pens, even in rabbit cages, devoid of any comfort to the point that stereotypical movements have been observed. A number of them are devoid of documentation and of dubious origin. Dogs are also present. A dog and her pups are locked in the dark, in a cellar. Another in a garage. A dog is in a vehicle in the garden. All animals are sick, none have been treated. All will not survive. Calcined bones were also found in an incinerator. Even worse, a dying puppy will be eventually discovered in a plastic bag...
This case, joins another still under investigation in the Dordogne, even the authorities were shocked. Frédérique Dubost, Prosecutor of one of the departments concerned, was deeply involved. During the two seizures made in February 2015, the state of the place and that of the animals was catastrophic. The report from the trial judgment, which contains the findings made during the searches states the “deplorable state of health” of 63 animals that were seized, which “all presented pathologies attributed to ill-treatment, defects of care as well as malnutrition and dehydration”.
Since 2007, the breed was put on notice to make her facilities comply with the legislation. But the work by the investigators and the network of informants and investigators of the Cell Zoé revealed that this was far from the case, giving One Voice the necessary elements for the organization of two seizures, some animals having proved non-transportable at the end of the first seizure.
At the trial, the breeder was convicted of mistreatment of animals, deprivation of care, starvation and watering, a suspended prison sentence and a ban for 5 years and various other fines.
One Voice strongly hopes that the Agen court will uphold this sentence at the appeal hearing. The sentence must be exemplary. Cats and dogs are not products that can be stored: they are individuals who need respect of their dignity. They should not even be the subject of a contract.
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