Violence against animals is on the rise: a martyred dog, a horror ship… five cases that marked the region
As animal abuse figures rise, the Home Secretary announced a new plan this Friday, January 27, to step up the fight against animal abuse. Let’s take a look at the recent events that rocked the region.
In 2021, 12,000 crimes targeting animals were reported by law enforcement agencies. 42% of these offenses are serious crimes, ie cases of serious abuse or cruelty. According to figures from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, animal abuse has increased by 30% in five years.
This Friday, January 27, Gerald Darmanin went to the SPA shelter in Essonne to announce the government’s new plan to combat animal abuse.
What bad behavior, what animals?
The numbers are scary, and overall, dogs suffer the most from human abuse.
46% of crimes recorded between 2016 and 2021 are related to “man’s best friend”. Of these crimes, 33% involved cats, 6% livestock, 6% horses and 3% birds. Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The nature of the abuse is also staggering. 76% of poor containment procedures involve dogs. 73% of abandonment cases involve dogs, 62% of poisonings target dogs, and 34% cats are the victims. Finally, 39% of sexual crimes against animals were committed against dogs and 20% against horses. Next come bovids (14%) and cats (10%). “The cats there are more victims of traps (91%) and physical violence (50%)”, adds the Social Life site.
Our region does not avoid this problem. Here’s a look back at five events we talked about or talked about again in the media this year.
1. Last minute rescue in Alrance
The case of Alrance, a small town in Aveyron, unfortunately shows that the department is poorly placed in the figures recorded by the Ministry of the Interior on abuses. The rescue and the discovery of the “horror” house coincided with the middle of January. On January 13th and 14th, Rodez SPA and gendarmes intervened in this area and rescued many animals, some of them in critical condition.
In particular, they rescued a goat that needed emergency care because of a broken leg, and dozens of dogs with no feces or food, especially a Great Dane weighing only 20 kilos. , he said, manager of the SPA shelter in Rodez, “must weigh about 70 kg”. The owners of this house were searched and a legal process was opened in this regard.
2. Hundreds of cats were kidnapped and tortured in Herault
This is an event marked for 2022. Dozens and dozens of cats disappeared in the area around Gignac and Pézenas. According to the national press, the incident has worried many cat owners, as Le Parisien published a study on the subject.
The psychosis was exacerbated when some of the surviving cats returned home with signs of abuse. As we explain in this article, one of them had to be euthanized due to cauda equina syndrome, and many cats were poisoned. In less than a year, 140 missing cats were registered.
3. Ship of Terror in Lunel
Another gruesome discovery, a scene of indecent treatment of many animals, led to a two-year suspended prison sentence for the owner of the animal shelter in early 2023. The mass grave work of the “Aux des quatre pattes” shelter in Lunel began on November 22, 2021, after the gendarmes discovered dozens of dead animals (dogs, goats, sheep, for some), others dying of starvation, and there. deplorable state of health.
Dead animals were found at this shelter in Lunel.
The head of this associative structure facing justice had to respond to the actions of “voluntarily abandoning the animal”, “depriving it of food or water”, “placing or keeping the animal in an environment that could cause suffering”. He was also convicted of breach of trust because he used the shelter’s means of payment to buy cigarettes and alcohol, among other things.
4. Mambo, the martyr dog of Perpignan
In 2022, Mambo the dog left this world at the age of 16. Long life for a dog and Mambo’s death made headlines because this little dog had come a long way. In 2009, when he was only two and a half years old, this little pinscher crossed paths with a teenager who tried to burn him alive, doused him with gasoline and set him on fire.
Mambo, a year after the trial.
After skin grafts, surgery and lifelong insulin injections, Mambo the dog recovered and personalities like Alain Delon, Brigitte Bardot, Michel Drucker… crossed his path.
5. Horse movement in the snow
From pitch to plate. This is how the sad journey of the horses, victims of the international human trafficking network, was judged in June 2022 in Marseille. The network was perfectly organized. Horses purchased with or without documents or horses restored from private persons subject to good care. From there, the animals crossed the whole of Europe until they ended up in the slaughterhouses of Ales and Pézenas.
Also read:
Alès and Pezenas at the center of international horse-trafficking: 19 defendants before Marseille court
At the end of the chain, Georges Gonzalez, head of Équid’sud in Alesia, cheated his customers by offering French meat that was certified but actually came from several countries.
