A 40-year-old farmer from Mouzon was tried on Thursday at the bar of the Ardennes judicial court for ill-treatment of an animal, possession of a corpse, non-execution of a formal notice, keeping an animal in an environment that could be the cause of suffering and not report the loss of identification element of a bovine, that is to say 2 offenses and 3 contraventions.
Non-compliant housing conditions, rachectic condition of the animals, corpses left behind, the farmer, managing alone a herd of 208 head of cattle, in a dramatic and economically difficult family context, had started to lose ground in 2018. Despite the formal notices from the DDCSPP, Departmental Directorate of Social Cohesion and Protection of Populations, inviting him to comply with standards and reduce his herd, the man continued and the situation deteriorated until a breaking point, on March 8, when the State services intervened and seized 176 of its animals to place them under the jurisdiction of the OABA, Work of Assistance to the Beasts of Slaughterhouse.
The defendant’s lawyer, Maître Quentin Mayolet, however recalled that the man had always “taken care” of his animals, even badly: “My client has done everything possible, with his intellectual, economic and family resources, to take care of his animals. It was not enough but, in law, it does not constitute an offense! To condemn him would come to tell him that he intentionally mistreated his animals ”.
After deliberation, the court finally acquitted the defendant of the count of ill-treatment and condemned him for the rest to a tort fine of 1,500 euros suspended as well as to several contravention fines, for a total of 1,100 euros. The 176 animals placed were confiscated. The farmer is on guard 11, a situation that will allow him, we hope, to get his head out of the water.
–
