English translation below.
Bone remains found by the Civil Guard Seprona at the scene (EP)
WRITING / AGENCIES , MÉRIDA
12/03/2019 1:26 PM
Updated on
03/12/2019 22:13
The sacrifice of dogs when they are not used for hunting continues to be an extended practice in some areas of Spain. An example of this is the investigation being carried out by the Civil Guard in Tierra de Barros (Badajoz), which has opened proceedings against 12 residents of the region for the killing of 46 dogs .
The Benemérita, who has brought the proceedings brought to justice, accuses these people of a crime of animal abuse. Among those investigated, there is a veterinary doctor from the region of La Paz, who is also charged with a crime of documentary falsification, as reported by the Civil Guard .
First inquiries – The case was uncovered with the finding of a dog corpse next to a bag of bones
The events would have occurred in the last three years, although the investigations began last August when Seprona de Hornachos was aware of the discovery in an olive grove near the site of San Isidro, the municipality of Ribera del Fresno, of the corpse of a greyhound dog in an advanced state of decomposition. Next to the corpse, a sack full of bone remains was also found.
The microchip that the animal carried allowed to locate its owner. The man, a neighbor of Ribera del Fresno, explained to the agents that he sacrificed his dog for “not meeting his expectations for the activity of hunting by euthanasia practiced by a veterinary practitioner ,” as reported by the Civil Guard.
Violation of the regulations
The doctor sacrificed the dogs with ‘bad praxis’
Both the corpse of the dog and the skeletal remains found at the site were sent to the Department of Environment of the Criminalistics Service of the General Directorate of the Civil Guard in order to analyze them. The evidence made the agents suspect that the slaughter of animals that are no longer valid for hunting is “a common practice” by some owners who also had the collaboration of a veterinarian in the area.
As a result of the investigation, the agents were able to identify ten people more related to the case, all of them neighbors from different municipalities of the Patagonia region, who dropped a total of 46 young hunting dogs , mostly greyhounds. The dogs were slaughtered as healthy animals, without any pathology or reason that justified their sacrifice legally.
The investigation also concluded that the sacrifice was carried out by the same doctor through “malpractice”, since he administered euthanasia without prior stunning and even outside the veterinary center, thus contravening the regulations on the slaughter of domestic animals, the Law on the Protection of Animals in the Autonomous Community of Extremadura, the European Convention European Convention on the protection of pets and the Code of Ethics for the practice of the profession.