He was terrified and I had to get him to the safe room to calm him down.
On the morning of September 15, says Ezpeletar, Pesto disappeared from the apartment, without his master being worried at first. The cat is used to wandering around, just behind the building, and especially in this large field overlooking the church and the Xerrenda district.
An angry master
But the next day, around 1 p.m., Ximun Elizalde heard a metal noise and saw his cat, panicked, dragging a collar around his hip. “I think he spent a good part of the night in it, because he was covered in mud and soaked. He was terrified and I had to get him to the safe room to calm him down. I’ve had him since he was a baby, he was born at home and there he was aggressive towards me, he was so traumatized. »
Immediately, the young man, angry, posted a photo of the collar on his Facebook page and warned his friends of the dangerousness of an inhabitant, unidentified to date. The collar was entrusted to the gendarmerie of Ustaritz, a complaint was filed on Saturday, September 17.
“Whoever set the snare knows it’s forbidden because the trap number has been erased. There is no way to trace it,” regrets Ximun Elizalde.
Punishable by 6 months in prison
The facts are an offence, according to article 522-1 paragraph 1 of the Penal Code. They are liable for their author to six months’ imprisonment and a fine of 7,500 euros.
This is not the first time that such an incident has occurred in Espelette, in the same sector, but no complaint had been filed until then. One of the cats victim of the supposed trapper had returned with the completely peeled neck.
