through Victor Massias
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“Acts of cruelty or serious abuse”. From the beginning, the prosecutors announce the color. Red. Like the blood of the two dogs that Frédéric* is accused of shedding on July 31, 2022, in Saint-Aubin-Routotclose Oats (Seine Maritime). The first, Snow, underwent heavy operations and no less than 20 stitches. The other, Saga, died before reaching the veterinary clinic.
Frédéric had to explain himself to the criminal court in Le Havre on Friday, January 13, 2023.
“He has trouble telling the difference between an object and an animal”
That day, the two of them jumpers English allegedly entered the respondent’s chicken coop, killing chickens and injuring others. Frédéric, he keeps using the verb “esquinter”, which does not fail to surprise the audience. “He has problems knowing the difference between an object and an animal”, points out the lawyer for the civil parties. His wife had confided to investigators that at the sight of this carnage he would have been “angry” and would have “screamed”.
Perforated by “a blunt object”
Moments later, two dogs were found by their owners, neighbors who live 800 meters away, repeatedly punctured by “a blunt object”, with words from the vet who will observe them. For the defense lawyer, “no one will ever know if the two dogs that attacked Mr.’s chickens are the ones that were injured”. Especially when Frédéric, a 55-year-old truck driver, completely denies having mistreated the poor animals: “I have never touched these dogs. »
Defendant threatens to file a lawsuit
Saga’s master, where the dog had succumbed to his injuries in his arms, went to ask Frédéric for an explanation. The latter would simply have replied that his chickens should be compensated, otherwise he would file a complaint, and that the two dogs had well deserved what had happened to them. Of course, unlike his lawyer, he was also convinced that they were the same animal.
He would have quickly “cleaned up the place”
Frédéric claims to have gone to repair the hole the dogs would have made in the fence to prevent his chickens from escaping. For the prosecutor and the lawyer who represented the Stéphane Lamart association, he went rather to “clean up the place”. The scene, exactly. At first Frédéric refuses to take Saga’s master there. And then, in a photo taken by the latter, we can see blood and dog hair of the same color as the victims of violence on the fence, at the level of the hole where they would have entered.
Clean wound
For the accused, the dogs could have been injured on an iron bar or attacked by game. Only this iron rod is nowhere to be found. But above all, the vet noted after observations that the wounds were clean, that there were no tears.
He blames himself
But there is even more damning in the eyes of the prosecutor and the lawyer for the civil parties. During a hearing on 11 August 2022, this last remark about Frédéric incriminating himself was: “He told the police that he did not understand how a wooden stick could have pierced animals, but the police had refrained from saying how the dogs were hurt. …”
“It’s a bit of a return to the law of retaliation,” laments the prosecutor who asks. six months in prison with a simple suspension, a fine of 1,500 euros and a ban on keeping an animal for five years.
The defense is asking for release
But if the version of his client, which nevertheless passed 30 hours in police custody, does not convince, the defense attorney ensures that no element supports the charge. Especially since Frédéric has had his right leg amputated and suffers from a lack of reach in his right arm. since an accident a few years ago. It’s hard to imagine him rushing at two dogs to hit them, according to his representative, who is asking for his release.
The latter also wonders what “an atrocity” is, since it is not defined in the law. According to his research, “one must have acted intentionally with the aim of causing animals to suffer unnecessarily”. Was it really unnecessary when the two dogs were in the chicken coop? That is the question he asks the court.
The hearing of this case will be delivered on Friday, March 10, 2023 at 9:00 a.m.
*Name has been changed.
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