Facing Sébastien Arsac were the managers of three farms in the dairy sector as well as the director of the Ouest Elevage company with which they worked. While the hearing enabled the precise examination of the facts for which the various parties were judged, it above all gave rise to questions about animal welfare in intensive farms.
The prosecutor recalled it well during her indictment, it was difficult in judging this case not to evoke in the broad sense the social debate on animal welfare. And this is precisely the role that the L214 association by raising the problems generated by intensive farming for to change mentalities and the law.
It was moreover following an action by the association that the affair started in October 2019. L214 then broadcast videos pointing out the industrial farming practices of dairy calves, in three farms in the Finistère and the dairy calf sorting center of Ouest Élevage, a subsidiary of Laïta (Even group), located in the town of Ploudaniel.
On the images we could see boxes where the calves were in poor conditionacts of violence on some calves, and sometimes precarious conditions of detention.
An intensive system called into question
Yesterday the managers of the farms incriminated by the videos took the stand to challenge and qualify the facts of which they were accused on the basis of these L214 videos. But they also took turns explaining their working conditions. And it was possible to perceive through their testimony, that they themselves were victims of an intensive farming system, where the logic of profitability and production costs constrain breeders to high yield.
A couple of accused operators even converted, explaining “to be disgusted by the media lynching” they had suffered as a result of these videos. The representatives of L214 also explained that they denounced the methods of a system more than the managers of the farms themselves. The wholesaler Ouest Elevage, through its president and one of its employees, also appeared at the bar to respond to accusations of arbitrary euthanasia and animal abuse that allegedly took place in the company’s sorting center in Ploudaniel.
Their hearing revealed that there were shortcomings in the training of breeders in animal welfare, and that the logic of economic viability could lead to these excesses.
Illegally obtained evidence
Sébastien Arsac, director of investigations for the animal defense association, had to explain the process used to shoot these videos. Prosecuted for home invasion and invasion of privacy, the co-founder of L214 denied having entered the breeders’ premises, explaining that he had simply accompanied the whistleblowers to the premises to ensure the authenticity of the videos shot.
This is not the first time that Sébastien Arsac has appeared in court since he had already been accused of similar facts. The prosecutor requested €50,000 fine against the Ouest Elevage groupand penalties ranging from 2,000 to 20,000 € fine for other breeders. Sébastien Arsac incurs a €3,000 fine and L214, €10,000.
Judgment has been reserved and the verdict of this case will be rendered. next June 3.