In 2019, Laurent Levacher participated in season 14 of the show “L’amour est dans le pré”. If at the time, the farmer from Vatteville-la-Rue, in Seine-Maritime, had been talked about because of his romantic relationships and his somewhat crude way of speaking, today he is making headlines for a sad reason. Prosecuted for voluntarily abandoning animals, the farmer has just been sentenced.
It all started in 2020 when local authorities noticed that Laurent Levacher’s 400 cattle appeared to be mistreated. Very quickly, numerous unbearable videos made the rounds on the Internet, enough to lead the farmer to face several checks on his farm. Accused of having abandoned his cattle, Laurent Levacher was then singled out by the Brigitte Bardot Foundation who works for the protection of animals.
“For lack of enough water or food, the animals wandered into the streets to find food elsewhere. Abandoned carcasses were found in the fields and some animals were very thin and in a deplorable state of health. One of them had to be euthanized” a member of the foundation then confided in the columns of Le Parisien.
Laurent Levacher: the farmer sentenced to prison
This Friday, September 8, Laurent Levacher appeared before the 4th correctional chamber of Rouen. In front of the judge, the 48-year-old man defended himself against the judge by declaring in tears: “I put all my energy into my animals. I admit, I gave up administration at one point to take care of my animals. But this livestock is my life.”
This Wednesday, September 13, 2023, the verdict fell, the farmer was sentenced on Wednesday to a four-month suspended prison sentence for abandoning animals. Did the representative of the Rouen public prosecutor’s office, Elise Mallet, consider that the accused was not “able to practice his profession satisfactorily”stressing that there had been “17 handrails for lack of care, 112 handrails for lack of watering, a very high mortality rate, beyond the norm”.
ES