The Moulins Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced a Limoise pig farm, the Gaec de Roover, to a fine of 50,000 euros, half of which was suspended for “mistreatment of an animal in his care“. At issue, in particular, says the judgment, “systematic tail docking” or cutting the tails of three-day-old piglets using a “white-hot blade for cauterizing without anesthesia“.
A practice to prevent pigs from biting each other and “which concerns 99% of European breeders” replies the lawyer for the exploitation, who intends to appeal the judgment. For L 214, it is above all “an offense tolerated for 20 years and finally condemned by justice.” The association hopes that this decision will send a strong signal to the entire industry.
The Herta brand also targeted
Bourbonnais breeding is also found guilty of water deprivation, in “the absence of an operational watering device.” He will also have to pay 3000 euros to the SPA and to L214 who had brought civil parties.
A final legal aspect remains in abeyance concerning Herta, which supplies itself in the farm, and accused of deceiving the consumer, the brand claiming respectful breeding conditions for its products.
Two compromising videos
Twice in 2020 and 2021, L214 had published videos shot in this breeding of 9000 pigs in Limoise. Images showing in particular animals without litter, on a concrete or perforated plastic floor, just above their excrement and denouncing this practice of cutting piglets’ tails raw.