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The dog of the couple of influencers Rop and Rocka has become the emblem of animal abuse. The serious abuse she suffered earned Rop two years in prison, one of which was firm. Since the sanctions against the perpetrators of such acts have been reinforced, the courts have imposed harsher sentences. Excerpt from “Special Envoy”.
In five years, acts of animal abuse have increased by 30%. However, justice is more severe towards their authors since the sanctions were reinforced, in 2021. An evolution which goes in the direction of that, recent, of the Civil code: it will have been necessary to wait until 2015 so that our four-legged companions cease to be considered objects (“movable property”). In the eyes of the law, they are now “living beings endowed with sensitivity”… and litigants (almost) like the others. Those who inflict serious abuse on them are more likely to receive prison sentences.
In a report broadcast on June 8, 2023, “Special Envoy” looks back on a case that involves two personalities from the world of rap. In their clips, Rop and Rocka, as they became known on social media, sometimes showed off their dog Texas, a young American Staffordshire Terrier. It is this puppy, unrecognizable, that an investigator from the Animal Assistance Foundation was responsible for recovering after a report. Régis Labatut recounts a “big shock” in front of two “eyes full of incomprehension and pain” in the middle of a “big deformed skull”. The puppy had the “head completely deformed by the blows”.
Multiple fractures, possible cigarette burns…
The certificate of mistreatment drawn up by a veterinarian mentions“a very large number of scars on the skull, body and legs”, a sore on the cheek “may be traces of cigarette burns”, of one “hematoma 10 cm in diameter on the top of the skull” with probable fracture, broken ribs… “serious abuse” that it is rare to find in such large numbers, especially on a 4-month-old puppy, testifies Isabelle Ponce, the manager of the shelter who took in Texas – and renamed her Hope. The dog was lucky: six months later, she is fully recovered. Its owner was sentenced to two years in prison, including one firm, after the complaint filed by the foundation.
Excerpt from “The Guardian Angels of Animals”, a report to see in “The Envoyé Special” on June 8, 2023.
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