10 months suspended prison sentence, ban on exercising an activity related to animals for 5 years, more than 6,000 euros in fine and more than 6,000 euros to be paid to the two animal rights associations which were civil parties in this case. This Monday, the Dax criminal court looked into the legal proceedings triggered in August 2020 by the video of the L214 association in a hatchery in Lichos (64).
This video showed a building where breeding ducks survived under conditions “unworthy“in the words of the president of the court during the reminder of the facts. On the video of L214, authenticated by the investigation, we saw ducks in dilapidated cages, in a derelict building where living ducks rubbed shoulders with corpses rotting of their congeners, worms, rats and 10 cm of slurry on the ground.
The breeder recognizes the facts
In front of the court the breeder admitted the facts and explained, head down, that he had let himself be overcome by the situation. “This is not what we wanted to do. Between the bird crises, the market crises, the Covid crisis and our buildings hit by a storm, we did not succeed“the 43-year-old breeder said at the helm.
If the public prosecutor in his requisitions recognized “the harshness of the agricultural world hit by a succession of crisis“, the deputy prosecutor did not, however, let this argument pass to explain the situation of this 43-year-old breeder living in Villenave (40):”I want to hear the difficulties, but in this case, everything is not the fault of external circumstances. Much is due to Mr. Vidal’s negligence. You should have reacted, said stop. “The deputy prosecutor will be almost followed in his requisitions by the court.
“There is also the suffering of a man”
The lawyer for the Landais breeder, without denying the facts, explains to the court that this breeding, for his client, was “the project of a lifetime“and that the file did not concern only the animal suffering but also that of the family of the breeder.”Following the national broadcast of the video, his wife is in depression, they have received death threats. There is also the suffering of a man“. Maître Marine Barbe will ask the court not to pronounce the ban on activity with animals against his client, who, we learned during the hearing, continued to breed ducks on Cassen (40).
But the court, considering the facts, considered “that this continuation of activity was not possible“and asked the accused”to reorient themselves professionally“.
L214 satisfied with the judgment
Maître Hélène Thouy, lawyer for the L214 association, left the courtroom satisfied after the deliberation: ” I find it a conviction that is important. For a sentence to be effective, it must be a deterrent. And the fact of prohibiting this breeder from exercising an activity related to animals allows us to protect ourselves from again committing offenses against animals.“.