She is a lawyer who litigates on behalf of abused cats and dogs, whom she represents on the stand. This excerpt from “Special Envoy” retraces one of the many files of Me Isabelle Gharbi-Terrin, specialized in the defense of animals.
The scenario of this case is worthy of a thriller. Here are the facts, which took place in April 2022, near Aix-en-Provence. In his absence, Isabelle Alain-Scala has her two dogs, Joy the dachshund and Jaiku the Weimaraner, looked after by dog-sitters. One day, in the garden, they see them “arguing over what appears to be food”, says their owner. Sure enough, they were sausages… stuffed with metal screws. A dozen will be found in the stomach of the little dachshund dog, clearly visible on an x-ray carried out by the veterinarian. Called immediately, he was fortunately able to save the two dogs, who had just ingested them.
How to imagine “Someone sadistic enough to take a sausage like that, force these little nails into 50 sausages…” ? Who could have done such a thing? To find out, the owner installs surveillance cameras. And when the same scene is repeated, a few months later, it is filmed. The footage shows a man behind the fence, taking sausages out of his pockets and throwing them to the happy dogs. To her great surprise, Isabelle recognizes a neighbour… with whom she nevertheless has courteous relations, and who has never complained about the dogs, she says.
“Before being the lawyer for their masters, I am the lawyer for the dogs, because they are the ones who have suffered. They are the real victims.”
Me Isabelle Gharbi-Terrinin “Special Envoy”
The owner of Joy and Jaiku filed a complaint against her neighbor for acts of cruelty. She wanted to hire a lawyer “aware of the animal cause” and chose Me Isabelle Gharbi-Terrin. Specializing in the defense of abused animals, the lawyer represents fifty of them in court. In this case, one of the many files for which she is solicited every day, she finds that it is the dogs “the real victims, those who suffered, who were operated on”, and “the ‘parents’ finally, the masters of the dogs, are collateral victims.”
The neighbor, meanwhile, will be tried in a few months. Penalties for animal abuse were tightened in 2021, and he faces three years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros. The journalists of “Special Envoy” contacted him, but he did not wish to answer their questions.
Excerpt from “The Guardian Angels of Animals”, a report broadcast in “La Spécial d’Envoyé” on June 8, 2023.
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