This is one of the largest seizures of recent years for the SPA. In June 2021, the veterinary services seized 218 dogs from a farm in Lubbon, in the north of the Landes. Six months later in December 2021, 40 dogs were seized again. This Tuesday, June 28, 2022, the breeder, a 42-year-old woman, had to explain herself at the bar of the Mont-De-Marsan court.
“She wasn’t even able to give her dogs a home”
Four checks and many failures
The seizure of these 258 dogs and puppies is the culmination of a procedure and multiple reports over five years. If in 2016 a first control only revealed minor non-conformities, everything got carried away from 2018. Several customers complained, reported illnesses, problems with their pets.
In 2018, the breeder received a first formal notice. During their visit, the veterinary inspectors noted holes in the ground, a dirt floor which becomes muddy with the slightest rain, which is difficult to clean. While the breeder only has an authorization for 49 dogs, the veterinary services have… 134!
A year later, in 2019, the dogs are still as numerous, 126 instead of the 49 authorized. The breeder has filled the holes well with sand but new failures are noted such as the fence where the dogs can put their muzzles and hurt themselves or bite a person who passes too close. Finally in 2021, a new inspection leads to a suspension of the activity and the seizure of 218 dogs. Six months later, 40 dogs and puppies will again be seized.
A “dog factory” or an outdated breeder
At the helm, the breeder has the answer to everything. If she didn’t concrete the ground it’s because “concrete causes skin diseases in dogs“. On one of the photos we can see a gaping hole in a wooden shelter, “it was going to be changed soon” she assures. Finally, there is an obvious question: how could she handle over 200 dogs on her own? “If you work from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. it’s doable. I gave my whole life to my dogs” defends the defendant at the bar. Those dogs seized six months later? “It was for my family, I didn’t want them to end up at the SPA”.
For the lawyer of the SPA it is quite simply a “dog factory”, but for the lawyer of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation it is above all a breeder alone, totally overwhelmed. “He’s not someone with bad will, he’s someone who didn’t have the time, and who wasn’t even able to give his dogs a home” underlines Me Maréchal-Gaillard in his argument.
Transfers, cash and accounting in Excel spreadsheet
it’s a economic and financial file (Procureur de la République)
“It’s not a case of animal abuse strictly speaking, it’s not a case of torture” emphasizes from the beginning of his requisitions the Public Prosecutor. In the eyes of the public prosecutor, it is a “economic and financial file”. In turn, he points out the large sums that pass through in cash or in the accounts of the various members of the breeder’s family. How to justify the purchase largely in cash of an excavator for 8,400 euros, of a BMW for 12,000 euros? “It’s the money from my savings, my birthdays, my Christmases” assures the defendant. How to explain these some 40,000 euros reimbursed to her mother after the seizure, money that the latter puts in an account on which the accused herself has a power of attorney? “My mother helped me a lot for years, after the seizure I understood that the breeding was over, I wanted to reimburse her immediately” the breeder justifies herself.
These exchanges of money on the accounts of the family, it is above all the support of the relatives of the breeder to help her get her head out of the water, says her lawyer, Me Jean-Bernard Peneau. The lawyer endeavored to highlight the “true goodwill” of his client. She has “sought at all times a solution to get out of the difficulties in which she was, in terms of personal, financial, human investment”.
And then, what makes the public prosecutor wince, finally, it is also this “excel table” which serves as an accounting balance sheet. One of the columns is entirely dedicated to cash payments. Undeclared payments, for 131,000 euros according to the Public Prosecutor, around 124,000 qualify the accused, who also acknowledges not having made the necessary declarations, to first use the money, including VAT, to make the repairs .
I always gave everything, did everything for my dogs but I was all alone (the breeder)
Repairs, investments for more than 100,000 euros, the breeder will underline it on several occasions. “I haven’t lost my footing. I always gave everything, did everything for my dogs but I was all alone. I think I made good progress on my own. After the works I was going to reduce the breeding little by little” she assures. For the lawyer of the Brigitte Bardot foundation, the breeder took things the wrong way, should have reduced at first and brought up to standard. “I think she was not a torturer, she loved her animals” says the Public Prosecutor for his part.
It does not require the ban on keeping an animal, a measure nevertheless demanded by the lawyers of the SPA and the Brigitte Bardot Foundation. On the other hand, he requires a five-year ban on exercising a profession with animals and also claims two years in prison, fifteen months of probation and a fine of 10,000 euros, half of which is suspended.
Judgment has been reserved and will be delivered on October 4.