suspended sentence for leaving her dog to die

Cruelty to a pet

"It does not matter, it's just a dog" ... This is the argument that a woman from Montauban (Tarn et Garonne, Midi Pyrenees, South of France), aged 35, employed to prevent her children (ages 11 and 14) to give food and drink to Zoe, female Bichon, locked without any care in the family garage for nearly three months.

This is the sad case that the criminal court had to consider yesterday in the presence of plaintiffs constituted for the occasion: one from the SPA of Tarn-et-Garonne represented by Laura Banks-Kuntz and one from the Brigitte Bardot Foundation represented by François-Xavier Kelidjian.

These facts described as acts of cruelty to a pet (a crime punishable under Article 521-1 of the Criminal Procedure Code), distressing and frightening, are the corollary of a divorce badly served. Zoe has paid the frustrations of his "mistress" recently separated from her husband.

The latter had then left the bichon in the custody of his ex-wife and their children attached to the animal. During a visit to his daughters in mid-January, the father finds that the animal is closed in the garage in a very weakened state. His children entrust him that Zoe is confined since the beginning of the year.

Children unable to care for Zoe

In following March, the father finds that the dog is in a sorry state, no longer standing, half blind and covered with feces. He threatened his ex-wife to file a complaint for serious abuses. She will announce him shortly after the death of the animal, "hit by a car," That's what she will say to her ex-husband and then to the police.

Assertions are contradicted by the children telling investigators they were formally forbidden to approach the bichon who weighed less than one kilo. A real heart-breaking for these children still explaining that Zoe had become "all Raplapla" and that his barking became more and more inaudible.

"An exemplary conviction"

Faced with these facts characterized, the representative of the prosecution requested € 200 fine and a permanent ban on keeping animals. After a rousing argument, Laure Berges-Kuntz, tireless defender of animals, supported by his colleague from the Bardot Foundation, in turn demanded an "exemplary sentence" against the one that caused the relentless agony of Zoe.

The court presided by Alain Birgy will finally go beyond the prosecution's submissions, inflicting one month suspended sentence against the defendant, sentence with a permanent ban on keeping animals, payment of € 2,500 of damages and interest to plaintiffs (the father, his two children, the SPA and the Bardot foundation) and € 1 500 under Article 475-1 of the CCP.

Article from LADEPECHE.fr

www.ladepeche.fr/article/2012/06/02/1367801-de-la-prison-avec-sursis-pour-avoir-laisse-mourir-son-chien.html

Picture from the website Journal de femmes.

www.journaldesfemmes.com/maman/chien/dossier/40-races-de-petits-chiens/le-bichon-frise.shtml

Hello,

Sad end for this bichon, and what memories for these children.

It's good that there are laws to convict people who commit acts of cruelty on animals.

But too many of them remain unpunished.

Leo