Parisian investigating judges dismissed a complaint filed following the death of a horse that fell in 2009 with its rider in green algae, in Saint-Michel-en Grève (Côtes-d'Armor) .
In an order dated January 18 that AFP was able to consult, the public health center of the court of appeal, while pronouncing a dismissal "in the absence of sufficient charges", underlines "the inadequacy from the current penal law to the ecological disasters that can constitute the phenomena of green tides ”.
The collective complaint had been filed in particular for involuntary injuries, failure to fight a disaster and involuntary harm to the life of an animal.
But “no regulatory violation could be found.
No criminal prosecution is therefore possible ”, note the judges.
Bad agricultural practice, not criminal misconduct
"The present instruction has made it possible to demonstrate the link between, on the one hand, the spillage of agricultural fertilizers and the formation of green tides and, on the other hand, between the hydrogen sulphide emanations from algae and
accidents
objects of this instruction ”, explain the magistrates.
"Despite this scientific consensus, the health and environmental dangers associated with green tides have not significantly changed the legislation: the over-fertilization of agricultural soils still remains the domain of bad agricultural practice and not of criminal misconduct", notes the court. 'call.
According to the order of dismissal, "this instruction made it possible to highlight the inertia of the French public authorities in the face of a problem which has been scientifically identified for years".
The State recognized responsible in 2014
This collective complaint came from several dozen individuals as well as associations.
The rider and owner of the horse, Vincent Petit, who had lost consciousness, had been saved thanks to witnesses, but the animal died suddenly.
In 2014, the Nantes administrative court of appeal recognized for the first time the State's responsibility for the health consequences of the proliferation of green algae on the coast, by agreeing to compensate the owner of the dead horse.
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The responsibility of the State was retained in particular "because of its failures to implement in a sufficiently effective way the national and European rules" on the protection of water "against the pollution of agricultural origin", "which are the main cause green tides ”.