Jura: call for witnesses after a new case of mutilated horse

The Lons-le-Saunier prosecutor's office announced on Tuesday August 25 that it had launched an appeal for witnesses after a new case of a mutilated horse, the fourth in the Jura while these attacks are increasing elsewhere in France.

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" I call on anyone likely to provide information on facts that took place in the (department) and that could help put an end to these barbaric acts (...) to give their testimony to the gendarmerie by calling 0800 00 47 12 ”, the public prosecutor, Lionel Pascal, indicated in a press release.

" I invite the owners and keepers of horses (from the Jura) to be very vigilant and to carry out a regular examination of their horses, they may have been victims of attempted aggression which left only slight traces. ", he added.

This call comes after a fourth case of mutilation on a horse since mid-August in the Jura: Monday evening, injuries were found on a horse in Courlans, according to the press release.

" The procedure is similar " to that observed this weekend near Saint-Claude on two mares injured in the genitals, according to the same source. Injuries were also noted Monday evening on another horse but the accidental thesis can not yet be ruled out and " checks are underway ", according to the statement.

4 horses attacked in ten days

In total, in about ten days, four horses were the subject of attacks in the department, the first having taken place in mid-August in Thoria, where a mare had been found dead and mutilated.

The research section of the Besançon gendarmerie is " seized of each of the investigations of the heads of acts of cruelty on domestic animals ", in connection with the brigades of Lons-le-Saunier and Saint-Claude and the Central Office for the fight against damage to the environment and public health, adds the press release.

Mutilation of horses or domestic animals is increasing in France. At the end of June, a note from the Central Territorial Intelligence Service, mentioned by Le Parisien, thus listed at least eleven similar facts on horses between December 2018 and summer 2020. The French Equestrian Federation also announced last week that 'she was acting as a civil party alongside the owners of horses, ponies and donkeys who have been killed or mutilated in recent months.