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The 500 corpses of the 'vampire' of dogs

2022-07-01T10:52:59.562Z


The Prosecutor's Office and Seprona dismantle the millionaire business of a false veterinarian who had been trading in the blood of animals for years, which he allegedly drained to death


One day, the employee of the incinerator in the Toledo town of Yuncos got tired of seeing so many dead dogs in garbage bags.

And he spoke.

Where did the same man get so many animals to burn every 15 days?

The alarms went off and the eyes fell on what Luis Miguel VF had masterfully hidden for almost 20 years.

He ran an animal blood bank without having a license and presumably draining the specimens to death.

The Prosecutor's Office and Seprona maintain that these "cruel" deaths occurred on their farm in Humanes (Madrid), the one from which the bags with four-legged corpses regularly came out and from which the agents rescued 257 dogs and cats 15 days ago. cats.

The market for animal blood is small and apparently lucrative.

In the case of dogs and cats, there are no public banks like those for humans, so a handful of private companies are responsible for collecting the fluids and selling them to veterinary clinics.

The investigated took advantage of this to build his small empire of blood, in which over the years he came to accumulate dozens of national and international clients.

The Civil Guard believes that at least 500 copies could have died in the facilities of the alleged fraud who ran the Veterinary Transfusion Center, as his company was called.

The agents calculate the economic benefit of the person under investigation at no less than one million euros since he began this activity in 2006. “There are still many open questions.

It is investigating whether it extracted blood from sick animals and the exact number of specimens that could have died in this way, ”indicate sources from the armed institute.

The investigation has managed to prove that, between April and May, some 60 animals, mainly dogs and cats, died after being drained.

Greyhounds were the most coveted loot due to the usefulness of their blood and because it is common for some owners to get rid of them at the end of the hunting season.

More information

The Madrid Prosecutor's Office investigates a veterinary transfusion center for draining blood from animals to death

Many of the animals that arrived at this farm were delivered by these owners who no longer wanted or could have them, and by associations that were looking for a place to leave them temporarily.

"He was well known in the world and for some he was a kind of protector", they affect from the Civil Guard.

The investigations will also have to determine if there are more people involved in the crimes of which he is accused and how he obtained the necessary medications for the process.

It also remains to be determined what regulatory or control gaps he took advantage of to practice this profession for almost 20 years and achieve such fame in the sector.

On his website, Luis Miguel specified that he had been in business since 2006 and that he had dozens of national and international clients.

"Currently we permanently have DOG, CAT and RABBIT blood components in stock and if necessary we have the possibility of HORSE (sic) donors", read his presentation.

In one of the tabs there were numerous links to presentations and talks that he had supposedly given in specialized congresses, as well as scientific studies on animal fluids.

In another of the sections, appeared the endless list of clinics to which he had supplied products.

That website was emptied of content minutes after the call from this medium to the businessman to collect his version of the story.

"I'm not going to say anything, it's an open process," he said before hanging up.

In his statement before the judge,

he accepted his right not to testify.

The farm's employee was also arrested in the operation, a Moroccan citizen whom the investigators suspect helped him in his activities.

Following the alert from the crematorium employee, Civil Guard investigators collected several corpses for just over a month to corroborate suspicions that something was wrong.

Frozen, they traveled to a specialized center in Madrid where they underwent necropsies.

The opinion was clear in all of them: the animals had died of hypovolemic shock (due to excessive blood loss).

The investigations indicated that in this farm they put the needle directly into the heart of the animals to extract a greater volume of blood and in the shortest possible time, according to sources of the instruction “If that was true, it is outrageous.

The normal thing is to use the jugular or the legs, and remove small amounts every two or three months, ”says Cristina Fragio, head of the Veterinary Clinical Hospital of the Complutense University.

“Since there are generally few donors, we always use this type of bank.

I myself have used blood from this company and never detected anything unusual, ”she indicates.

Alarmed veterinarians

The news of the arrest of Luis Miguel has circulated at heart attack speed in the scene.

His arrest has caused enormous concern in the sector, in which he moved for years and in which he had built relationships.

In fact, the Madrid Veterinary College moved immediately after learning of the arrest and radically distanced itself.

According to Esther Tortuero, president of its ethics commission, this institution has never had any relationship with the person under investigation and, in addition, the legal services have already been ordered to appear in the open case in court against him.

The College, which had not received any complaint against the suspect and did not have him under the radar as he did not belong to this institution, appreciates two possible irregularities.

He accuses him of "intrusiveness", since he was not a veterinarian and the practices he carried out could only be carried out by accredited professionals and graduates in this field, according to Tortuero.

In turn, the institution also wants to investigate whether the rule on animal welfare was violated.

Fragio, from the Complutense University, fears that due to such a case, veterinary techniques that have "allowed many lives to be saved" will be called into question.

Within this empire, the researched had also founded the Animal Hematology and Hemotherapy Association, with the precise objective of certifying laboratories like his.

Several protectors and associations took care of the rescued animals on the Humanes farm.

Some have survived, but for many others, release came too late and they have died or are in critical condition.

They escaped from the

vampire

, but not from the mistreatment to which they were subjected.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-07-01

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