The Strasbourg court sentenced Wednesday to 12 months in prison, including 8 months firm, with a warrant, a 39-year-old man found guilty of having thrown his dog out of the window of the fifth floor of a building.
The prosecution had requested 12 months in prison with a warrant of committal and a ban on owning an animal.
Prosecuted for an act of cruelty to a domestic animal resulting in death, the defendant was liable to 5 years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros.
The defense pleaded for release.
"Low" sentence
“
I am disappointed by this decision, I have the impression that the court did not want to decide
,” declared Maître Céline Boutin, lawyer for the defendant.
“
We had a botched investigation.
We have a decision that allows us to tell the associations we have
“
convicted
”
, but with a particularly light decision with regard to what is generally pronounced by the courts, two or three years in prison, as if to dissuade us from appealing.
“She nevertheless indicated that she was studying the possibility of appealing, “
as long as my client claims to be innocent
”.
"
The court showed restraint, but the message is sent: we do not mistreat an animal, otherwise there is a legal reaction, and a reaction on our part
", reacted Didier Reins, lawyer for the Humane Society of Animals. (SPA).
“
At the SPA, we prosecute all acts of animal abuse.
On Monday, the dog was found dying at the foot of his owner's building.
A neighbor had called the police after a motorist told her he had “
seen an alcoholic throwing his dog out of the fifth-floor window an hour earlier
”.
The driver has not been found.
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The defendant, a former homeless man without activity, assured the hearing that he had not immediately noticed his dog's fall in the early morning, after drinking heavily during the night.
He denied having himself thrown his dog, which he was taking care of, explaining that the animal must have fallen after being attracted by food placed on the edge of the window.
Civil Parties, the SPA, the 30 Million Friends Foundation, the Animal Protection Brigade, the Stéphane Lamart Association for the Protection of Animals, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, the Action Animal Protection Association and the Association for the Development of animal rights obtained between 800 and 1200 euros for non-pecuniary damage.
