With a herd of more than 20,000 pigs, it is the largest pigsty in France. This Thursday in Brest, the Kerjean company was fined 200,000 euros, including 100,000 euros, for a spill of slurry into the Penzé river in Taulé (Finistère) which had caused a massive mortality of fish in April 2021. Brest Criminal Court also banned the company from receiving public aid for one year. Benoît Tanguy, manager of the operation, was sentenced to a fine of 20,000 euros, including 10,000 suspended, the penalty required by the prosecution.
“It’s totally disproportionate,” reacted Maître Marie-Thérèse Miossec, lawyer for the pigsty, who was planning to appeal. “The pollution is very limited, and this is the first incident. In 2022, Nestlé for pollution over 4.5 km with six tonnes of fish was only sentenced to 40,000 euros, so it is inexplicable and there should be consistency, ”she said. added.
Seven Complaints
“It’s tiny compared to the ecological damage that has been done,” said Patrick Clérin, vice-president of the Finistère Fishing Federation, one of the eleven civil parties. On April 2, 2021, between 50 and 100 m3 of slurry, a liquid mixing pig excrement and urine, spilled into a stream following the overflow of a pit. The next day, several hundred fish were discovered dead by the French Office for Biodiversity.
Seven complaints had been filed, in particular by Eau et Rivières de Bretagne, which demanded “reparation for ecological damage to obtain real and satisfactory compensation for the damage caused to the environment. This decision is one of the first judgments pronounced by the environment division of the Brest court, whose jurisdiction extends over the entire territory of the Rennes court of appeal.