New shock video, in Gironde this time. A judicial inquiry was opened on Wednesday after the filing of a complaint for mistreatment in a dairy cow farm by the L214 association, we learned from the prosecution and the prefecture. In a video, the animal defense association denounces “the catastrophic situation” of this farm located in the town of Les Peintures, in the north-east of the Sud-Ouest department.
“An unhealthy environment”, according to the association
We can see, filmed at night, cows emaciated and lying in slurry. The association, which filed a complaint with the Libourne public prosecutor’s office, also deplores in a press release “critical hygienic conditions (especially during automatic milking)” and an “unsanitary environment”. She calls, with the Gironde association “Ne crin plus rien” for “the immediate closure of the establishment”.
After L214’s communication, the public prosecutor of Libourne, Olivier Kern, ordered an inspection of the Departmental Directorate for the Protection of Populations (DDPP), accompanied by investigators from the Libourne research brigade. It reports “13 animals in poor health out of a herd of 464 animals”, which had access to food and water. Three of them were euthanized on Wednesday, the prosecutor said in a statement. The seizure of livestock “was not ordered”.
No acts of abuse according to the prefecture
The Gironde prefecture for its part indicated in the evening that the checks carried out had not brought to light “acts of mistreatment”. But a veterinary expertise on Friday will make it possible to “determine the exact causes” of the state of the animals in poor health. According to L214, “unsanitary farming” had already been denounced by the Departmental Directorate of Territories and the Sea in 2021 to the DDPP.
The prefecture declared however that “no complaint” was received during the last five years for “animal mistreatment”. Contacted by AFP, the owner of the Joint Farming Group could not be reached immediately.
But for the president of the Chamber of Agriculture of the Gironde Jean-Louis Dubourg, it is a breeding “whose milk quality is checked every day by the dairy”. “There were no comments. If that had been the case, the operation would have been closed a long time ago,” he said.
The French cheese group Savencia, which notably markets the brands Caprice des Dieux, Tartare or Elle & Vire, however indicated “immediately suspending milk collection from this farm”.