They will not end their life with a breeder. The 40 sheep found on Sunday evening, crammed into social housing in the sensitive district of Liserons, east of Nice, will be “taken care of by the Brigitte Bardot Foundation”, announces a spokesperson for the Alpes-Maritimes prefecture. To 20 minutes.
They will be “distributed in various rescue farms of the association once the criminal and health formalities have been completed”, still indicate the state services. Pending these procedures, the duration of which has not been specified, the animals “were transported to a collection center in the Bouches-du-Rhône”.
“All in the meadow where they will live without threat or danger”
The solution finally chosen is that defended by the Nice municipal councilor Henry-Jean Servat, recently stripped of his delegation for animal protection. “Sheep should not be handed over to breeders, which equals the path to the slaughterhouse, the butcher or the sacrifice, but entrusted to the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, which will place them all in the meadow where they will live without threat or danger until at the end of their life,” he wrote on Twitter.
Sunday evening, police officers from the Nice anti-crime brigade (BAC), called to a building in the Liserons district for another reason, crossed the path of two men who were wearing t-shirts “stained with blood”.
They challenged them and discovered a “wild slaughterhouse” in a supposedly empty dwelling secured by an anti-squat door, said Anthony Borré, president of the social landlord Côte d’Azur Habitat, who filed a complaint. On the spot, 40 sheep were found alive and two others were being butchered.
A few days before the Eid-el-Kébir holiday
This discovery took place a few days before the feast of Aïd-el-Kébir, or Aïd-el-Adha, the “festival of sacrifice”, which begins on Wednesday and during which Muslims must respect certain traditions, including the sacrifice of a sheep according to the ritual slaughter.
In a press release published on June 21, the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes recalled “the rules of hygiene, conduct and the regulations in force to celebrate” this religious holiday. And in particular that “any person involved in the slaughter of animals outside authorized slaughterhouses is liable and is liable to penalties”, i.e. a prison sentence and a fine of up to 15,000 euros.
The Brigitte Bardot Foundation denounced Monday on Twitter “the atrocity of tens of thousands of animals destined for the long and cruel agony of slaughter without stunning”. She specifies that she will remain “mobilized for […] to collect the animals spared from a party which has only the name”.