The former president of the association “As the aid of the four paws” was sentenced to two years in prison suspended by the criminal court of Montpellier. He was prosecuted on charges of abuse, acts of cruelty, deprivation of water and food and abandonment of animals. The court also condemned him to a lifetime ban on having an animal, working or volunteering in a place related to animals. He will also have to financially compensate two owners and six associations who had instituted civil proceedings, for a total of 43,000 euros.
When the gendarmes and the veterinary services presented themselves in November 2021, in this place located in Lunel, in the Hérault, it was quickly described as a “refuge of horror”. Inside, they had found numerous corpses, some still attached, totally emaciated and visibly dead from hunger and thirst. Still others, alive but reduced to a skeletal state, others finally seriously injured, victims of their fellow creatures who had attacked them for food.
Two volunteer whistleblowers
Two volunteers alerted the police. The court also noted the aid received by the association, which had opened an online kitty for the welfare of animals, while they were dying of hunger and thirst.