A resident of Lanzarote has been sentenced to pay a fine of 540 euros for a minor crime of animal abandonment, after she left a dog "locked up" in a house in Arrecife from which she had just been evicted, "in dire sanitary and hygienic conditions and without means to subsist." The animal also had a "severe" infection in its eyes as well as in its ears, and according to the Animal Protection Unit of the Local Police of Arrecife, it ended up dying two months later.
The eviction took place last January and the Animal Protection Unit of the Local Police intervened after being requested by the judicial commission, on suspicion that there might be an animal in the house.
The Court of Instruction number 1 of Arrecife considers it proven that the woman "left the property leaving a French Bulldog breed dog, without a microchip or health card, which appeared to have severe dry keratoconjunctivitis and chronic external otitis, locked on the terrace of the property, without food or water." In addition, it is pointed out that the terrace where the animal was found, without its presence having been noticed to the judicial commission that had carried out the eviction, was "full of excrement and urine." After that, the dog was transferred to the Sara animal shelter.
Statement of the accused
According to the ruling, the accused stated that "she had three dogs" and that "she could only take two because that was the number allowed in the house where she was going to live." Thus, she acknowledged that "she left a dog on the roof of the house." However, although she also stated that the animal's "eyes and ears had been getting bad" and that "she never took it to the vet," she also stated that the dog was "perfect," despite the veterinary report issued after the animal was rescued and transferred to the Sara animal shelter, concluding that it was suffering from serious infections.
Thus, the Court of Instruction number 1 of Arrecife considers that the evidence presented in the oral trial, consisting of the police report including the veterinarian's report, and the statement of the officer who rescued the dog, demonstrates the "serious neglect in care" and the "helplessness in which the accused left the animal when she vacated the property, without informing anyone that an animal remained on the closed terrace in dire sanitary and hygienic conditions and without means to subsist, all of which violates any legal and moral obligation to protect domestic animals and leaves them in conditions that endanger their life and, of course, their integrity."
Considers that "it is not appropriate" to disqualify her from owning animals
Therefore, it considers the accused guilty of a minor crime of animal abandonment and imposes a penalty of 90 days of fine, at a rate of six euros per day, "in consideration of the duration of the abandonment, which was resolved in a short period of time and that it affected only one animal."
Likewise, although the Penal Code allows imposing penalties of three months to one year of disqualification from owning animals, in this case the Court considers that "it is not appropriate." "No criminal or administrative sanction related to the nature of the crime for which she is convicted here is accredited," the sentence states, which also points out that the accused "owns two other animals" and "it is not recorded that they are in poor condition." Thus, the court points out that "we must trust that this sentence and conviction will be effectively rehabilitative and will provoke a change in future attitude in the convicted person."
