The owner of the Hela pet crematorium has filed a lawsuit against councilors Echedey Eugenio (Canarian Coalition) and Maciot Cabrera (CC), as well as municipal technician Pilar Machín for an alleged crime of malfeasance following the decision to seal the premises where he carried out his activity.
In a lawsuit filed on May 15 before the duty court in Arrecife, the representation of the Reguimir mercantile stated that there was malice or intentionality in the cessation of activity and the closure of the Hela animal crematorium. "The existence of malicious action is manifestly proven since that result was desired and that will was put before any other consideration," the company has defended.
Decrees signed by Cabrera and Eugenio
In December 2022, through a decree signed with the councilor delegate of Activities of the Arrecife City Council, Román Maciot, the immediate sealing of the premises, located in Arrecife, was ordered.
As narrated in the lawsuit to which La Voz has had access, upon learning of this closure decree, the mercantile, owned by Juan Reguilón, requested as a precautionary measure that its execution be suspended, defending, among other things, "that it was the only crematorium in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura" and that it "had been carrying out its activity since 2017".
"Reguimir SL began its activity through the Hela pet crematorium in 2017," the company begins. The company was authorized to receive the activity license (June 2018) by the Vice-Ministry of the Environment of the Government of the Canary Islands, after undergoing an environmental impact assessment, justifies the Hela pet crematorium.
Before carrying out the immediate closure decree, the City Council had initiated a sanctioning file and the cessation of activity carried out by Reguimir (April 2022). This document was also signed by councilor Román Maciot, and the municipal technician Pilar Machín was appointed as instructor.
The lawyer representing Reguimir understands that through "reports made by herself, she facilitated the Resolution" by which the immediate sealing of the premises was decreed.
After the initiation of the sanctioning file, the mercantile Reguimir presented a decree of the start of activity (May 2022), signed by Echedey Eugenio, as stated in the lawsuit. The objective was to register as a classified activity, since until now the mercantile had understood that the place that corresponded to it was that of harmless activity. A month later, the nationalist councilor himself signed a new decree (June 2022), in which he communicated to the company that "the activity was being carried out without the mandatory enabling title" and resolved to initiate the sanctioning file.
In this step, the legal representative of Reguimir has insisted that "the allegations presented by the mercantile were not valued, not even compared", "to reach the argumentation that supports the file". She has also defended that "all the documentation was delivered electronically in duplicate".
"Due to the arbitrary nature of the aforementioned resolutions, which can be considered as acts contrary to justice, reason and the laws, dictated by mere will or whim", the representative of Reguimir has justified in the lawsuit for alleged malfeasance.
In addition, "we can argue that the essential rules of the procedure were not respected, by ignoring the documentation provided and registered by the plaintiff".
Likewise, the mercantile argues that the development of its activity "was not new, nor even lacking authorization to be carried out", since even in June 2018, it was raised in a plenary session in Arrecife, with Pilar Machín as accidental secretary, to reach an agreement between the crematorium and the city council.
Canarian Coalition, against the public pet crematorium of the Cabildo
Echedey Eugenio himself signed a motion in which he asked to raise to the Cabildo of Lanzarote "the discomfort" of the municipal plenary session for the insular proposal to locate a public pet incineration service in the Zonzamas waste treatment center.
In addition, he assured that the City Council was already studying the possibility of installing an infrastructure in the municipal animal welfare center to be used as a pet crematorium. "The pet population of the island does not justify the creation of two public services and the largest animal population resides in the capital".
