Six months in prison, possibly as a suspended sentence, or maybe community service: these are the requests of the representative of the court in Diekirch in relation to a case of animal cruelty for which a 64 year old man is on trial. In addition, the man would be expected to pay a €5,000 fine and a five year ban on owning any animals.
The defendant was accused of poisoning his neighbour's 10 month old dog in September 2017 in Moersdorf. Allegedly, the dog had repeatedly climbed onto the roof of the man's barn to do his "business" there, much to the defendant's dismay.
According to the prosecution, this is why he thought he had to kill the dog. The dog suffered a slow death after it had eaten a meaty bait laced with rat poison. The prosecution said that the man had killed the dog intentionally, and even announced it ahead of time. After the dog died, he allegedly also said that he was happy that the dog was dead. The man's actions were inhumane, said the prosecution, and his explanation about rats seemed somewhat fanciful
A neighbour had testified that the man had told him that he had poisoned the dog and that would be happy about the dog's death. The defendant denied the statement about poisoning the dog, but not the one about being happy about its death. He added that everybody should stay on their land: the dog should not have been on his property.
Following the question about whether he had prepared a bait to attract the dog, the man said that he did not need to incriminate himself, but that he wasn't a fan of animals.
At the start of the session, a toxicologist from the state laboratory has declared that the dog had been baited with a type of minced meat laced with rat poison. An autopsy in 2017 had shown that traces of such poison were present in the dog's blood and the expert added that there was enough of it to kill the animal. Yesterday, the former owner of the dog demanded €900 in damages.
The sentencing is scheduled for 3 October.
