For the main defendants, the Prosecutor’s Office requests sentences totaling eleven years for crimes of animal abuse and against public health, among others.
The trial for the illegal slaughterhouse in the Aiara region of Alava, closed in 2018, will begin this Monday, six years after the events in which the Ertzaintza detained seven people.
The trial will be held in the Álava Court in four sessions, until Thursday the 30th, for the alleged crimes of belonging to criminal organization, falsification of official documents, animal abuse, and against public health. For the main defendants, responsible for the slaughterhouse, the Prosecutor’s Office requests sentences totaling eleven years and four months in prison for each one.
According to the tax classification, those responsible for the slaughterhouse, two brothers, to support and cover up the activity of the illegal slaughterhouse, formed a plot dedicated to the supply of livestock from irregular sales, and the subsequent uncontrolled distribution of meat intended for human consumption.
In the slaughterhouse, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, the cattle were slaughtered in accordance with the precepts of the Muslim rite (halal)“by making a cut in the neck, without prior stunning and causing complete bleeding of the animal.”
Furthermore, they worked in facilities that were not suitable for the slaughter of animals, which was carried out by people without training and without the necessary skills to handle the animals, which caused the animal to suffer. intense pain, fear and anguish“, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.
It is estimated that an average of two cows and twenty-five heads of sheep were killed weekly, without administrative permits or health controls.
These cattle were offered by owners from Bizkaia and Cantabria and were animals that had no outlet in the legal market and “for those seeking a return on the black market.”
The group also had members dedicated to the marketing and distribution of that meat, which was mostly destined for private homes in Bilbao and Vitoriaamong other locations.
Some bars and food establishments also periodically received shipments of this merchandise.
Transportation was carried out in private vehicles without refrigeration nor the necessary sanitary measures and the animal waste was mostly transported and abandoned in a chasm located in the Peña Angulo area, in the north of Burgos.
The Ertzaintza arrested seven people, aged between 32 and 59 at the time: four people on the farm, a fifth in Vitoria, as the person in charge of distributing part of the illegal production to individuals, and another two in Karrantza. (Bizkaia), which apparently regularly supplied cattle for this illegal slaughter.
Source: Eitb
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