Bayonne (AFP)
A young man of 22 years will be summoned in the coming weeks to the Bayonne Criminal Court, prosecuted for "acts of cruelty to an animal", after a video broadcast on social networks showing him tearing the head of a live rooster with teeth, we learned Wednesday at the prosecutor's office.
The young man, Basque high-level pelota player, was filmed last June during a meal watered at the festivals of Hasparren. The video, broadcast on the networks at the end of last week, aroused a strong and wide emotion, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, which launched the alert and relayed the images, announcing a complaint.
The prosecutor's office in Bayonne who seized the case, confirmed to AFP that the young man would be "summoned before the court in the following weeks". He also confirmed the filing of a complaint.
The penalty for cruelty to an animal is two years imprisonment and 30,000 euros fine.
The images, besides innumerable comments, insults, threats online, had also generated a petition "so that the Basque pelota France team excluded the player", and "that its sponsors stop sponsoring", which has claimed in five days more than 73,000 signatures.
The French Federation of Basque pelota has in a statement called "to show moderation in this event," emphasizing that "this young athlete has a perfect awareness of his act, and has always behaved flawlessly in competitions."
Joined by the local media Mediabask, the young man had said to assume his mistake and be aware of his bad gesture.
"The comments circulating without restraint on these networks quickly erected in court, however, reflect a real emotion, far beyond the community of animal defenders," said in the statement the President of the Federation, Lilou Echeverria.
According to the Sud-Ouest daily, a 20-year-old Landais boy, the pelota player's namesake, said he received hundreds of insults and death threats on his social network profiles, as well as his family and his employer were contacted.
© 2019 AFP