The prosecution of Niort opened an investigation after the Monday broadcast of a video by the organization L214 showing rabbits heaped in cages in a breeding Deux-Sèvres, learned Friday AFP from judicial source. This preliminary investigation aims to verify the existence of possible "animal abuse" and "whether the regulations were respected or not" in this farm located in Nueil-les-Aubiers, said the same source. The investigations were entrusted to the gendarmes of the Bressuire research brigade.
Veterinary inspection in targeted breeding
In a video shot illegally between late May and August 2019 and mediatized Monday, L214 shows rabbits crammed in wire mesh cages, "barely more than a sheet A5", or nearly 15 x 21 cm, per rabbit. "Veterinary service agents (...) immediately carried out an inspection in the target breeding" and "thus noted nonconformities relating to certain animal welfare regulatory criteria", said the Préfecture des Deux -Sevres in a statement. In these cages, denounces L214, "we see rabbits with paws wounded by the caged floor of the cages, as well as dead rabbits among the living".
The L214 animal welfare association regularly broadcasts shock videos to denounce conditions of breeding or slaughter and advocates stopping the consumption of meat. According to her, there were in this operation, at the time of the videos, "8000 rabbits", raised for their flesh. The breeder has filed a complaint for "violation of domicile", according to the judicial source.