The Ebola health worker sentenced to €2,100 for denouncing the sacrifice of her dog: "They kill us Excalibur and on top of that we have to pay"

"It's awesome.

In addition to killing our dog, we are punished for reporting it.

He sends noses.

This is how this corrupt country works.

Teresa Romero

, the nursing assistant who contracted and overcame Ebola in the fall of 2014 -the first person infected outside of Africa-, has been sentenced to pay 2,100 euros for having denounced the sacrifice of her dog,

, by the

.

“It seems like a real outrage to us,” Romero tells this newspaper.

«They kill the dog without scientific evidence to justify it, and when you denounce them for it, not only do they not agree with you, even though there is no justification for what they have done, but they force you to pay, who is the injured party ».

The ruling of

of Madrid that condemns Romero and his partner, Javier Limón, to pay the costs, does so based on what the law of the contentious jurisdiction qualifies as "bad faith or recklessness."

In reality, it was never possible to establish whether the dog was infected or not, and Spain did not even have the proper facilities to quarantine it.

He was killed just in case, and due to the relative absence of scientific doctrine about his danger or the opposite, as the experts referenced by the regional Administration admitted.

Romero, who became infected while attending an infected priest from Africa at the

in Madrid, was admitted to that same center on October 6, 2014. Together with her, although she tested negative, she was also hospitalized. his partner, Javier Limón, preventively.

That same day -says the lawsuit- Limón is contacted by a senior official from the Community of Madrid, responsible for health in the crisis, to request authorization in order to sacrifice the couple's dog, Excálibur, an 11-year-old American Staffordshire old.

Limón refuses to give that permission “categorically”, and asks that the dog be quarantined.

He alleges that, when leaving their apartment in Alcorcón, with Romero with a fever and in very poor condition, he left Excalibur "several buckets of water, the bathtub also with water and a 15-kilo bag of feed."

He has also left him, he assures, "the terrace open so that he relieves himself."

It says more, according to the lawsuit: “A dog does not have to infect a person, or vice versa.

Or do I have to sacrifice myself just in case?

But of course, a dog is easier: it doesn't matter so much».

Actually,

and

did care a lot about their dog, in whose care they were very dedicated in their home, located next to several green areas, in Alcorcón.

In fact, before all that, when this newspaper manages to contact them in isolation and first identifies those affected by the first Ebola infection outside of Africa, Limón's greatest concern was his dog: "They want to kill him," comments. "I appeal for them not to do it.

The dog is still not infected and is not to blame for anything.

Animal associations such as

and the

(PACMA) automatically initiate a petition for signatures in various ways.

One of these initiatives collects

375,000 signatures in a few hours on

None of this saves Excálibur, which is slaughtered two days later, on October 8, by order of the Madrid General Director of Planning and Inspection, Manuel Molina.

Romero, who manages to overcome the infection by being given blood serum from a nun who had managed to overcome the virus in Monrovia (Liberia), Sister Paciencia Melgar, later launches a legal action together with her partner to request compensation for the sacrifice .

Both ask for 150,000 euros for the death of Excálibur, who was euthanized directly in the couple's own apartment, then industrially cleaned by the sanitary disinfection services contracted by the Community.

They allege non-pecuniary damage and try to demonstrate the absence of scientific criteria to kill the dog simply by alleging just in case.

They point out, for example, that "the world's leading expert on the role of dogs in Ebola outbreaks, Eric Leroy, director general of the International Center for Medical Research in Franceville (Gabon)", maintained that these dogs had to be kept alive, presumably affected to study them.

According to his study from 2001, dogs can be infected by the virus and would remain, according to him, asymptomatic.

Leroy himself made statements to the Spanish media at that time, asking that Excalibur be isolated and studied.

Romero and Limón also alleged that the United States, in the case of nurse Nina Pham's dog, also infected at the same time as Romero, quarantined her dog Bentley and it turned out to be negative, and survived the trance.

The Community of Madrid alleged, for its part, that an opinion was requested at that time from José Manuel Sánchez-Vizcaíno, director of the reference laboratory for African horse and swine fever of the World Organization for Animal Health, and professor at the Complutense.

He replied that "there are not many scientific publications on the subject" and that "the immunological findings show the infection of canids by the Ebola virus with asymptomatic symptoms, not ruling out that it can excrete viral particles in urine, feces and saliva for a period short".

For this reason, he considered poor Excalibur "a high risk factor" and called "to euthanize the animal as soon as possible and with the appropriate biosecurity and biocontainment measures."

After authorizing a Madrid court to enter the home for the sacrifice, Limón, with Romero in his worst hours of fighting the disease, files an appeal to stop the sacrifice.

The Ministry of the Environment then intervenes, stating that "there is no biosafety level 4 facility in Spain where the animal can be quarantined."

Excalibur is sentenced.

"It's amazing that on top of that they fine you for claiming something that is totally lawful," Romero cries today.

She and her partner appealed the amount of the fine, filed in the sentence, which dates from 2017, and Justice has again denied them, now, the reason: if the normal scale of 10% of the requested compensation had been applied, They would have been sentenced for more than 15,000 euros to pay for the services of the lawyers of the Community of Madrid, reads the cost appraisal order promulgated by the Madrid TSJ, which EL MUNDO has accessed.

"The truth is that I don't understand anything, and on top of that it seems like disproportionate money," Romero ends.

At least for his apartment in Alcorcón, Alma, the successor of Excalibur, has been running around for years.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more