The Asociación Galgos del Sur has made sure that the death by hanging of Simba, a black Labrador Retriever, does not go unpunished. Criminal court number two of Jaén found it proven that his owner hanged him in a derelict farmhouse in Jódar (Jaén) and sentenced him to nine months in prison and three years of special qualifications for animal possession and practicing a profession, trading or trafficking in them.
The sentence describes how the accused, owner of Simba, went with him to a semi-demolished farmhouse in the Portillo area of the town of Jódar (Jaén) on an undetermined date in October 2020. Intending to bring about his death, he tied rope around the animal’s neck and a beam to hang it up, and held it by the neck until the dog died. In order to cover up the crime, the dog’s owner deregistered him on October 26, 2020 and claimed that he died in an accident, “knowing that he was untrue,” according to the verdict.
The events date back to November 10, 2020 when protectors Galgos del Sur and Magina Animal informed the Guardia Civil of the discovery of a dead dog hanging from a beam. The Úbeda Investigative Court No. 3 dropped the case because there was insufficient evidence of a crime. Galgos del Sur persisted and appealed to the provincial court, citing “several pieces of evidence, circumstantial evidence and contradictions in the interrogations conducted in court”. Finally, the provincial court reopened the case a year and a half ago.
“The defendant initially argued that the dog had an accident and searched for it for four or five days, which later became 20,” says Dulce Aguilera, attorney for Galgos del Sur, of Justicia, Animales & Medio Ambiente law firm. . It also raised the suspicion that he had recognized the animal just before Seprona, simply because he had seen the photos of the hanged dog on a social network. “It is impossible to recognize the animal in this dark patch, except where the picture was taken; there are a thousand black dogs”. He even visited the person who found the body.
Simba’s owner denied his guilt throughout the trial until he confessed in court, although he did not explain why he made the horrific decision to hang the animal. The dog was not registered as a hunting dog and there is no evidence that it was used for hunting. The Asociación Galgos del Sur, which collects around 400 greyhounds and hunting dogs abandoned by hunters every year, is “satisfied” with the verdict. Mainly because “conducting a criminal case for animal cruelty is enormously complicated, not only because of the evidence, but because it involves a lot of effort and financial expense for small, non-profit organizations,” Aguilera clarifies. Many end up giving up.
Hence the importance of Galgos del Sur acting as a private prosecutor. In another case, Simba’s death “would have been archived and forgotten, as happens in the vast majority of criminal cases for animal cruelty and where the charges are brought by the prosecutor,” he says. The importance of public and private allegations in this type of trial is that they become virtual guarantors of the progress of criminal proceedings. A job they do for “Simba and so many like her who have lost their lives unfairly and cruelly,” the association concludes in a statement.
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