Animal activists accuse six people of killing dogs to sell their meat
HAVANA, Apr 12. Three men allegedly detained this Thursday in San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque province, and three other people still on the street have beenaccused by animal activists of killing community dogs to sell their meat as if it were pork or mutton.
Activist Yenney Caballero reported the arrest of the alleged perpetrators of the massacre, first in a live broadcast from her Facebook profile, in which she showed police outside a house where the detainees were, and later in a publication with other details of what happened.
“Right now they found some guys here with a briefcase that contained dog heads. A few of the dogs that have been lost in San José de las Lajas, which are not few, were inside that crate; they killed them to sell the meat “, said.
In the midst of an economic crisis that mainly affects the daily diet of Cubans, crime is used to profit, although the cost implies risks to the health of deceived people and acts of animal abuse.
According to the animal rights activist, a woman who had lost her pet was the one who filed the complaint.
“What these unscrupulous elements did is criminal, they killed the vast majority of the community dogs of San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque province, also many animals that had families, who until today did not know the whereabouts of their pet,” Caballero added in his second complaint, shared by the BAC Habana group, a subsidiary of Animal Welfare Cuba.
The activist showed images of the alleged detainees at the Police station, where she went to confront them.
Read also: CUBA APPROVES ANIMAL WELFARE LAW AFTER CIVIL SOCIETY PRESSURE
“Families are walking there who bought the meat thinking it was mutton or pork. There are children sick because of this issue,” Caballero said. “The animal rights movement in Cuba demands justice, that the full weight of the law falls on these criminals who do not even deserve the air they breathe,” she added.
According to Caballero, three more suspects are still to be arrested: two women and a man. “The pain I feel is great, there are little dogs that took great care of themselves,” she said.
The animal activist asked for an immediate change in the Animal Welfare Decree in Cuba. “Tough hand with all abusive criminals. Be careful with what they buy to feed their families,” she concluded.
In February 2022, the Animal Welfare Decree-Law was approved by the Council of State, representing an achievement of the Cuban animal movement. Still, activists who demand the protection of animals in Cuba constantly question the effectiveness of the Law. They say that legislation is needed that effectively protects because fines do not do so.
Referring to the effectiveness of the law to stop animal abuse, the founder of Bienestar Animal Cuba (BAC), Javier Larrea, said that “it is a tool that is put into practice only when there are high-profile cases, which make the machinery of complaint is launched, and the authorities are forced to act.
