The criminal division of the Spanish Supreme Court has confirmed a 15-month prison sentence for a farmer from Córdoba (Andalusia) convicted of animal abuse, after it was found he allowed 170 geese to die from starvation and neglect on his property.
In addition to the prison term, the court imposed a three-and-a-half-year ban on the man from working in any profession or engaging in any business related to animals.
The farmer had challenged an earlier ruling by the provincial court of Córdoba, but the Supreme Court upheld the original verdict, affirming his guilt in a sustained case of mistreatment.
The man, who served as the sole manager of a large farm dedicated to raising geese for pâté, meat, and feathers, was found to have permitted the birds to suffer and die over a period of about three weeks in June 2018 due to a lack of food and basic care.
Evidence presented during the trial revealed that the farmer was fully aware of the animals’ condition, as his employee – responsible for feeding the geese – had warned him about the absence of feed and the animals’ deteriorating health. The court interpreted this as a sign of the owner’s ‘total disregard for the life’ of the geese.
When officials from the Junta de Andalucía’s veterinary services and agents from the Guardia Civil’s environmental protection unit (Seprona) visited the site, they discovered most of the geese already dead, malnourished, and heaped together.
The animals had no access to proper food or clean water, relying only on a small trough and a rainwater pool which they used for drinking, bathing and defecating. No proper veterinary assistance had been provided despite the visible decline in their condition.
The court concluded that the severity and prolonged nature of the abuse constituted a continuous offence, culminating in the collective death of 170 birds, and merited punishment under existing laws.
In its decision, the court stated that ‘the suffering of an animal and the death of a living being require legal treatment that makes sense when we recognise the animal as a sentient being, and therefore worthy of protection in and of itself’.
The judge further stated that the treatment endured by the geese violated both Spanish law and prevailing societal values, underlining that ‘every animal is a sentient being, deserving of respect for its life, whether human or not’.
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