Spanish vet convicted after dumping his injured dog in a corpse container

A 57-year-old vet from Segovia has been handed down a four-and-a-half month prison sentence for leaving his wounded dog inside a corpse container at a pig farm. He has also been barred from the profession for 18 months.

A Segovia court has ordered him to pay €854.78 in damages to the Segovia Association for Animal Defense, which brought the complaint against him.

The animal recovered, and the association has found a new home for him

Canelo was run over in December 2012 in Fuentemilanos, a small community close to Segovia, and sustained “serious injuries” according to the ruling.

The vet, who has not been named, decided to place the animal inside a bag, which he tied shut with a piece of rope and dumped in a container used for dead animals on a pig farm located in a rural area known as Campillo de Torremilanos.

A criminal tribunal found that this “increased and prolonged the animal’s suffering.”

An animal breeder found the wounded dog hours later and called the local police. Canelo was taken to a veterinary clinic in Segovia, where the animal was only partially conscious, with multiple bruising, hypothermia and dehydration. His left eye was partially out of its socket

But the animal recovered, and the association has since found a new home for him.

Association spokespeople called the incident “horrifying” and noted that “with the new changes introduced into the law, right now the sentence would have been tougher.”

The animal rights group also asked for legislation to expressly acknowledge that animals are “sentient beings,” as other European Union countries do.

Under Spanish legislation, individuals sentenced to less than two years in prison are unlikely to serve time in jail unless they have a previous record.

English version by Susana Urra.