2023-08-23 08:54:45
This is an authorized practice “as a last intention” and which should in no way be systematic. The cutting of pigtails on farms, called tail docking, is regularly criticized by associations defending animal welfare. On June 30, the latter experienced “a turning point” when they saw a breeder from Finistère being sentenced by the Brest criminal court for systematic tail docking. Made public on Tuesday by the L214 association, the court’s decision is accompanied by a fine of 1,500 euros against the breeder and 20,000 euros against her farm based in Ploudiry.
The farmer, who declined to comment on the decision, appealed her conviction. Aged 51, she had been the subject of a complaint in May 2022 after posting a video on Facebook where we saw pigs having undergone a partial section of the tail. Tail docking should only be used as a “last intention in view of the pain induced by this practice”, recalled the court. “Condemning the systematic cutting of pigs’ tails marks a turning point: practiced in 99% of farms, this method is however never sanctioned by the state veterinary services”, commented the association for the defense of animals in a press release. .
Tail docking aims to prevent pigs from biting the tails of their peers in intensive farming, which is often conducive to this type of behavioral disorder. Rather than resorting to systematic tail docking, the regulations recommend “reducing the stress of animals at the origin of the practice of cannibalism”, for example by “providing them with light, water and food in sufficient quantity”, underlines the court of Brest. During a search of the farm (5,500 pigs raised each year), the inspectors indeed observed “cachectic pigs whose malnutrition was obvious, the animal having drawn on its reserves”, according to the judgment.
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