Story By: Lee Bullen, Sub Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Newsflash
This is the moment a farmer – accused of abusing and intentionally killing animals in the past – drags a cow out of a river using a tractor and a steel cable around its neck as firefighters shout out in shock.
The animal rights group Gaia has filed a complaint against the unnamed farmer from Appelterre-Eichem in the municipality of Ninove in the northern Belgian region of Flanders over the incident.
Gaia spokesperson Michel Vandenbosch told Newsflash: “The farmer tied one of his cows to the tractor with a steel cable around its neck and dragged the helpless animal from the Dender River.
“The farmer kept dragging it even though firefighters present shouted for him to stop.”
The incident is seen in the first video.
The second clip shows the same farmer allegedly throwing away dead geese he ran over with his car.
The incident with the geese, which took place last month, was discovered when animal rights activists checked on the spot where the farmer had allegedly dumped the dead birds.
The farmer is accused of running them over before stripping several crushed carcasses from his tyres before throwing them in the undergrowth.
In 2018, the farmer was also reported to the authorities for dragging a cow behind his tractor for over 400 metres because it was too tired to walk any further.
Gaia said the 2018 complaint was dropped by the authorities, but they hope the latest incident with the cow in the river will be “taken more seriously”.
Spokesperson Vandenbosch told Newsflash: “Our courts need to send a strong message to others than there is no place in our society for animal cruelty. We will not give up until this animal executioner is punished.
“The way he treats animals shows enormous cruelty and a chronic lack of awareness of standards and respect for animals.”
Following the incident, the municipal authorities of Ninove and Geraardsbergen have announced that they are going to take legal action against the farmer.
Els van Camphout, a spokesperson for the NGO Animal Rights, told Newsflash: “The government does not take measures to prevent people who have little or no empathy for animals from becoming farmers.
“Animal Rights calls for a permanent ban on keeping animals, so that they cannot go back to work after they have been caught committing animal cruelty.
“Not just the farmer from Appelterre, but also animal abuse in abattoirs.”
She added: “In our complaints, we demand that slaughterhouse abusers must never be allowed to keep animals again.
“Animals are used as profitable products as the only ultimate goal. Farmers do not care about the life of their animals, but about the economic aspect, namely ‘how much money can I get from one animal’.
“The animals’ short and miserable existence either ends up creepy in the stables or horrifying in the slaughterhouse. There is no right way to exploit someone, just as there is no right way to take life from someone who does not want to die.
“For ‘Animal Rights’, the transition from animal to vegetable proteins is the only way to stop these malpractices.”
The investigation into the Appelterre farmer continues.
