Story By: Ernest Bio Bogore, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency:  Newsflash

A French couple has been fined 135 EUR for repeatedly breaking the country’s coronavirus lockdown to take their pet rabbit for a walk on a lead.

The couple, who have not been named in reports, were fined by the police on Saturday 21st March in the town of Apt, in the south-eastern French department of Vaucluse for walking their rabbit with a lead.

Local media report the pair had previously been stopped on the day after the government announced the lockdown measures throughout the country, with the police letting them go without a fine.

However, after they were caught breaking the lockdown for a second time with their rabbit, the cops handed them a 135-EUR (123-GBP) fine.

According to reports, outings to stretch a pet’s legs are indeed allowed but the police did not see walking a rabbit as reason enough to break the lockdown.

Reports state that fines for breaking the lockdown can be increased to 375 EUR (341 GBP).

The decree stipulates that for those who are caught reoffending “within fifteen days” the fine would then be increased to 1,500 EUR (1,365 GBP).

Similarly, if “four violations” of the containment measure are found “within thirty days”, it will then be an offence “punishable by a fine of 3,750 EUR (3,413 GBP) and a maximum of six months in prison”.

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