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A 21-year-old young man was sentenced this Thursday to 13 months in prison with a suspended sentence for having killed, in 2018, a dog to the beat in the municipality of Vila Franca de Xira, in the district of Lisbon.
The sentence was handed down this afternoon in the Vila Franca de Xira Court, without the presence of the accused, who was charged with two crimes of mistreatment of pets.
Due to the age of the accused, who was 18 years old at the time of the events, the court decided to apply a conditional prison sentence to his execution, subject to a trial regime and the frequency of awareness-raising actions on animal rights.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, to which agency Lusa had access, the dog died after being cornered by the accused in the kitchen and subjected to several blows, with a slipper, which “hit her in different parts of the body” and caused “several injuries. “. .
The accused knew that by hitting the body of the canid, particularly in the head and abdomen, where the vital organs are housed, he could cause death, as he did, the result he wanted and achieved “, you can read.
The prosecution also claims that the defendant had previously attacked the dog, having caused “several injuries, specifically to the gum of the jaw.”
When reading the sentence, the judge highlighted the aggressive nature of the young man, who already had a criminal record of a different nature, and the “lack of empathy and compassion” for the suffering of the animal.
It was a crime with high intention that reveals a criminal impulse and that of someone who tried to dispose of responsibilities “said the magistrate.
The defendant was sentenced to three months for one of the crimes and 12 for the other, which resulted in a legal clause of 13 months, and the court ruled that they would be suspended due to the age of the young man.
The legal status of animals, which recognizes them as living beings endowed with sensitivity and makes them autonomous from people and things, came into force on May 1, 2017.
The legislation that changed the Civil Code, according to which animals were “things”, resulted from the bills of the PS, PAN, PSD and BE, which were approved unanimously in the Assembly of the Republic.
The new legislation recognizes animals as “living beings endowed with sensitivity and object of legal protection”.
