A breeder from Argentine Patagonia was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison, although he is expected to escape incarceration, for animal cruelty, convicted of killing more than a hundred penguins.
The sheep breeder from the province of Chubut (south, 1,400 km from Buenos Aires) was prosecuted for having destroyed nests and killed more than a hundred chicks by clearing land of his own along the Punta Tumbo reserve, which is home to a of the main colonies of Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) on the continent, on the Atlantic coast.
The breeder should not be incarcerated; alternative sentences to prison may be offered to him for a first conviction of less than three years, under the terms of the Argentine Penal Code.
According to the prosecution, which admitted his guilt on November 7, his deliberate action “affected the environment and caused the death of Magellanic penguins”.
Prosecutor Maria Florencia Gomez, who had requested four years in prison on behalf of the public prosecutor, estimated that the breeder had acted with “cruelty” and caused “irreversible” damage with his mechanical excavator “by clearing and turning over the land ( …) taking eggs and chicks”.
Province and environmentalists estimated at the time that during the breeding season, around 175 nests had been destroyed.
The environmental organization Greenpeace, the plaintiff, welcomed the conviction in this case which “constitutes an important step for environmental justice, the protection of penguins and nature” and “creates a precedent in the defense of our ecosystems. country”.
The breeder recognized that “the method used was not correct”, but considered that he “had no other option, due to the State’s failures over the past 10 years”, to establish access routes and boundaries between his field and the reserve.
The Magellanic penguin is a protected species, but considered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as “least concern”, that is to say with low risk of extinction, although in demographic decline.
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