Owner acquitted of causing the death of his dog

At the original trial earlier this year, the court was told that on the morning of October 12, 2021 the man tied his Ibizan Hound by its neck to the back of his Renault R4TL. He drove along the MA-5030 in Porreres until another driver managed to get him to stop. The dog suffered multiple abrasions, infection from which spread. The dog died on October 27 as the result of a collapsed lung.

The Prosecutor's Office had called for a seventeen-month sentence. At the trial, the man said that it had been an accident. The boot door had not closed properly. At some point, the dog had fallen out.

The court concluded that the correct thing, as established by an autopsy report, would have been to have taken the dog for treatment. However, the court could not conclude that it had been the man's intention to let the dog die or to not follow the recommendations of a vet. "There is no evidence that he had the intention of letting the dog die or that he was aware that, by not hospitalising the dog, this could mean its death."

The Prosecutor's Office lodged an appeal, maintaining that it was impossible for him not to have been aware that he was dragging the dog and that the judge at the original trial had made an error in accepting the man's version of events.

The appeal drew attention to the video that the other driver had recorded while sounding his horn to warn the driver of the Renault. However, after viewing the images, the court concluded that his behaviour when he had finally stopped the car and got out was compatible with him not having known that he was dragging the dog.