The most important criminal offenses are aggravated animal welfare offenses, health offenses and environmental degradation.
Eleven people in Ostrobothnia are charged with slaughtering sheep without stunning.
The most important criminal offenses are aggravated animal welfare offenses, health offenses and environmental degradation. There are a total of 34 charges.
Special Prosecutor Jarmo Rintalan according to which one of them can be described as the main defendant. All the defendants have denied the criminal suspicions during the pre-trial investigation.
The suspected crimes began in 2003 and continued until 2020. Police suspect more than 2,000 sheep have been slaughtered without stunning during this time.
The more detailed content of the charges will be revealed when the case in the Ostrobothnian District Court begins.
Police has previously reported that a man described as the main suspect is suspected of slaughtering sheep by cutting their throats open without stunning. Such a method of killing is cruel and causes unnecessary suffering and pain to the animal, police said.
During the pre-trial investigation, police heard nearly ten sheep keepers on suspicion of aiding in a felony. They were suspected of allowing illegal slaughter, including by selling sheep to the main suspect and providing facilities for illegal slaughter. In part, the slaughterings have taken place elsewhere than in sheep farms.
The main suspect has been detained during the pre-trial investigation and four others have been arrested or detained.
The pre-trial investigation was originally narrower than what has now been prosecuted. Police once said that the investigation is focused on more than 1,300 sheep slaughtered during 2016–2020 and the way they were slaughtered.
Read more: Ostrobothnian man suspected of serious animal welfare offense, slaughtered more than a thousand sheep without stunning
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