Barcelona pet shop owners jailed for puppy and kitten deaths

THE owners of a Barcelona pet shop in are looking at a year of prison time for letting dozens of puppies and kittens die.

A court in Barcelona has also banned them from having a business of this kind for three years.

The trial came four years after Barcelona city council reported the shop.

In 2015 a city council Animal Protection Department inspection found 135 baby dogs and cats kept in deplorable conditions on the pet shop premises. The council had been tipped off by the FAADA animal rights organisation, which had received numerous complaints about the business from customers who had bought puppies and kittens from the shop and which had died shortly afterwards.

The court found the owners were aware they were not providing sufficient health care for their animals, particularly when it came to serious conditions which caused the puppies’ and kittens’ deaths.

Commenting on the case, Barcelona Deputy Mayor and councillor Laia Bonet said this was the first time a Spanish court had issued a sentence for a pet shop’s mistreatment of animals which resulted in their deaths.

“Today is a historic day in the fight for animal rights”, Bonet maintained, saying that it set a precedent.