The Animal Friends Croatia association has filed a criminal complaint against the animal owner, and is also seeking to establish the responsibility of the veterinary inspection that failed to respond promptly to citizens' reports.
The Animal Friends Croatia association filed a criminal complaint on Wednesday with the Municipal State Attorney's Office in Zadar against the owner of a cow and a calf on suspicion of animal torture and abandonment. The case that horrified the public occurred near Biograd, where the two animals roamed for nearly a month without any supervision or access to water in extremely high temperatures.
The exhausted cow died, and its body was left to decompose for at least a week. During that entire time, the frightened calf stayed by its dead mother, and its life was saved solely by a conscientious citizen who brought it food and water. The calf was only taken into care after days of media pressure.
Under current regulations, merely abandoning animals is punishable by up to one year in prison. However, since in this case the complete lack of care and denial of water directly caused the cow's death, the owner faces a stricter penalty, up to two years in prison. The Animal Friends association expects the maximum prescribed penalty for the perpetrator.
The criminal complaint requests an urgent investigation and identification of the owner by checking the animals' identification marks in the Unique Register of Domestic Animals, as well as taking witness statements. It also requests obtaining documentation on the actions of the police and inspections and verifying whether an autopsy was performed on the dead cow and a veterinary examination on the surviving calf.
Animal Friends particularly criticized the work of the veterinary inspection, which they claim was informed of the case but failed to respond in a timely manner.
"Once again, the inspection only reacted when it was already too late for the animal. This is unacceptable! That is exactly why we are calling for the establishment of an animal protection inspection that would cooperate with shelters, veterinary stations, municipal police, the police, and associations, enabling faster, more professional, and more effective responses to citizens' reports. We want an effective animal protection system in Croatia that will prevent tragedies, rather than having institutions count the damage in the lives of innocent animals every time!" the association said.
The association points out that this is just one in a series of cases where the suffering and death of an animal could have been prevented if the responsible services had reacted in time.
