The start of the trial of bullfighting rider João Moura, accused of 18 crimes of mistreatment of pets, is scheduled for September 18 at the Portalegre Court, judicial sources said today.
The same sources indicated to the Lusa agency that the trial starts at 09:30, in the Local Criminal Court of Portalegre, located in the court building of the Alentejo city.
João Moura is accused by the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) of a total of 18 crimes, 17 of them of mistreatment of pets and one of aggravated mistreatment of pets, for facts that occurred in 2019 and 2020, on his property in Monforte.
The bullfighting rider was arrested by the GNR on February 19, 2020, on suspicion of mistreatment of animals, following the fulfillment of a search warrant for his property, in Monforte, having then seized 18 dogs.
At the time, GNR source said the arrest had arisen following an investigation by the Nature and Environmental Protection Service (SEPNA).
“There was a notice drawn up by the GNR”, which “gave rise to a criminal case”, said the same source.
After interrogation held that day at the Court of Portalegre, João Moura was constituted defendant and was subject to term of identity and residence.
In the indictment, to which the Lusa agency had access, the MP describes the state of health of each of the 18 animals when they were seized and the bullfighting rider detained by the GNR.
Some animals, according to the indictment, were thin or in “poor body condition” and others were “markedly thin” or in “cachectic condition”, among other classifications on a scale applied.
All the greyhounds seized had injuries or abrasions and infections caused by parasites, with some having diseases, without there being “any signs of treatment”, indicates the MP in the indictment.
A dog, almost eight years old, who “suffered from acute liver and kidney failure”, in addition to presenting a “state of cachexia” and “deep cuts in the metacarpal area with no signs of healing”, ended up dying on the day of the GNR operation.
The MP adds that, at least between December 2019 and February 19, 2020, João Moura “deprived the 18 animals of access to sufficient water and food, clean accommodation, any health and hygiene care, vaccination and deworming treatments”.
On the day of the police operation, the dogs were “confined in horse boxes, two to five animals per box, without any equipment or utensils for providing food or water”.
“The spaces where they were housed had a large accumulation of excrement from many days” and the dogs “did not have a dry and soft space to rest, sleeping on the cement and on the accumulated waste”, describes the MP.
The indictment concludes that João Moura, instead of “providing health care, nutrition and hygiene” to the animals, “treated them cruelly, knowing that by his conduct he caused them injury, pain, hunger, thirst, discomfort and, as a result, suffering”.