Animal cruelty - decision delayed on French teens who set fire to a cat

There are plenty of videos that go viral on the Net showing the horrors of what man can do to animals.

Thankfully a search for the one at the centre of this tale brings up nothing, even though the event was recorded on a mobile 'phone and then posted on the Net.

Sadly though, there are plenty of other examples of similar behaviour; each of them surely equally inexplicable to anyone with even a couple of neurones between their ears.

(source Wikipedia, Author - derivative work: howcheng)

In 2006 two adolescents from the south of France had reportedly spent the night drinking and were "looking for something to do".

The pair, according to a report which appeared at the time in the regional newspaper, Midi Libre, decided to relieve their boredom by locking a cat in a cage, dousing it with petrol before setting light to it and watching it die.

"A sordid story," says the animal charity Fondation 30 millions d'amis on it website after the first of the defendants, now 22 years old, appeared in a court in the southern French city of Nîmes earlier this month.

The Fondation was just one of several animal welfare organisations to file a civil suit against the pair. Others included Respectons, the Fondation Brigitte Bardot and the Société protectrice des animaux (SPA).

Speaking on behalf of Respectons, lawyer Frédérique Ortega outlined what made this case especially, in her terms, "barbaric".

"Beyond the acts themselves, the cruelty of these young people also lay in the fact that they made all the arrangements to disseminate these terrible images," she said.

The court has delayed making a ruling in the case against the 22-year -old until April.

A date has not yet been set to hear the case against the other defendant, who was a minor at the time, and will be appear before a juvenile court.

The maximum penalty for such acts of cruelty to animals, according to the 30 millions d'amis website, is a two-year prison sentence and a €30,000 fine.

In 2009 the case of "Mambo" the dog who survived after being set alight resulted in a 22-year-old woman being handed down a one-year prison sentence with six months suspended and a €6,000 fine.

Her 17-year-old companion received an 18-month probationary sentence

Justice for Mambo - the French dog set on fire and left to die

A second online petition has been launched to gather support for "Justice for Mambo", the three-year-old dog set alight by two people in the southern French village of Espira-de-l'Agly in August this year.

Signatures are being gather to demand that the main perpetrator of the crime, a 17-year-old adolescent and therefore a minor before the eyes of the law, be handed down the maximum penalty possible when he stands trial in December.

His accomplice, a 22-year-old woman, has already been sentenced to six months in prison for complicity in an act of brutality and cruelty after she admitted holding down Mambo while the teenager poured gasoline over the three-year-old mongrel and then set him alight.

The reason the two gave for such a senseless crime? Reportedly they were "bored and had nothing better to do."

The story of Mambo is one that has been making the headlines in France for a couple of months now and he has become something of a star in this country.

The plight of the three-year-old mongrel has already mobilised support among the French public - and for just cause.

The act of sheer cruelty left him with third degree burns to 50 per cent of his body and for a while it wasn't certain whether he would survive or have to be destroyed.

The week following the incident over 200 people took to the streets of Espira-de-l'Agly to protest, and an online petition (now closed) was launched with over 13,000 people signing demanding "Justice for Mambo".

Among the signatories were the country's former first lady, Bernadette Chirac, the ex-international football star, actor Alain Delon and animal activist, Brigitte Bardot.

A well-known television and radio presenter, Michel Drucker, volunteered to meet the veterinary bills.

When Mambo was first being treated, the vets were unable to remove the bandages without putting him under anaesthetic.

He has since made slow and painful progress - remarkable given the extent of his burns ) and although he still requires sedation when being handled, as you can see from the accompanying video with a lot of TLC he's well on the road to recovery.



With him throughout has been the woman who found him in the first place, Dany Goizé.

The 59-year-old restaurant owner and volunteer for the SPA has been at the forefront of the Mambo campaign, raising money, answering letters and getting the online petitions up and running.

Goizé and her husband already have another rescue dog, and Mambo can expect a heartfelt welcome in his new home.

"If he wants a kennel, he'll have one," said Goizé

"And if he prefers to sleep in my bed, then that's where he'll sleep."