Valais prosecutor is suing Pierre D. in federal court

The public prosecutor of Wallis does not want to agree with the acquittal of gamekeeper Pierre D.* (57), who allegedly mistreated two young golden eagles. She’s taking the case to federal court. “The Wallis prosecutor’s office has appealed to the Federal Supreme Court against the cantonal court’s acquittal,” Wallis Attorney General Nicolas Dubuis told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Friday.

The public prosecutor had accused the game warden of having kept and abused two eagles without a permit between 5 and 23 July 2018. Although the Valais hunting service had instructed its employees to take the protected animals to a bird sanctuary in Vaud as quickly as possible, he tied them to his stable with a metal leash and posed with them in the car.

Not a clean slate

In the first instance, the court of Sion sentenced the gamekeeper to a suspended fine of 40 daily rates of CHF 330. The district court acquitted him in January. The court ruled that catching the birds of prey at short notice was part of the gamekeeper’s job description and that without his intervention the birds “most likely would not have survived”. The subdistrict court therefore concluded that the man had not violated applicable animal protection legislation. The gamekeeper was reported by the University of Bern.

Pierre D.* is not a blank slate. Time and time again he ends up in the mill of justice because of animal welfare violations. For example, he would have illegally shot a deer during a trophy hunt in a zone where hunting is not allowed. Blick made even more serious accusations against the man in public in 2020. A hunter said at the time that Pierre D. had asked him several times to shoot lynxes. “He said it was our job to destroy the predators in Valais.” Ten years ago, the gamekeeper organized a wolf hunt on an alpine pasture under the same motto.

* Name changed

(SDA/sf)

Source:Blick