Arancha C. was 27 years old when she went out running with her dog around Roales del Pan (Zamora, 1,000 inhabitants) on October 24, 2023. She alerted her mother by phone when a shepherd’s dogs, loose, attacked her fatally. The young woman narrated to her mother what was happening before dying from more than 100 bites she suffered from the animals, which were guarding some sheep belonging to Pedro G., 60 years old, whose pack usually bothered walkers using those rural paths. The Prosecutor’s Office demands two and a half years in prison for him, four for the family, and 250,000 euros in compensation for negligent homicide: the man had his dogs uncontrolled and was not present when they attacked, which could have contained the animals. The trial begins this Thursday in the Zamora Criminal Court.
Read more A religious order owns 47 properties obtained through donations in the heart of Madrid
The Civil Guard took over the case investigations as soon as they were informed that the victim, a nursing assistant in Zamora city who lived with her parents in this village five kilometers from the provincial capital, had been attacked by the seven dogs on paths a few kilometers from Roales and very close to La Hiniesta, Pedro G.’s village and where he had a livestock farm. The agents arrested the owner of the animals, three mastiffs, two German shepherds, and two puppies of these, who were cared for by the veterinary services of the Junta de Castilla y León. All ended up being euthanized at a specialized center in Simancas (Valladolid).
The accused refused to testify when arrested by the Civil Guards, and the young woman’s family needed psychological help: they, alarmed by their daughter, went to the path and found her already beyond saving her life, which the medical teams dispatched to that point also could not achieve. EL PAÍS went to the villages of the young woman and the rancher, and the testimonies were practically unanimous, with dismay over what happened and warnings that such situations were relatively common, as the shepherd did not tie or lock up the sheep guardian dogs, and they caused harm to locals, athletes, walkers, pets, or farmers who used those dirt paths. “It was a matter of time,” lamented one of the neighbors of these localities, while another referred to the multiple “scares” caused by the pack, and one more mentioned that some time ago, “next to the fronton,” the animals, poorly cared for and uncontrolled, surrounded a neighbor’s little dog and killed it.
Read more Putin raises economic incentives for going to war
The trial seeks to determine the responsibility of the rancher, who must have control over potentially dangerous animals like these, especially with the history of problems caused to people. Sources from the investigation indicated at the time that it was confirmed, due to these testimonies and similar experiences, that the dogs were not under adequate conditions nor fenced in the veteran shepherd’s lands, who had set up an old caravan as a hut near the incident and his flock, although on the day of the death he was not there. He only came shortly after the death, accompanied by the Civil Guard, to move his sheep and take them from the field where they grazed. The individual was initially placed in provisional prison, due to the risk that he would again engage in this risky and uncontrolled behavior with those dangerous animals, although shortly after his judicial appeal was accepted, and he was released pending the trial that begins this Thursday in the Zamora courts. There, the accused, Arancha C.’s family, the experts who went to the place where the events occurred, and the Civil Guards who went to that location will testify, who reported at the time that the dogs attacked them as soon as they arrived in their car.