A MAN has been found guilty of animal abuse and theft after a chicken massacre in the Alpujarras.
The brutal attack saw at least four hens and a rooster butchered, with two live birds stolen during a night-time swoop on a farm in the hamlet of Canjayar.
But the attacker was caught on film after the property’s owner installed security cameras amid a slew of robberies.
The farmer told an Almeria City court that he had bought the high tech kit “in case someone broke in,” since his land was “unfenced” and he had heard that “robberies were taking place” on nearby smallholdings.
He added he was unsurprised at the identity of the culprit because “I know him and so do the Guardia Civil,” before admitting that the raid had hit his family hard because his daughter had raised them as pets “since childhood from the moment I took the chicks out of the incubator.
“Between six and eight chickens died or vanished that night,” he confirmed.
The judge presiding over the case said after viewing the footage that the defendant was “clearly recognisable” as he fled “with the sack” in which he had placed the stolen fowl.
He must serve 10 months in prison and pay fines totalling €340.
