An animal activist from San José de las Lajas published images of heads and other remains
14ymedio, Madrid, 12 April 2024 — The residents of San José de las Lajas, Cuba, went to bed this Thursday shocked after learning that at least three people were detained in a home after being intercepted with bags containing dog heads. According to an animal rights activist living in that town, Yenney Caballero, the individuals killed the animals in order to sell the meat, passing it off as pork or mutton.
“What these unscrupulous elements did is criminal; they killed the vast majority of the community’s dogs in San José de las Lajas, in Mayabeque province. Also many of the animals belonged to families, who until today did not know the whereabouts of their pet,” said the activist, who says that there were many people, recently, who had reported the loss of their pets.
Although there is no official information about the event, the activist was able to record the entire police operation with her cell phone camera without the officers causing the slightest problem. Caballero questioned them about what happened and, although none of those present spoke before the camera, they did not try to eject the woman, who managed to access the interior of the house where the alleged criminals lived.
“This was where they put the dogs in and killed them,” she says, while filming through the hallways. Caballero warned that this Friday she will go to the San José de las Lajas landfill to verify the rumors that there are more parts of the dead animals there.
In a subsequent publication, the activist also posted photographs of the dogs’ heads and other viscera, as well as images of the alleged perpetrators sitting in the police station, which she apparently was also able to access without problems. “There,” she added, “families who bought the meat thinking it was mutton or pork are going there, there are children who are sick because of this issue.”
Caballero took the opportunity to ask, on behalf of the Animal Movement of Cuba, that “the full weight of the law fall” on the guilty and asked the population to be attentive to the food they buy. “These criminals who do not even deserve the air they breathe,” she added.
A few days ago, the provincial government denied news that was circulating about the sale of dog and cat meat in the Havana municipality of Arroyo Naranjo. The Administration Council of Arroyo Naranjo sent inspectors to verify the reported events and concluded that there was “no evidence of a criminal act related to the illegal production of this food product,” a mixed chopped meat sold in the capital.
“Once again, the truth makes its way against the insults that seek to foment panic and mistrust among the population and discredit the health control authorities and those of internal order,” the Government of Havana commented at the time.
In this case, Yenney Caballero justified the need to record what happened in San José de las Lajas. “So that you know what is happening, that it is not a lie, it is not gossip,” she claims in her video.
Those detained could be subject to sanctions under the Animal Welfare decree, but also to others linked to health regulations, if the facts are proven.
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