The members of the ANSE group are utterly outraged by the ridiculous fine imposed on a pig production company for negligence in protection of electrical lines which have cost the lives of several griffon vultures.
The General Secretariat of the Ministry of the Environment has made a decision recently filed an administrative appeal against the resolution of the Natural Environment Directorate of 2020 to impose a fine of 15,000 euros, in addition to damages of more than 70,000 euros, on the owner of the farm GANADERÍA LA TOVA, for the deaths of ten griffon vultures, which the Environmental agents found in 2019.
Vultures killed by negligence
The discovery of these corpses of griffon vultures, with symptoms of electrocution, took place at the foot of several supports of two high-voltage lines that supply this pig farm. The supports were located both within the intensive production farm and in the vicinity of the Ganadería La Tova company.
Before initiating sanction procedures, in January 2020, the Directorate General for Natural Environment sent a request to correct the electrical lines to Ganadería La Tova. Months later, in June of the same year, Environmental Officers reported that the supports had not been corrected as the company had been ordered to do.
The excuse was that it could not correct the support due to the pandemic situation. In November 2020, environmental officers reassessed the supports and determined that they were either not insulated or were poorly insulated and therefore they reported that they had still not taken anti-electrocution measures.
The accused company claimed this in the sanctions file had no intention of breaking anti-electrocution rules. But the General Directorate of the Environment interpreted that the Royal Decree of 1998, which regulates the protection of birds against collisions and electrocution in high-voltage lines, was mandatory.
This was so, since in 2018 the Directorate General of Energy issued a resolution establishing that all electrical distribution lines of the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia, which did not meet the technical requirements laid down in the Royal Decree of the State, had to be obligatorily corrected by their owners at their expense.
In accordance with this resolution, the Ganadería La Tova electricity line will be constructed It is located in the protected area identified with number 49 and called Barranco.Thus, Medio Natural concluded that the company was aware of this situation and the need to comply with the technical requirements of the Royal Decree long before the warning from Medio Natural’s general manager in January 2020.
The resolution of the appeal was signed by the Secretary General of the Ministry of EnvironmentEnrique Ujaldón, and may be appealed to the court by the company Ganadería La Tova.
The Southeast Naturalists Association criticized the decision to reduce the initial compensation amount by almost 60% for the costs of replacing the animals, namely 72,000 euros, and eliminating the increase in the CPI. “Castilla-La Mancha imposes 6,000 euros per copy plus the CPI,” they noted.
Because we have the opportunity to take exemplary measures, we have chosen lukewarmness when it comes to punish the deaths of these vultures, victims of negligence from a company that ignored all warnings in this regard.