The Klaipėda District Court on Wednesday found a farmer guilty of reckless endangerment of life after her rabbit fatally injured a man.

According to the court's announcement, D.M. was convicted of recklessly taking the life of another person in violation of the special safety rules for behaviour laid down by law.

The court sentenced the woman to 4 years' imprisonment, suspended for a period of 2 years, with the obligation not to leave the city (district) of her residence without the permission of the authority supervising the convicted person during the period of suspension of the sentence.

The court also decided to partially satisfy the civil claims of the four victims and to award them EUR 53,000 in non-pecuniary damages and EUR 2,740 in pecuniary damages.

The charges in the case were brought against D. M. after a bull she kept escaped from a pasture in the Klaipėda district on 16 November 2023 at around 1 p.m. (through a disconnected electric shepherd's crook), ran to the home property of A. N., attacked and injured A. N., who was taken to the hospital, and died in the ambulance.

The Court finds that the guilt of D.M. of the offence charged against her is proven.

The defendant pleaded not guilty in court and stated that she had been farming for over 40 years and that she had provided adequate protection for the cattle. She claimed that she did not know who pulled out the electric shepherd. The farm itself, she said, does not belong to her, she only owns the land. According to the defendant, her livestock, 10 heifers and a bull, were loose because they could not be tethered.

The court held that the defendant, as the keeper of the animals, had a duty to ensure that the animals kept by her did not endanger human life and did not go outside the land on which they were kept alone. 

As stated in the court's report, in the present case, account has been taken of the fact that on 8 August 2023, i.e. 3 months before the event in question, the defendant had been administratively sanctioned for failing to ensure that the cows belonging to the defendant did not leave her property, as a result of which, when they did leave the property, they caused damage to other people's property.

„ The court stated that objectively the defendant's act, namely the disregard of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Welfare and Protection of Animals and the Rules on the Keeping of Animals in the Residential Areas of the Municipal Territories of the Republic of Lithuania, was the cause of the death of A.N., and that this constitutes the legally relevant causal link between the act and the consequences, and that the consequences were the result of the lawful result of the act, “, as stated in the court's announcement.

In imposing the sentence, the court took into account the fact that the defendant had committed a reckless and completed offence, had no previous convictions, had not admitted guilt in the present case, had been subjected to an administrative penalty for a similar offence, and was a farmer. The Court also took into account the absence of mitigating and aggravating circumstances in relation to her responsibility.

The verdict may be appealed against to the Klaipėda Regional Court.