French Court Fines Power Grid for Harming Animals

I’m made suspicious by the court prosecutor’s statement, “Even if this wasn’t proved scientifically and with certainty, the judge considered there was no other possibility.”  No proof necessary?  Hmmm… Well, is there other proof that high-voltage lines make people and animals ill?

A French court has ruled that power grid RTE must pay 390,000 euros ($493,200) to a farming family after a high-voltage line caused its animals to fall sick, a prosecutor said last week.

[...] A high-voltage line was set up above the farm in 1943 to transport electricity from the nearby hydroelectric dam of L’Aigle but cows and pigs showed worsening health problems when a fifth turbine was added to the dam in the late 1980s, Serge Marcouyoux, a member of the family said.

“From then on it got worse and worse,” Marcouyoux said. “We had to shut our pigsty because we couldn’t stop piglets from dying and the line provoked ulcers and bleeding on our 50 dairy cows and muscular paralysis in our heifers. Many died and became less productive,” he added.

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Tagged as: Animals, Calves, Cows, Farm Animals, Farmers, Farms, France, Hydroelectric Dams, Piglets, Pigs, Power Grid

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