What happened to Pushka? Since last Saturday, the fate of this husky has been agitating social networks. Disappeared during a walk in Bérelles (North), the dog would have, according to its owner, been killed by the mayor of the city. Faced with the denials of the latter, an investigation was opened by the prosecution of Avesnes-sur-Helpe.
Chloé Williame assures that she was walking Pouchka on Saturday morning in the company of a friend, also accompanied by her husky, when the two dogs moved away without reappearing. Worried, the two women say they went looking for them, finding only one of the animals.
With La Voix du nord, Chloé Williame explains that she used social networks to try to locate Pouchka. A person then contacted her, telling her that her dog “was killed by his neighbour”, who is none other than Orféo Rigoni, the mayor of Bérelles.
According to this witness, the man would have shot several times at the dogs that would have entered his garden. Only Pouchka would have been killed. “They say he put the body in a bag and left with it,” says the young woman.
For his part Orféo Rigoni, 77, admits having shot the dogs but denies having killed Pouchka and concealed his remains. “The two attacked my flock of sheep,” he says. With my son-in-law, we tried to scare them away with a stick, but it didn’t work. So, I went to get my shotgun”.
“Three or four rounds” fired
He mentions “three or four cartridges” fired and thinks he hit one of the two huskys but without seriously injuring him “since he left afterwards”. Deploring several injured sheep, the mayor of Bérelles defends himself: “If I had not been there, he could have done a lot of damage”. About the neighbors implicating him in this affair, he declares: “I am not on good terms with these people”.
For her part, Chloé Williame describes Pouchka as a “playful dog who has never harmed other animals or humans”. The young woman and her companion, who opened a kitty, decided to file a complaint against Orféo Rigoni. The latter, heard this Monday by the gendarmerie, is targeted by insults on social networks, from Internet users convinced of his guilt.
Wishing to prevent things from escalating, the police are exercising caution in the context of this case. Without Pouchka’s body, the veterinary investigation, which could be decisive, is for the moment compromised.