The owner of the farm denounces the “scandalous practices” of a “so-called NGO”.
On the images, piled up corpses of goats, kids and doelings in agony, animals subdued with sticks in the milking corridor. The breeding of the Chevenet company, in Saint-Maurice-de-Satonnay in Saône-et-Loire, is the subject of a complaint from the L214 association, famous for its broadcasts of shock images in the farms, and which fights for many years the poor practices of intensive farming. The Mâcon court will have to judge whether the company is guilty of mistreatment and deceptive commercial practices.
The list of grievances is long. Besides the “tens of kids” who “die every day, often after a long agony” and “the dead piled up outside”, L214 reveals for example that livestock have no access to pasture. The campaign of the association is based on the testimony of two former employees in shock. “I thought we were going to work with kids, that there were certainly going to be a few deaths because nature is like that, but I didn’t think we were going to see dead goats and kids left in the middle. others, for whole days. I did not think of intensive breeding with so much abuse.says one of them.
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For his part, Thierry Chevenet, who runs the operation, criticizes “practices“of a”so-called NGO“. He explains the death of the kids by the episodes of strong heat waves this summer. “Unfortunately, and despite all our efforts, acute heat waves can be fatal for animals, as for humans.“, explains Thierry Chevenet. The breeder says he is shocked by the operating mode of L214, judged “scandalous”and denouncespractices of intrusion then manipulation of the images obtained through montages and a staging that does not reflect reality“. In a video posted to social media this afternoon, the 59-year-old farmer says “receiving death threats”.
Cheeses qualified as “farmers”
While L124 presents the two employees who testify as “whistleblowers», the Chevenet company identifies them as «activistswho got hired this summer. “Cameras were installed for several weeks in total absence of our agreement and without any respect for the image rights of our employees”condemns Thierry Chevenet, who recognizes however that the images are “extremely shocking”.
L214 presents Chevenet as “the leading European producer of farmhouse goat cheese” which sells 250 tonnes of cheese per year. In 2021, the company achieved a turnover of 4.7 million euros. According to the association, four million cheeses come out of the pinned production site each year and join as well “the tables of starred restaurants” than supermarket shelves. Warned of Chevenet’s practices, some brands have taken the decision to suspend their supplies. A list of distributors has been made public.
The goat cheeses produced in Saint-Maurice-de-Satonnay are qualified as “farmers” and two of the cheeses have a protected designation of origin. The association denounces the “communication” de Chevenet, which stamps its cheeses with images of goats in the open air. On the site of the largest fresh produce market in the world, at Rungis, Thierry Chevenet is also presented as “the Burgundy goat cheese specialist“.
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