Grobbendonk (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The police arrested a woman who lives in Grobbendonk in the province of Antwerp on charges of partner abuse. On Tuesday, the injured man approached his neighbour’s front door but appeared confused and severely hurt. The police located 60 neglected dogs when they went to arrest the woman.
Local police detained the woman from Grobbendonk after her 48-year-old partner became seriously injured and confused on Tuesday evening. The authorities found 60 neglected dogs when they arrested her because all the animals were in bad shape. Law enforcement officials currently detain the woman after prosecutors filed multiple charges against her for torture and unlawful detention alongside intentional assault. The dogs found in her home received shelter placement at various institutions.
The 48-year-old male resident in Grobbendonk faced severe medical complications after neighbours found him, which led to hospitalisation. Initial investigation findings point to his partner as being responsible for inflicting the abuse. When police officers arrived at the residence to make an arrest, they witnessed sixty dogs in extremely poor conditions.
Those dogs were in a dire condition. They have since been removed from there and placed in various shelters,
says Kristof Aerts of the Antwerp public prosecutor’s office.
Staff from shelters took over caretaking responsibilities from the animal welfare organisation for the 60 dogs that were relocated to multiple facilities. The investigating judge arrested the woman before placing her under detention for charges including torture and unlawful detention together with intentional assault and battery and withholding food from a vulnerable person.
What is the background of the Grobbendonk incident?
In Belgian society, the connection between domestic abuse and animal neglect has become a growing subject of attention. The Belgian Institute for the Equality of Women and Men recorded a total of 45,000 incidents of domestic abuse during 2022 despite unreported cases being a significant portion. Animal neglect incidents tend to increase when domestic violence occurs, and these cases happen mostly in rural communities such as Grobbendonk, located in Antwerp province.
Belgium’s Animal Welfare Service documented more than 3,000 instances of animal neglect in 2021 due to a 15% surge compared to 2020. This animal neglect situation became more severe after the discovery of 60 abandoned dogs. Local shelters that are already at their maximum limit struggle to care for this large number of animals.
