A 66-year-old farmer was set upon by a pack of dogs and killed as he worked on his land in Beniarbeig in the province of Alicante in the last week of February.

All five dogs, which are of breeds considered dangerous, belong to a neighbour and appear to have escaped from his property. Consequently, the man could be charged with manslaughter.

Furthermore, four of the dogs do not have microchips and neither does the owner have a licence to own such dogs nor the obligatory public liability insurance required for having such breeds.

The body of the victim, who had been working on a vegetable plot, was discovered by his son. He had gone looking for his father after not being able to contact him via his mobile. The victim was literally ripped apart.

When the Guardia Civil arrived they soon deduced that the injuries had been caused by more than one animal owing to the numerous paw prints. They checked their records on reported incidents involving dogs, which led them to the address of a nearby house – his neighbours had made complaints about the amount of dogs he had.

The owner said that they were inside and brought them out one by one. Although the dogs had no blood stains, the police noted that one of the pit bulls and bull terriers was still wet from having recently been washed – the owner claimed that it had fallen into the pool.

The dogs were taken away to a Seprona compound and DNA samples taken, but they attacked one of the carers and wrecked a cage so they were put down the next day.

Three people were killed during 2016 by these breeds of dogs: in May a 70-year-old man was killed by his Belgian shepherd, in June a 4-year-old boy was killed in Jaén and in November a 74-year-old man was killed in Alicante, too.

(News: Beniarbeig, Alicante, Valencia)