Judge Fines Slaughterhouses for Amazon Deforestation

A judge in Brazil's Rondonia state has ruled against two slaughterhouses, Distriboi and Frigon, for purchasing cattle from a protected Amazon rainforest area. They, along with three ranchers, must pay for environmental damage. A $453,000 collective penalty has been imposed on the five defendants to reforest 232 hectares of pasture. In the ruling, Judge Inês Moreira da Costa stated the slaughterhouses are benefiting from illegal deforestation. Frigon and Distriboi have denied any wrongdoing, stating the state permitted these cattle sales.

The landmark decision is the first to be made in numerous lawsuits that have been filed that aim to seek millions from those trading cattle that were illegally raised in the Jaci-Parana reserve; the former rainforest is now largely pasture. The suits are based on documents that show cattle transfers directly from protected areas to slaughterhouses. Four other slaughterhouses, including JBS SA, the world's largest protein producer, are named in some of those other cases. As a protected reserve, commercial cattle is not permitted in Jaci-Parana, which has seen almost 80% of its forest destroyed. Court filings estimate the environmental damage at $1 billion. (This story was generated by Newser's AI chatbot. Source: the AP)