Arrest after video shows two dogs killed at Mladenovac bakery; meat samples sent for testing

A worker at a bakery in Mladenovac was arrested on suspicion of killing two dogs on 15 August; authorities have seized meat from the premises and sent samples for extraordinary forensic testing to determine whether any of it reached customers.

Video circulated online; bakery temporarily closed

According to public reports and footage shared on social media, the incident took place on 15 August at about 12:00, when two stray dogs entered the yard of a well-known bakery in Mladenovac. The arrested man, identified by police only by his initials G.Ž. (55), is alleged to have confined the animals in a trailer and then beaten them to death with a wooden stick; the video shows the man striking the dogs.

Witnesses say the bodies were carried behind the building, where the bakery’s slaughtering and meat-processing facilities are located. Residents and local animal-protection groups alerted the authorities after the footage spread online.

Police went to the scene, the bakery was temporarily closed, and, by court order, meat samples from the establishment were collected and sent for urgent laboratory examination to establish the full circumstances and to check what kind of meat had been offered to customers.

“I was rushing to the cemetery because my father died and we were holding the seven-day memorial. My employee Goran came to work regularly. Every morning around the shop there were about 20 dogs waiting and he could not get out of the car because of them. That dog was the largest among them and he lured it into the trailer. The dog pushed its head into a hole on the side and started to whine, and the footage was taken from the neighboring garage. The dog suffocated, and he could not pull it out. I claim that he did not do it on purpose,” said the bakery owner, Rade Dragović.

Dragović told reporters that the employee later took a body to a dump where police later found it. “He was arrested, held 24 hours, and then before the prosecutor he admitted what he had done, apologized and said that he does not know what to expect and that he would never do it again. He has elderly parents aged 70 and 80, is unmarried, a man who came to work for a salary,” Dragović added.

Addressing the rapid online accusations about the origin of the bakery’s meat, Dragović rejected the claims and said authorities took all samples. “Yes, they took samples of the meat, they took everything because it was claimed that we allegedly use dog meat. That is a huge lie and untruth! You will receive the official analyses to review as soon as they arrive from the authorities and that is that,” he said.

Prosecutors have filed criminal charges against the suspect on suspicion of animal killing and mistreatment; the investigation is ongoing.

Photo: press material from the event