A cattle-rancher has been found guilty of the 2021 slaughter of more than 150 penguins’ eggs and chicks in the south of Argentina, reports the Buenos Aires Times.

Ricardo La Regina, 36, was found guilty of animal cruelty and causing environmental damage at the end of an unprecedented trial in Chubut Province.

The slaughter took place in an area adjoining the Punta Tombo–Punta Clara reserve on the Atlantic coast, a natural sanctuary and nesting site for one of the biggest colonies of Magellanic penguins in the world.

On Thursday, Judges Carlos Richieri, Eve Ponce and Laura Martini ruled that La Regina was “criminally responsible for aggravated damage in ideal concurrence with animal cruelty.”

In the trial, which started October 28, the court heard how La Regina had crushed hundreds of Magellanic penguin eggs and chicks, a protected species in Argentina, in order to open up a rural road next to the Punta Tombo nature reserve.

Using a backhoe excavator, and without authorization, “he removed soil … thus running over eggs and chicks which were in the way,” prosecutors alleged during the trial.

La Regina destroyed at least 175 nests, with an average of two eggs per nest, while creating the road and installing an electrified fence without the appropriate permits.

Prosecutors formally accused him of being criminally responsible for the “death of numerous penguins at the Punta Clara ranch, located to the north of the Punta Tombo reserve, during the period between August and December 2021.”

It will now be up to the judges to pass down a sentence and determine La Regina’s penalty. The grounds for the ruling and his punishment will be announced at a hearing on  November 11.