The 20 November 2021 law aiming to fight against animal abuse: a clear failure!
The law of 30 November 2021 against animal abuse set numerous objectives to fight against domestic animals being abandoned, to reinforce sanctions against abuse, and even to put a stop to wild animals being kept in circuses and dolphinariums. Since the initial announcement, we have blown the whistle: at the time of the meetings that we participated in with the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, but also during discussions at the National Assembly and the Senate, where the law was amended until it lost its original intention.
Vague proposals left the door open to abuse, under pressure from lobbies. At the time, we felt that we were the only ones who had read between the lines: an ambitious project that was passed on the cheap and which has become illusory in the face of those in the sector ready to do anything to circumvent the law.
Domestic animals ‘protected’ by a ministry that makes fun of them
Neutering, the only solution to feline straying, was not imposed
When it comes to cats or dogs, the implementations that are supposed to protect them are largely pushed aside.
We have been fighting for years for the implementation of an urgent national plan to come to the rescue for millions of cats without a family. At the time when this law was debated, there was a glimmer of hope: an obligation for towns to neuter stray cats was brought up. This was quickly suppressed under pressure from local elected representatives… Instead, there was a report that the government was supposed to submit within the next six months following the enactment, on 1 June 2022 at the latest. But the Ministry of Agriculture, more worried about protecting the interests of a certain agricultural group who have nothing to do with our pets and those who try to help them on the ground at great cost, have still not handed in their copy more than a year and a half later. We have therefore submitted a plea against the State.
A meaningless certificate
To slow down impulsive purchases and abandonments, legislators decided to impose a seven-day period between meeting and officially adopting the animal. This had good intentions, but in reality, the ‘commitment and knowledge certificate’ is totally useless. Intended to ensure that the reflection period is respected, it is nothing but a piece of paper, easily backdated as we have been reporting for months, and the sanctions for doing so are ridiculous. How can anyone think for one moment that a signature on a document will get in the way of abandonments?
A gaping hole: online sales are largely forgotten by this law
Although a ban on the sale of cats and dogs in pet shops was brought in on 1 January 2024, puppy show type events remain authorised.
And for pet shops, a scheme was served up on a platter by the Ministry of Agriculture itself: online sales! These establishments can thus continue their lucrative trade, encouraging people to buy animals on the internet without having even met them or having spoken about families’ wishes, their lifestyle, and the conditions that the animals will be brought into. A quickly made purchase, like a piece of furniture that will decorate our home.
When it comes to the specifics, they can also continue to dedicate themselves to trading living beings on the internet with no respect for legal standards and with no sanctions, nor any against them or the platforms. In 2021, a new measure was imposed on classified advert sites to implement a system to check the identity of the animals before publishing the adverts in particular to avoid trafficking. However, just as strange as this may seem, the big brands did not seem to be concerned and unlawful adverts were put up daily. This was why we filed a complaint against Leboncoin in 2023.
Pounds: places of mass slaughter and an unhappy relay of full rescue centres that are full to bursting
This law could have been an opportunity to put a definitive end to online transfers. This is not the case. We are continuing to fight to get it banned for these animals to be sold or given away on the internet, which is a source of abandonment, misery for stray cats, and mass slaughters in pounds, whether they be managed by public or private stakeholders.
From trompe l’oeil to sleights of hand, all to the detriment of captive wild animals
A new form of exploitation: settled circuses
Since 1 December 2023, circuses have theoretically been banned from acquiring, selling, and breeding from their wild animals. However, we will still need to wait until 1 December 2028 so that no more lions, tigers, or even hippopotamuses can be transported and exhibited in travelling establishments!
Since this law was announced, we have been asking the question: was it public decision makers’ aim to grant wild animals with a peaceful retirement or to benefit from the popularity associated with the announcement?
For almost twenty-five years, we have been relentlessly fighting so that Jumbo, Samba, Valentin , and all of the others will be entrusted to us or placed in partner sanctuaries. Incredible but true: the 2021 law is holding us back in this mission!
In fact, the law allows circuses to keep their animals if they decide to settle or in the absence of a place capable of ensuring the ‘welfare’ of each individual. In both of these cases, circus performers can therefore continue to keep their animals prisoner in minuscule cages, train them, and exploit them.
Tragic consequences for wild animals
Since the law was published, things have rapidly racked up among circus performers. Thus, numerous tiger cubs and lion cubs have come into the world and their exploiters were happily able to trade them before the ban. Some of them have quickly got rid of their animals by sending them to die in overseas establishments. While others are playing for time while patiently waiting for 2028 to be able to say that no solution to place them exists and that they therefore have no other choice but to keep them.
A huge clear-out in French dolphinariums
A long-term fight that is far from being over
Since the cancellation – due to a technical detail – of the 2017 Ministerial decree that foresaw the closure of dolphinariums in France when the cetaceans came to the end of their lives, by banning breeding and swaps, we have continuously begged for a new law to be passed. We have even brought our request before the State Council. Unfortunately, the 2021 law does not prohibit keeping cetaceans, as long as the park follows a scientific programme. Additionally, it does not impose any ban on immediately breeding from them. And to this day, no implementing decree has yet been issued.
Hell continues for cetaceans…
Regardless of which dolphinarium, a minuscule pool constitutes a harmful environment for marine mammals. These remarkably intelligent animals, for whom, coming from the ocean, the notion of walls is strange, find themselves permanently constrained, deprived of the slightest bit of choice in a sterile environment that is void of any activity. The consequences on their health are numerous: stress, sub-dermal lesions, self-mutilation, dental pain, and even death (Aïcko, Moana, and recently Inouk). Our investigations, spread over more than twenty years, and scientific knowledge indicate that it is impossible to improve this very degraded living environment for the animals.
Femke: a symbol of life in captivity in amusement parks
She survived in the Parc Astérix dolphinarium, which is currently closed. After having been torn from the ocean and kept for several years in a concrete pool, unwell, she was separated from her son, Ekinox. She then let herself waste away. Despite our requests for an expert report and our numerous alerts, the dolphin had to be euthanised without us having access to the autopsy to this day. A death that happened after years of suffering due to illnesses that were never treated. Her companions continue to be exploited in other countries.
Aïcko and Galéo, very young dolphins sold far away from their mothers whose protection they lost
In the pools of the Planète Sauvage [Wild Planet] animal park, the dolphins could not escape conflicts, inevitable in these overpopulated places where violence is exacerbated by boredom and where stress reigned. Some lost their lives prematurely, like Aïcko, who drowned and asphyxiated at the age of 6 after months of aggression and weight loss that did not worry the veterinarian that we ran into at Marineland in 2023, appointed by the Ministry of Ecology. His half-brother Galéo who suffered like he did, without his mother’s protection, remained at Parc Astérix.
The last French orcas at Marineland are still suffering and being threatened with a transfer
Also, at Marineland, marine animals are losing their lives. We have never stopped sounding the alarm for them. We have also initiated multiple proceedings for Wikie and Keijo, of which several are still underway.
Let’s once again remind ourselves of the 2021 law allowing marine parks involved in scientific research programmes to continue to keep cetaceans. Incidentally, Wikie has learned to repeat the sound of English words… We wonder what concrete knowledge in favour of wild animals can come from these research programmes involving captive animals that are so far from the culture and languages of the tribes that their parents were brought up in.
Today, after an unrelenting fight to propose a real solution for orcas in a sanctuary rather than in another dolphinarium, the legal system has banned Marineland from moving them before the end of the independent legal expert report. This report, also obtained after a hard struggle, should allow the cetaceans’ state of health and the facilities, as well as the water quality, to be assessed before considering any kind of movement to another dolphinarium, or separating them which could prove fatal.
Wild animal fur production banned: what is reward without risk? An inglorious victory
The ban on mink breeding farms has had mixed success with the 2021 law. Despite parliamentarians and even the Ministry of the Ecological Transition claiming a notable victory in this matter, let’s not forget that two years before the law there were still 11 breeding farms; this number went to 4 during discussions about it, finally reducing to just one at the time of the law being enacted. Therefore, the majority of exploitative farms disappeared before the signing of the law. The incessant work to raise awareness that we have been leading over time and among the public and public decision makers, including in Brussels, ended up reaching a consensus in both chambers. And there are no real opponents against parliamentarians. We note, however, that thanks to our investigations and our commitment, MPs have expanded the ban outlined for mink farms to all other wild animals!
Despite this, domestic animals are still exploited, such as angora rabbits, with their trade and export still being possible. The fight continues and One Voice, the French representative of the international Fur Free Europe coalition, has participated in the European Citizens’ Initiative aiming to ban not only the production, but also the importation and sale of fur within the whole of the European Union.
Some sure steps forward that are certainly very real for those concerned, but minor against the scope of what could be and remains to be done
It is time that we establish solid mechanisms to monitor the law and ensure that it is respected, including regular inspections as well as severe and dissuasive sanctions that we have the right to wait for. It is imperative that the authorities act in a resolute manner and revise and reinforce the current law in order to go further. Concrete measures must and can be taken to guarantee animal welfare. The current inaction is unacceptable and we are waiting for firm commitment in their favour.
Although the ban against “pony school” types of attractions and the hardening of sanctions against zoophilic acts must be highlighted, we must, unfortunately, keep in mind all of the missed opportunities.
That of tackling the problem of domestic and intra-family violence, also known as the Link. For us, the creation of a file listing those who have been convicted or reported for violence towards animals would be a useful tool in the fight against numerous femicides and other tragic events.
But also the entire sections of those who needed it: animals destined for the food industry have been totally excluded by this law and are slaughtered, more often than not after terrible suffering. Laboratory animals were also automatically excluded. When it comes to bull-fighting, a type of torture that we have been fighting against forever, it is still legal in some areas, an unsufferable exception.