A pound offends again despite serious and ongoing malfunctions. One Voice is contacting the authorities

Photo: DR

In pounds, animals are stockpiled while waiting to eventually be reclaimed. If this does not happen, after being held for eight days, they are euthanised. We have investigated several of them, where cats, victims of feline straying, are slaughtered en masse and dogs are killed with no hint of remorse. As if this painful ending is not enough, the animals can be victims of other unbearable mistreatment here.

A pound where the reputation of the manager speaks for itself

The Ranguevaux pound-rescue, also called Arche de Bouba, has been in the sights of associations for several years. There were dozens of reports concerning the treatment of the animals, carried out with the Moselle Prefecture. And yet!

Since 2013, various checks by public authorities have resulted in seizures of animals kept in miserable conditions and closures. As unacceptable as it may seem, the management has even been condemned for animal abuse and deceptive business practices. In May and August police officers went back to the site.

An alert about sick cats

This pattern of serious systemic failings happened again around Christmas. In unsanitary housing in the town of Crusnes, around thirty cats that had been left abandoned (out of the 70 estimated to be living there) were seized and transferred to the Ranguevaux pound in a catastrophic state of health. We are talking fleas, worms, coryza, typhus, feline infectious peritonitis; in short, a combination diseases that are fatal and extremely contagious among cats.

The cats had been cooped up with no care in the pound, on the grounds that it was too complicated to find a veterinarian during the end-of-year holidays. To the suffering caused by the diseases and the pure madness of the person who was keeping them were added the health risks and lack of responsibility from public services represented by this pound. On Monday 26 December, police officers accompanied by elected representatives from the community and an animal protection association went to the site to rescue the sick cats and send them to another establishment in Moineville.

However, one question remains unanswered. Out of the 70 cats mentioned in one of the reports, only thirty had been taken to Arche de Bouba. Where are the other forty? Are they still in the unsanitary housing, left on their own? Have they been taken in by rescue centres or transferred to another pound?

How can a person who is so blasé, particularly one known to be guilty of abuse, still be allowed to carry out activities involving animals? Worse still, to manage a pound and therefore represent a public service? What are the authorities waiting for to get this place closed down, and why are mayors agreeing and therefore subsidising this place?

We need an urgent plan!

We are immediately writing to the Departmental Directorate for Protecting Populations (DDPP: the Prefecture’s veterinary services) in Moselle to ask for the permanent closure of this pound-rescue which has proven its inability to properly take in and care for our closest companions. More than ever, this establishment and above all its management must not be in a position to take in other animals.

The implementation of a national management plan for feline straying is necessary and urgent! Neutering must be made obligatory throughout France to avoid these dramatic situations that create terrible suffering for 11 million stray cats in France, and for biodiversity.

Sign our petition! Let’s put an end to omerta and euthanasia in pounds! Together, let’s ask to get this miserable place closed down. You can also send a letter to the town mayors concerned and to the Moselle Prefecture too.

For the attention of Mayor Florent BERTELLE - Mairie de Crusnes 2 Rue de la Mairie, 54680 Crusnes
For the attention of Mayor Maurice LORENTZ - Mairie de Volmerange-les-Mines Place Raymond-Locatelli 57330 Volmerange-les-Mines
For the attention of Mayor Pierre TACCONI - Mairie de Guénange 1 place de l'Hôtel-de-Ville 57310 Guénange
For the attention of Mayoress Alexandra REBSTOCK PINNA - Mairie de Nilvange 5 rue Victor-Hugo 57240 Nilvange
For the attention of Mayor Raphaël ELIN - Mairie de Pommérieux 13 rue du Frêne 57420 Pommérieux
For the attention of Mayor Pierre KOWALCZYK - Mairie de Bousse 1 rue de l'Église 57310 Bousse

Translated from the French by Joely Justice