Our pets to be sold to laboratories

From now on pet breeders are authorised to supply laboratories with animals to experiment on without being registered. Establishments can therefore now simply get rid of their 'surplus' dogs without any checks being carried out – a very handy way of making money from animals left unsold as a result of businesses not being allowed to operate over the last few weeks.

This is allowed under Decree n° 2020-27 of 17 March 2020, which amends the regulations on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes.

The relaxation of these criteria benefits non-specialist suppliers and will give rise to a new system of shameful abuse and, eventually, make organised massacre legal. France, the European champion in animal experimentation with more than two million victims a year and the country that abuses the most dogs in laboratories, is once again showing that there are no limits to its vileness.

A veritable supermarket for experimenters

All breeds of dog and puppy are destined for the scalpel. Breeders of hunting dogs have a particularly close relationship with laboratories, supplying them with numerous victims such as beagles, springer spaniels and pointers. Being medium-sized, gentle and docile, hunting dogs are in fact very popular 'subjects of scientific research' because they are easier to handle.

Moreover, since 2018 the number of dogs that establishments are allowed to breed, sell, transport and keep with no prior authorisation, professional certification nor specific regulations to protect them has risen from 50 to 250. As the rate of inspection of registered establishments in France is already one of the lowest in the European Union, the new suppliers of laboratories will also certainly take advantage of this new source of income to bend the rules even further. Laboratories are also well protected from sanctions since only 20% of the inspections carried out in France are unannounced, whereas the average in other countries is 40%.

The fate that awaits the victims …

The abuse inflicted on the dogs is indescribable: medicaments are tested on them, they are injected with viruses, they are poisoned so that the symptoms and resultant damage can be studied, their organs are 'examined', they are made ill or mad in the name of science and genetic experiments are carried out on them, all in prison conditions. Laboratories use a diabolical range of methods to kill animals, inflicting unimaginable suffering on them. Those dogs that do not die by violence or in protracted agony are killed in order to be sold as 'spare parts'.

This is not only unmitigated cruelty but scientifically flawed. We know that none of the results obtained by animal experimentation can be applied to humans, whereas it is perfectly possible to use substitutes to develop scientific solutions: cell cultures, mini-organs in vitro, digital modelling (in silico), mathematical modelling etc.

This disgusting torture must cease forthwith!

How can we save these dogs that we love so much?

With your support we can challenge this decree and raise awareness of these government shenanigans. One Voice has submitted an appeal to the Prime Minister and denounced the measures as contrary to European Union regulations and to the guiding principles of Article L. 110-1 of the Environment Code. We also hope that you will respond to this SOS. It is obviously a major undertaking but you can change the fate of dogs sentenced to suffer a dreadful fate by opening your home to them, welcoming them into your family, offering them your protection and giving them back the freedom and dignity that are their due.

Our free appeal to the Prime Minister (in French)

Translated from the French by Patricia Fairey