SIVU 47: The pound and the authorities prefer to attack whistle-blowers than to resolve the problems highlighted

After the publication of our survey at the Lot-et-Garonne dog pound and our work in Paris with euthanised cats, responses have increased.

In the press, those in charge of the pound and the authorities have refuted the problems or tried to hide them with excuses that are not true (the absence of a veterinarian or images that were out of context), including directly on their Facebook page.

New damning descriptions

At the same time, numerous people came forward to let us know or to confirm that the problems date back at least five years. Some of our supporters even telephoned the authorities who responded to them that “the images [could be] misinterpreted”, that there is “a difference between reality and what we see”. The only difference is that our investigators only stayed for a few days... What would it have been like if they had stayed for a month or more?!

Regulations make no distinction between stray cats and others

for them, there is a distinction between wild cats and others. Are we expected to understand that the wild ones can be tormented without being affected? If this is the Prefecture’s discourse, it is a serious problem because cats, free, stray, or at home, are all called ‘domestic’ cats in the eyes of the law and must be protected in the same way.

A ‘healthcare’ organisation which can give animals back to their humans... except...

The elected official in charge of communication for the pound states: “We are retrieving stray animals at the request of the town halls (Editor's note: members of SIVU), and our primary mission is to identify them and reunite them with their owners. If they are not found once eight days have passed, we vaccinate the animals and offer them to charities to be placed.” Is this really the case for cats? Given the difference in treatment between cats and dogs, we are able to ask ourselves the question, mainly when we hear the words of the staff who, in one clip, doubt the sincerity of a lady who says that she recognises her cat and would like it back. We will never know if it was returned to her...

Upon leaving the pound, cats are condemned to death and risk amputation

Several weeks after our investigation, the cats were given away to a shelter. They were not unwell according to the pound’s claims, but the FIV test for one of them was positive upon arrival. And, as they are all enclosed together and this one likes to mate with all of the others, it is a certain death sentence for any cat sent there and potentially for all those in the shelter. Add to this that one of their paws was in a catastrophic state, to the point that it had to be amputated.

No really... and even if our images are difficult to endure for those who are sensitive, they only reveal a tiny part of the problem. In what ‘context’ can we get away from this mistreatment that justifies it?

Kind staff? Words have meaning!

The person in charge of communication at SIVU 47 defends the staff: “Those who work here are kind” and “I can testify that our technical agents take the animals out, play with them” all while explaining the absence of enrichment and comfort in quarantine by the fact that a pound’s function is solely for healthcare reasons.

That is all you need to know! Either it is a healthcare organisation or the staff play with the animals... knowing that in one week at least, none of the dogs were taken out of their cages to go for a walk and that our cameras recorded almost all of the time what was happening in the cats’ quarantine.

Mistreatment made commonplace

Why push the cat clinging to the fence to clean the floor? How did it get in the way of cleaning the floor? Two violent acts: pushing him when he is already frightened and getting him wet once he is on the ground... and this is not permitted in a ‘healthcare’ organisation. One more instance that confirms to us that the cats are treated as rubbish, as inanimate objects, as unfeeling, as if they can be treated with no respect. When the lifeless body of cat 162 is thrown in a bin bag on the ground to clean the cage and clear up, it is no different.

The problems are in particular attributed to the overall situation of straying in France (by the President of SIVU 47) or off the back of circumstances, as always deemed exceptional when we reveal an investigation. In the present case, their veterinarian is absent. But it would almost be worse, according to those who reported to us, when this director-veterinarian is present!

We are convinced of the importance of this fight for neglected, mistreated, abandoned, poorly treated animals... The information in our possession against this place has been sent to the legal system. But the problem does not end there.

We are still calling for an end to the mass euthanasia of stray cats, as we did in Paris on Thursday 23 June, and to put in place a major national emergency plan against feline straying. Continue to sign our petition to close the pound in its current state (leading to the resignation of the management team and doing the necessary compliance work), and write to the authorities.

In any case, we are of course calling on all of our supporters to show restraint and to remain in absolute non-violence, as we have always done. Insults, threats, and injuries never help the animals or the fights that we are leading together.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice