Monday 11 December 2023 | 8

Stray animals: France opts for massacring at pounds

Stray animals: France opts for massacring at pounds

Mis à jour le 15 April 2024

To “clean” their streets, France has chosen a “strategy” of large-scale slaughtering. When an animal is seen wandering, town councils are in charge of involving the services of a pound. Once captured, they are kept for eight days in a cold kennel, as shown in our latest investigation. After this time, if they have not been claimed, they can be taken in by an association. But there are too many stray or abandoned animals for them to have any hope of finding a family. When the time period has passed, being slaughtered at a pound is what awaits them. Deaths by the thousands, in the greatest secrecy, even though solutions exist, as proven by our European neighbours.

Hr blog

For years, we have been fighting to raise awareness about the plight of stray cats and so that our leaders will finally take measures to stem this tragedy. Faced with a lack of action by the government, we are obliged to initiate legal proceedings to make things happen, while our neighbours are acting in concrete terms to stop abandonments.

Countering mass slaughter: neutering...

In September 2022, Greece implemented the “Argos Programme”, allocating a budget of 2.9 million euros to help town councils to improve stray animal welfare.

In Luxembourg, to reduce the number of abandoned cats, some towns offer individuals financial aid to get their animals neutered.

On the other side of the border, Belgium made neutering cats obligatory in 2018. An initiative that also applies to pet cats as well as street cats and which has borne fruit in just a few months: ‘euthanasias’ in pounds due to a lack of space have reduced by half, going from 37% to 13%. The Belgian government has gone further by offering grants to towns for neutering stray cats, but also by providing help for vulnerable people for the care of their animals.

... because killing an animal is indeed a criminal act

In Italy, since a law passed in 1991, stray cats and dogs’ lives have been protected. It is strictly forbidden to kill them for population control purposes. Only genuine euthanasias that are for medical reasons, in the case of incurable suffering, are authorised and must be carried out by a veterinarian. In 2018, the Italian court of cassation even confirmed the conviction of those responsible for illegal killings, who had executed dozens of animals without medical necessity and out of pure convenience.

This is a long way from what happens in our pounds, where animals can be slaughtered after eight days in freezing conditions... Solutions exist, and we are asking the authorities to finally take the necessary measures. Sign our petition for an end to massacres and demand the implementation of an urgent plan to put an end to the suffering of millions of stray cats with us.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Lola Rebollo
Hr blog

In the subject

Killing in pounds: the SACPA group tries to divert attention One Voice’s investigation into a 5-star pound: the industrial slaughter of cats and dogs

Comments 8

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Nadala | Thursday 14 December 2023

Mettez fin immédiatement à ces massacres totalement effroyables et inacceptables. Mon coeur saigne pour eux. Assumez et osez montrer cela publiquement ! Honte à la France !!

samélou | Wednesday 13 December 2023

Ignoble !! Comment dans un pays qui se dit "civilisé" peut-on pratiquer encore des pratiques aussi abjectes !!! Ce documentaire fait froid dans le dos et rappelle qu'il y a quelques décennies on abattait des êtres vivants pour des questions de "race"... Seuls des monstres peuvent accepter que de tels endroits existent !
Le problème c'est que lorsqu'un particulier s'adresse à un refuge pour aider un pauvre animal errant, la réponse est immédiate : vous devez faire appel à la fourrière. J'en ai encore fait l'expérience plusieurs fois cette année. Dans ce cas je préfère leur tourner le dos (sachant ce qui s'y passe) et me débrouiller avec mes pauvres moyens. Jamais je ne ferai appel à ce genre d'endroit ! Il faut déjà commencer par là et informer les populations… N'appelez pas la fourrière pour aider un pauvre animal !
Merci à vous de dénoncer ce massacre même si ces images sont très dures et me remplissent de tristesse… Et il faudrait permettre aux particuliers de confier des animaux errants sans passer par la case fourrière.

trochu | Tuesday 12 December 2023

ABOMINABLE, la France a perdu toute sa dignité, toute sa grandeur et son civisme de la façon dont elle considère et traite les animaux, ce gouvernement est complètement malade et détraqué voire amoral car il n'est pas normal du tout pour un tel pays de chasser, traquer, massacrer continuellement les animaux et cela dans tous domaines c'est pathologique. Ce président n'aime pas les animaux tout comme la plupart de ses collaborateurs adeptes de la chasse et corrida, car pour n'éprouver aucune sensibilité, aucun respect ni considération des animaux qui sont des êtres vivant autant qu'eux, il ne faut pas être très équilibré mais inhumain.

Sabrina | Tuesday 12 December 2023

Merci à vous d'avoir constaté ces horreurs. Je suis consternée et horrifiée.