The death of Mina and of at least two psittaciformes are now added to that of Micha
The images of the prison conditions, complaints, a criminal trial, a very light conviction… Since the ruling, we have done everything we can to obtain the inspection report from the Prefecture of Loir-et-Cher — the Departmental Directorate for Protecting Populations (DDPP) — and we have put ourselves before the administrative tribunal to get the animals removed… After a long and rough legal proceeding, we learned that Mina is dead, along with two birds. The Prefecture services were careful not to inform us of this and are still leaving the animals with the Poliakovs! We have filed a request in the meantime to the Orléans administrative tribunal and a complaint against the trainers, specifically for acts of cruelty and mistreatment by a professional alongside the Blois high court. We are calling for the immediate withdrawal of the animals and access to Mina’s autopsy report.
Edit from 10 March 2022
The decision is being deliberated and is expected to be released within the next week.
Edit from 3 March 2022
The hearing is set by the interim relief judge for 10 March 2022 at the Orléans administrative tribunal.
We had to continue the fight. We asked the Prefecture of Loir-et-Cher twice for access to the latest inspection report, carried out at the centre of the establishment managed by the Bruneau-Poliakov couple, in order to understand in particular the state of health and the prison conditions of the animals that justice had seen fit to abandon. As a matter of fact, in the context of an administrative foreclosure, it is possible to ‘seize’ the animals while leaving them where they are, in the good care of their torturers!
A debilitating proceeding before the authorities
Our requests for access to this report have fallen on deaf ears. We then, almost as always, had to apply to the Committee for Access to Administrative Documents to force the civil service to comply. And, unsurprisingly, they were in favour of our request. With this backing, we had to rewrite to the Prefecture services who had finally this month deigned to send us the report dated 2 June 2021… We then learnt that many more animals that they were keeping are dead. And the report, heavily redacted
incidentally (even the names of the trainers are ‘concealed’, which is absurd), finds significant non-conformities.
Mina and the birds were prisoners for life
Following Micha, Mina is dead, as well as two of the rare birds… All of them are living in minuscule and gloomy spaces, unlawfully, under the eyes and ears of the authorities who have turned a blind eye for more than a decade. Those who redacted the report, agents from the DDPP, who are cynics and willingly detached, conclude that “on the date the report was published, Mina was dead, lifting the non-compliance”.
The Bruneau-Poliakov trainers would never have needed to have had a proficiency certification for the Barbary macaque, even though they exploited her during very lucrative events. She spent eleven years in a 50cm3
cage with no light, which was rarely cleaned. These facts were known by the authorities. What did they do to get them out?! Ticking boxes, again and again, and setting deadlines that were never met… We had to capture images in these unspeakable places; the spoiled food had to be filmed so that their enclosure could be made bigger and enriched with a measly swing.
The amount of major non-conformities from the report is shocking
According to the very criteria of the DDPP, there has always been an issue at staffing level, an issue with the consistency of proficiency certifications and the species kept, a concern regarding regulations, and dysfunctional follow-up veterinary care. But who are we kidding in this country? When will the Prefectures finally abide by the rules relating to the respect and well-being of wild captive animals?!
In a previous article, we asked ourselves if there truly is any protection for wild animals in France. The answer is crystal clear: it is non-existent.
We are therefore filing a complaint in particular for acts of cruelty, to have access to information on the circumstances of Mina’s death, and above all to obtain the immediate seizure of the other animals, in addition to our interim application.
Translated from the French by Joely Justice