News Archive - Page 13 of 121

The end of circus life for llamas, horses, cows and dromedaries abandoned by Cirque de Paris

The end of circus life for llamas, horses, cows and dromedaries abandoned by Cirque de Paris
06.02.2024
The end of circus life for llamas, horses, cows and dromedaries abandoned by Cirque de Paris
Circuses

Almost three months after abandoning eight animals in a field in the Oise department, come rain or snow, Steve Gougeon and Cirque de Paris have just had them taken away from them today, thanks to the combined efforts of our team, its partners, the police and the local mayor. Here’s the story of a lightning seizure.

Last Monday, he was given an exemplary sentence: a five-year ban on working with animals following the seizure of Jon, Patty, Céleste, Marli and Hannah. He also received a suspended prison sentence and the obligation to reimburse the costs incurred by the association for their accommodation and care, amounting to almost 200,000 euros.

Publication in the media the very next day enabled us to go into action on January 30 to save these eight unfortunate animals left to fend for themselves, following an appeal for help. For more than ten weeks, two horses, two white llamas, two dromedaries, a watusi and a highland had been roaming a field in search of a drop of water, nutrients absent from the muddy grass of the pasture, or from the roadside shrubs, facing every kind of weather, and with only a – dare we say it – shitty truck for shelter. Only the goodwill of farmers and local residents provided them with enough to survive all this time.

In a constitutional state such as ours, associations should not have to compensate for the perpetual mistreatment of animals in circuses. There are laws governing this outdated practice. Why are they so rarely enforced?

In just one week – a fact rare enough to be highlighted – we sent out an investigator, mobilized our lawyers, filed a complaint, found partner shelters with places available and competent, sympathetic animal transporters, and finally obtained the seizure order! Record time. In less than two hours this morning, the animals were out of their hell, and without a hitch. Second record.

Their names are Totem, Orion, Teliah, Jessica, Palermo, Saba, Gaspard and Malkia. You can bring them love, kindness, support and a chance to rebuild their lives by sponsoring them.

The remarkable involvement of Noroy town council, the gendarmerie, transporters, partner shelters, the justice system and our team is to be commended.

Everyone cooperated hand in hand, because the stakes were high: saving the lives of these animals and offering them the best possible future.

One Voice is asking France to encourage alternative methods to animal testing in the EU

One Voice is asking France to encourage alternative methods to animal testing in the EU
02.02.2024
One Voice is asking France to encourage alternative methods to animal testing in the EU
Animal testing

With the outcome of the second European Citizens’ Initiative regarding animal testing in 2023, the European Union has announced the implementation of a collaborative plan between Member States. But we believe that this project is about to be rejected by national public authorities. We are immediately writing to the Ministry of Research in order to encourage France to vote for a more ethical future.

A good initiative already being hampered?

Last summer, the response from authorities to the Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics ECI was rather mixed: claims concerning cosmetics were openly rejected, and announcements of efforts to be undertaken to move towards the end of regulatory toxicology tests remained unclear. Among the positive points, in the spring, the Commission developed on a project linked to the ERA (European Research Area), with the idea of bringing together efforts in the development, implementation, and sharing of substitution methods.

We knew that the fight was far from being won. The imminent holding of a vote concerning this project, for which the result is not good, has led us, as a member of Cruelty Free Europe and the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments (ECEAE), to do what is necessary to advocate for animals alongside our government.

In favour of ethical science

We have written to Sylvie Retailleau, Minster for Research, so that France’s vote will go in the right direction. It is always good to take strong measures aiming to accelerate the transition on an international scale, and we will inform you of the results of this vote.

Of course, the end of animal testing does not depend only on this. The number of individuals used in toxicology testing is the only one to have decreased (slightly) over the years, while ethical committees approve shameful projects involving electric shocks, chronic pain, and even traumatic stress. Not to mention the industry that resists change as much as it can.

The fight continues, with you.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Poaching in Isère: night-time horror. The hearing is on 5 February in Valence

Poaching in Isère: night-time horror. The hearing is on 5 February in Valence
01.02.2024
Poaching in Isère: night-time horror. The hearing is on 5 February in Valence
Hunting

In May 2023, a few inhabitants of a village in Isère were woken up by gun shots during the night. The next day, animals’ bodies were found. In the weeks that followed, history repeated itself. The police found a number of bodies: foxes, squirrels, deer. Killed by hunters who were not worried about following the law to satisfy their morbid passion. In memory of these animals, we are asking for exemplary punishments for the four poachers who admitted to this. The hearing is on 5 February 2024 at 3:30pm at the Valence legal tribunal.

Updated 8 February

We will have to wait a bit longer before getting justice for the animals killed. The hearing for the four poachers that was set for 5 February at the Valence legal tribunal was postponed to 14 October 2024 at 8:30am. For the foxes, squirrels, deer, ibex, and buzzards, we remain more determined than ever. To the poachers – who have admitted to this – see you in October!

Photo credit: Drôme Police Force – Facebook

Protected or not, it does not matter: the only objective is to kill animals

In these small villages in Isère, foxes, deer, and squirrels did not stand a chance. The four men pursued them at night from their four-wheel drive car equipped with multiple headlights piercing the darkness: blind, the animals were trapped. The men shot; gunfire broke the silence. Where the animal’s head once was, only a scrap of flesh remained. They undoubtedly celebrated this result.

Attacking foxes, of which almost a million are killed each year without even counting poaching, and who suffer the horror of underground hunting with hounds: hours of being hunted down before being violently killed, including, often, the fox cubs… what an ‘achievement’. Deer and squirrels are also targeted: in short, any animal that passes by and can be killed.

And for animals belonging to a protected species,who are the object of all desire, a specific treatment is in store: parts of their bodies are cut off and proudly displayed around houses. During the investigation, ibex heads were found. As for the buzzards, the heads did not interest them: they were happy with cutting off their legs to keep at home.

Hunting or poaching: there is no difference for the animals!

Today, if these men are being prosecuted, it is not for having killed these animals, but among other things for having hunted at night, from a vehicle… Because the main objective of the law is not to protect animals, but hunters, and to ensure that they are the only ones who can kill with impunity. Clearly, their representatives will turn against them and, as always, look to ostracise them by playing ‘good’ hunters off against ‘bad’ ones. And of course they will ask for financial compensation. Not to repair the lives stolen from these animals, but because a deer killed by these poachers is one less for others to kill.

Some of the victims were found. For the others, if they aren’t found, they won’t be caught! How many animals have been massacred without leaving a trace, whose bodies are left where they were killed? The problem is not so much the fact that these animals were not killed ‘following the rules’, but that they were killed at all.

So yes, poachers must receive an exemplary punishment, but let’s not forget: the real problem is hunting, not the word that designates who it is that is holding the gun! Together, we are still and will always be demanding a radical reform of this “hobby” to put an end to massacres!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Are national academies in favour of the forced swimming test?

Are national academies in favour of the forced swimming test?
01.02.2024
Are national academies in favour of the forced swimming test?
Animal testing

Behind a facade that was intended to be reassuring, public authorities have internally reacted to our campaign against forced swimming for rodents… By going to look for excuses for this test at the Académie nationale de médecine [National Academy of Medicine] and the Académie vétérinaire de France [French Veterinary Academy]. The result: a deplorable article published in one of these prestigious institutions’ bulletins. You can sign our petition to ask for an end to this farce.

In October 2022, the animal testing team at the ministry started discussing the subject of the forced swimming test with “academies”, highlighted in France by our campaign that was launched last year. A few months later, these exchanges resulted in sufficient opinions to say to the CNEA [National Commission for the Protection of Animals used for Scientific Purposes] “that it is not appropriate to… do away with [the forced swimming test] because it is a scientific necessity.”

Have academies really given a reasoned “opinion”?

Not having been able to find any trace of these opinions on the academies’ websites, One Voice wrote to them to find out if this document really existed. A few weeks later, we had an explanation:

«A group of experts from our academies have actually worked on this subject. This work resulted in an article being published in the ‘Académie Vétérinaire de France [French Veterinary Academy] Bulletin’. It was not an opinion.»

The article in question, whose title does not mention forced swimming, was published in May 2023. Signed by two researchers and two veterinarians involved in animal testing, with two and a half pages and a sparse bibliography, it is a sorry sight.

A few unwarranted statements do not make a scientific article

Generally, a scientific publication is not expected to make “lofty” claims. If we say that a test is great, or even simply that it is useful, we must be able to prove it by referring to reliable studies which have analysed the subject. Without this, we can hardly even claim the much less glorious status of an “opinion paper”.

And that is indeed the case here. Out of nine bibliographical references, only two scientific articles specifically relate to the forced swimming test. And while these pieces of writing by specialists are unfavourable here and advocate for the use of other methods, the “group of experts” from academies preferred to put blind trust in associations promoting animal testing who “support its use as a valuable tool” to find new medications…

Help us to get the forced swimming test banned

We ask ourselves how such an obviously biased opinion piece could have been published. But the worst thing is that a national commission specifically dedicated to protecting animals exploited by laboratories trusted these comments to the point of saying that they would allow “a formal response on the content and the interests of the test.”

The public must not be fooled by these sleights of hand. To help us put a stop to forced swimming, you can sign our petition.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Hearing on 7 February 2024 for an urgent suspension on tenrec hunting in Réunion

Hearing on 7 February 2024 for an urgent suspension on tenrec hunting in Réunion
31.01.2024
Hearing on 7 February 2024 for an urgent suspension on tenrec hunting in Réunion
Hunting

Despite the cancellation of their decree in 2022, the Réunion Prefect has persisted in authorising tenrec hunting once again for 2024. For two months, these little mammals run the risk of being hunted down into their burrows. We will defend them at the Saint-Denis Administrative Tribunal on 7 February at 2:30pm to get this law urgently suspended.

Updated 12 February 2024

Respite for tenrecs! Although several thousand of them will be killed in coming weeks, the Saint-Denis Administrative Tribunal has just suspended the Réunion Prefect’s decree before the hunting season has even opened. The urgent applications judge confirmed that there was serious doubt surrounding the legality of the way in which this law was passed. Above all, in substance, the ruling confirmed that this type of hunting puts young tenrecs danger, who are still present in the burrows at this time.

But victory has not yet been achieved for these animals who are victims of a cruel type of hunting and are still widely poached. With the decree only just having been suspended, the Réunion Prefecture have already announced that they are going to publish a new one to authorise a massacre of tenrecs despite everything. In addition to contempt for animals, there is also contempt for legal decisions! We invite you to participate in large numbers in the consultation that has just been launched!

Photo: A tenrec in a garden by Maryline P, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED

Just a few days ago, the Réunion Prefect took out a decree authorising a new tenrec hunting season on the island. From mid-February to mid-April, hunters will release their dogs to pursue these little animals. Once extracted from their burrows, those who have not succumbed to the initial attack will be killed by those who hunt them down…

Illegal laws that put the young in danger

We reject this situation which once again favours hunters’ hobbies to the detriment of wildlife. On 29 December 2023, the Saint-Denis Administrative Tribunal had already proven us right by cancelling the decree targeting tenrecs in 2022. Not only had the prefect not taken the trouble to justify his fatal law, but he also endangered the young present in the burrows up until spring. Why do we allow the Environmental Code to constantly be trampled on to please hunters?

But, fortunately, times are changing: in cities, more and more tribunals believe that it is unacceptable to hunt animals in their burrows while the young can be found there. Along with ourselves, 84% of French people are also calling for a ban on this practice, no matter how old the animals being targeted are (Ipsos/One Voice survey, October 2023).

So that no tenrecs, who are already victims of poaching and the growing disappearance of their habitat, are killed in 2024, we will loudly and clearly give them a voice at the Saint-Denis Administrative Tribunal on 7 February at 2:30pm.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Drugged cats abandoned on a road: One Voice will be present at their persecutor’s hearing in Montauban

Drugged cats abandoned on a road: One Voice will be present at their persecutor’s hearing in Montauban
31.01.2024
Drugged cats abandoned on a road: One Voice will be present at their persecutor’s hearing in Montauban
Strays

They were called Filou, Flash, Garfield, Panda, Pépito, Perle, Picasso, Sacha, Vanille, and the last one had not even been named. One night during the summer in 2023, they were spinelessly abandoned on a small road between the fields and forest after having been drugged. Only four of the ten cats were able to be saved by firefighters and town services, but two succumbed to their injuries. The six others were never found despite extensive searches.We are demanding justice for them. We are pressing charges at the hearing of their former so-called family at 1:30pm on 6 February at the Montauban legal tribunal.

Pictured: Panda and Pépito

Updated 07 February:
The ruling was given on 6 February following the hearing. One of the defendants was sentenced to complete a citizenship course and the other to a €500 suspended fine. There was no ban on keeping animals. A huge disappointment when 8 cats are dead or missing after these despicable acts, which should actually be sentenced with up to a 4-year imprisonment and a 60,000 euro fine.

At the end of June 2023, our partner, the Chats Libres de Mélie Association [Mélie Free Cats Association], was contacted to organise the ‘transfer’ of ten cats and kittens to a family in Occitania. After making the link between a phone call and the sordid misdemeanour, he asked us to give them a voice.

Animals are the first victims of humans’ irresponsible behaviour

In the middle of summer, when the rescue centres are saturated with homeless residents, a solution was in fact proposed to the said family wishing to separate the ten cats as quickly as possible: five could be taken in immediately, then the other five two weeks later. As usual, volunteers create more space and sort things out to welcome unfortunate animals in an emergency for oblivious people to whom we still have to explain that animals are living beings and not objects that we get rid of if they think they have become too cumbersome.

The proposal was refused at all costs by these people wanting to separate the animals immediately and without the slightest bit of effort: they preferred to abandon them, at the very likely risk that this would lead to their death. A late hour (it was June), a road that is rarely frequented, some Lexomil: the “perfect” cocktail to get rid of the cats.

The only solution is neutering

Today, only Panda and Pépito are still alive, silent witnesses of the ordeal that they lived through that night. Neither microchipped nor neutered, it is a happy set of circumstances that allowed the cowards behind these two deaths and six disappearances to be identified. Perhaps those who disappeared survived and are now subjected to the miserable life of stray cats, perpetuating the endless cycle of suffering.

Those who breed their animals and distribute the babies everywhere are initially responsible for this misery. Internet trafficking, mass slaughtering in pounds, the collapse of biodiversity: what is the State waiting for when it comes to making this simple surgical operation obligatory, like in Belgium or Spain? Our leaders also have a role to play. Impunity and a lack of awareness of solutions are what allow these problems to be repeated.

For these acts, the elements of which constitute an aggravating circumstance, we will be present at the Montauban legal tribunal on 6 February at 1:30pm to request an exemplary punishment and for these perpetrators to be banned from keeping animals. Join our fight by insisting on the implementation of an urgent plan for stray cats.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Underground hunting with hounds: hunting down badgers was illegal!

Underground hunting with hounds: hunting down badgers was illegal!
26.01.2024
Underground hunting with hounds: hunting down badgers was illegal!
Hunting

Similar decisions come one after the other for badgers! The Clermont-Ferrand Administrative Tribunal, who we referred to with AVES, FNE Aura, FNE Haute-Loire, and LPO Aura, confirmed that the additional period for underground hunting with hounds in the spring and summer of 2023 in Haute-Loire was illegal.

After having cancelled the decrees by the Allier and Puy-de-Dôme departments, the Administrative Tribunal has just proven us right: the additional period for underground hunting with hounds in Haute-Loire was illegal! With our partners, we have already obtained an urgent suspension of this decree before hunting has even started, which has allowed the lives of hundreds of badgers destined for certain death to be saved.

Once again, in this department, the prefect thought he could quite simply ignore the procedural rules set by law. The decree was passed with no information of badger populations having been communicated to the public! And as a result, you only need to slightly scratch the surface to see that in reality, prefects do not have any data and only authorise this type of hunting to find a hobby for hunters during the time when hunting with guns is closed…

We will continue the fight, department after department. To do this, we need your help: support us and sign the petition to get digging out banned and to get protection for badgers!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Justice for Jon, Céleste, Patty, Hannah, and Marli: hearing in Évreux against the Cirque de Paris

Justice for Jon, Céleste, Patty, Hannah, and Marli: hearing in Évreux against the Cirque de Paris
25.01.2024
Justice for Jon, Céleste, Patty, Hannah, and Marli: hearing in Évreux against the Cirque de Paris
Circuses

The rescue of Jon and lionesses Céleste, Patty, Hannah, and Marli from the Cirque de Paris where they were kept will forever remain in our memories. And in those of the veterinarians who helped us with their rescue. A lion in the state that Jon was has never been seen by these professionals, even though they carry out their work in zoos and circuses in war-torn countries. The lionesses who were sharing their lorry-cage were dead on their feet. Unfortunately, the legal fight to ensure that they are taken to safety is not yet over: a new hearing has been set by the Évreux legal tribunal for 29 January 2024 at 1:30pm.

We have been waiting for this hearing for almost four years. The shock of this level of cruelty by the circus and cynicism of those who protected it has still not been absorbed. Since, a law against animal abuse has been voted in, supposed to protect animals kept in circuses in particular. Yet, for the lions and tigers, nothing has changed. Words, a law, sales… but in trailers and under big tops, the same unspeakable suffering still exists for these endangered big cats. Muriel Arnal President of One Voice

Professionals in abuse

The Gougeon family stands out for their use of whips from generation to generation. Among its members, poor treatment and negligence are common occurrences. Out of necessity, we are frequently at tribunals to get them convicted for wrongdoings and to save the animals that they keep, who they mate and undoubtedly trade. Last October, we also went to the Grenoble tribunal to put an end to the various sleights of hand at the Nouveau Cirque Triomphe, where the Gougeon cousins are at the helm.

In 2018, during our investigations into the circus, we crossed paths with Jon and his companions Céleste, Patty, Hannah, and Marli, kept within the Cirque de Paris in appalling conditions by Steve and Luciano Gougeon.

Proof of undeniable suffering

During their rescue, ordered by the legal system, almost two years later, our fears were confirmed: the lions were cachectic, their wounds uncared for, their teeth had been broken and their claws torn off.

In June 2020, with Jon’s arrival with our partner Tonga Terre d’Accueil, then the lionesses being rescued on 7 July for acts of abuse (a first in France for circus animals), they were able to offer a peaceful haven where they could regain their strength, thanks to a suitable diet and the care provided. Even if Jon did not have the chance to experience the green meadows of our sanctuary in Tuscany, he was surrounded by love and attention while being able to discover a taste of a life far from the circus for more than a year and a half before he died on 29 January 2022.

The trainer appealed the sentencing

Numerous complaints have also been filed against the boss and trainer from the Cirque de Paris. With the decision on 4 February 2022, Jon and his companions were confiscated from Steve Gougeon and he was banned from carrying out his professional activity for five years. Surprisingly, however, Luciano passed through the net, despite his involvement in lion trafficking. Steve Gougeon opposed this ruling. We will therefore be at the Évreux tribunal on 29 January 2024 at 1:30pm to finally get justice for Jon, Céleste, Patty, Hannah, and Marli.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Is it the end of underground hunting with hounds? Five new victories!

Is it the end of underground hunting with hounds? Five new victories!
24.01.2024
Is it the end of underground hunting with hounds? Five new victories!
Hunting

Our unfailing commitment against digging out in the spring and summer is bearing fruit! In Allier and Puy-de-Dôme, we have attacked, with FNE Aura, FNE 03, FNE 63, and LPO Aura, the decrees for the 2022-2023 season. In Indre, Creuse, and Haute-Vienne, we have contested the authorisations for the 2023-2024 season along with AVES. Tribunals everywhere have proven us right. Prefects: respect the law; do not authorise underground hunting with hounds this year!

The decisions obtained in these five departments confirm the suspensions that were given a few months ago, which have allowed thousands of badgers’ lives to be spared. From now on, doubt is no longer allowed: underground hunting with hounds is not only an archaic practice, but it is also illegal in spring and summer because it puts the young in danger.

The hell of digging out: thousands of animals massacred completely illegally?

Whether it be foxes or badgers, the victims of underground hunting with hounds experience moments of absolute terror when diggers decide to take them from their burrows and from their families. When proceedings are not botched by the prefects, in a hurry to satisfy hunters’ demands, and therefore cancelled with a click of their fingers, the tribunals now systematically confirm what we have been stating for years: this type of hunting leads to the killing, completely illegally, of badger cubs. Recently, in Réunion, the legal system has also taken up this argument in favour of tenrecs, who themselves are hunted in their burrows…

Stop the persecution: no exemptions this year!

Despite the decisions obtained being clear – 30 urgent suspensions and already 8 definitive cancellations – the State is set against these animals who simply aspire to live peacefully, far from the picture painted by hunters who accuse them of all evils (without ever providing any proof, of course). The few exceptions (in Savoie and Meurthe-et-Moselle, the additional period was never even opened thanks to our actions) do not hide behind the huge influence hunters have on the authorities that are supposed to represent general interests.

It is high time to say stop! We will continue the fight this year, anywhere where badgers are in danger. But we need you to put pressure on the authorities! Support our petition to get digging out banned as one of the pioneering measures of our radical reform on hunting, and to get badgers classified as a protected species! Address the following message to the prefecture in your department:

“Dear Sir/Madam Prefect,

For several months, tribunals have widely been cancelling the decrees authorising an additional period for underground badger hunting with hounds (recently 8 cancellations by the Caen, Limoges, and Clermont-Ferrand Administrative Tribunals). Please could you commit to following the law and not authorising the digging out of these animals in spring and summer while the young are present in the setts? For all of these animals promised to suffer unbearably, follow the law!”

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Animal experimentation is still resisting change: 2022’s detailed figures

Animal experimentation is still resisting change: 2022’s detailed figures
23.01.2024
Animal experimentation is still resisting change: 2022’s detailed figures
Animal testing

The detailed figures for 2022 have been provided by the Ministry of Research at One Voice’s request. While a few rare uses continue to decrease, the situation for primates is very concerning, the production of antibodies is rapidly expanding despite European recommendations, and tests on the nervous system (in particular involving chronic pain experiments) are using three times more animals than in 2015.

Each year, we have to request the complete file of laboratory declarations, which is much more detailed than the “statistical survey” published on the ministry’s website. And each year, we see the same thing there: almost nothing changes.

The good news: regulatory tests are decreasing

If we can find some good news within these figures, it is the continued decline of a particularly widespread type of use (the verification of “potency testing”), whose number has number decreased by two thirds between 2015 and 2022. This is because alternatives for this use have been increasing for at least twenty years. The huge reduction in this field has therefore led to these regulatory tests decreasing by half in seven years, which gives hope.

However, the industry has found it hard to adopt these substitution methods, which explains why almost 50,000 animals suffered from them in 2022. And animal experimentation is not limited to mandatory tests, with new ones in other fields being ever more concerning.

Rabbits and mice never stop suffering

Rabbits are the first victims. Unsurprisingly, they continue to endure “pyrogen” tests, which are disappearing very slowly despite valid alternatives having existed since 2005. But above all, the number of rabbits has continually increased over the years. The cause: exploiting their bodies as biological factories serving solely to produce antibodies.

As for mice, the cruel ascites method involves filling their abdomen with air, injecting it with products, and killing them to retrieve their antibodies. In the European Union, France
is almost the only one doing this. If truth be told, the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) has condemned this method for twenty-five years
due to the fact that other solutions exist, and once again called to put an end to it in 2020. But this did not stop France from increasing the number of these uses again in 2022 and from continuing to authorise the use of tens of thousands of rodents in recent weeks, with a vague mention of an imagined decree in 2030!

Mice are also the main ones affected by the unprecedented increase in experiments on the nervous system, which specifically involve exposing animals to chronic pain that is sometimes associated with anxiodepressive symptoms. Despite our requests, the ministry persists in qualifying this suffering as “moderate”.

Primates captured in France?

Yet more strange or even revolting: twenty brown lemurs were used in a “moderate” experiment for “species preservation” and noted as “F0” – they are, or were, free primates. The description of the project, found on the national Natural History Museum’s website, talks about the difficulties of cohabitation between farmers and monkeys in Mayotte. But it says nothing about what has been done with the individuals captured for this test…

One Voice is continuing its work to understand how such a use, theoretically illegal, took place. When it comes to the difficulties in verifying the reasons put forward by public authorities on the huge increase in figures in 2022, we have not had a response from those involved.

While waiting, you can consult our specialised website, which we will update as soon as possible with the details of the new data described here.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice