The world according to orangutans

The world according to orangutans
19.08.2016
Bornéo
The world according to orangutans
Natural habitat

Jambu’s story is a true story. It is the story of a wild people disappearing before our very eyes, a people rich in culture and wisdom that we will lose forever if we do not act. It is the story of Borneo’s last orangutans, driven from their forests by oil palm planters and now crammed into reserves.

The nest

Through the curtain of cascading orchids, the orangutan anxiously scans the horizon of the Gunung Tarak forest. He stands twenty meters above the ground, finishing the construction of his nest on the fork of a main branch. His mother spent a long time showing him how to weave the vines and line his bed with twigs and moss to make it cozy. He even adds a roof of branches, in anticipation of the coming rain. Humans have named him Jambu. He is still a young male, whose smooth face with dreamy eyes reveals all the gentleness characteristic of his people.

The fire

Jambu was very lucky. Six months earlier, an arson fire had destroyed his entire world. His mother perished in the flames, along with his younger sister and many others. So, for days, Jambu wandered. He walked through the scorching ashes, stumbling over the charred bodies of his kin, searching in vain for tall trees to climb, but nothing, nothing remained.

In the distance, trucks were already crowding around the smoking ruins of the forest, while planters brought in the first oil palms—those trees with trunkless trunks and inedible fruit.

So Jambu ran as far as he could. He walked until his feet—so much like hands and so ill-suited for walking—were raw, until one evening he came upon a large rambutan orchard. He ate all night long, but when he returned the following night, the farmers greeted him with gunfire. Thirteen pellets pierced his skin. What had he done wrong? He was so hungry, and those hairy red fruits were so good! Besides, there were plenty for everyone. But no. They chased him away. So Jambu took refuge at the top of a kempas tree.

The Humans

Humans came and shot at him, just like the farmers. But when he woke up, he was cared for and fed in a very strange enclosed place. There were humans everywhere, big and small. They made lots of sounds and gestures, and they handled all sorts of strange objects, but they were indeed monkeys like him—just a different species! Those humans were kind, and not just to Jambu. From the enclosure where he was regaining his strength, he could see lots of little orphans. They were being cared for and fed, too, and even nursed when they were babies.

Gunung Tarak

Time passed, and then one day, they took him in a small crate to release him into another forest. He threw himself onto the first tree trunk, climbed to the top, and discovered a new territory.

The trees there are tall and dense, the fruit abundant, the bark delicious, and the landscape magnificent as he gazes out from his nest. Vines coil around the moss-covered trunks that rise toward the sky; enormous branches connect each giant to the next, like roads beneath the canopy that the orangutans travel slowly. There are three females with their young, working together as a team.

He watches them pass by peacefully, moving from branch to branch with deliberate movements, using their hands and feet to secure their grip. Around them, lighter proboscis monkeys leap from tree to tree. A rhinoceros hornbill with an orange beak greets them with a call.

It’s crowded here, Jambu thinks. Perhaps too crowded. He also spotted some young males this morning; he’ll have to face them soon, one after another, in fair combat. In the meantime, an elderly patriarch serves as a guide to them all. He is very old and was born here.

In the morning, his powerful roar—amplified by his goiter—provides them with all sorts of information. He announces where the day’s ripe fruits are: the large durians, the figs, and even the honey when there is any. Jambu listens and learns the cycle of flowering. He builds a complete map of the forest in his head; he observes everything around him closely, finding the healing plants and the tender bark his mother had shown him. He is happy.

The smoke

But images of flames stir questions in his mind that an orangutan shouldn’t ask. He sees that things are getting worse, that the real world is shrinking a little more each day, that his people are being decimated, that there are refugees everywhere. Some of them even imitate humans—they do laundry, saw planks, use a hammer, or steer a canoe. They’ve lived among humans for a long time!

Tonight once again, before the sun sets over the misty jungle, Jambu scans the horizon. Rain begins to fall on his cocoon of flowering vines. Little by little, his fear subsides. No smoke has risen on the horizon today—no fires, no threats. He turns around and curls up into a ball. And he falls asleep in peace until tomorrow…

One Voice is calling for the recognition of orangutans as legal persons—it’s urgent!

“Animals, are not products”, a global mobilization

« Animals, are not products », a global mobilization

“Animals, are not products”, a global mobilization
16.08.2016
Monde
“Animals, are not products”, a global mobilization
Domestic animals

Twenty years ago, on August 29, 1996, 67,488 sheep perished at sea when the cargo ship carrying them caught fire. To mark this tragic anniversary, One Voice is partnering with CIWF for its global day of action: “Animals, Not Commodities.”

The little ewe stares wide-eyed into the dim light

She is afraid; the ship’s slow rocking is making her seasick. It has been a long time since her flock left the lush pastures of Australia. After two days of an exhausting truck ride, the men forced her aboard the gigantic cargo ship with electric prods.

Now, her fleece is covered in feces and urine dripping from the ceiling.

Up above, thousands of other sheep are crammed together in the open air beneath the gusts of sea foam. The ewe stands in one of the lower holds, where the ammonia-laden air is suffocating her and the ceiling is so low that she must keep her head down. It’s impossible to lie down: there are too many sheep around her. The rolling of the ship sweeps them against one another on the damp floor, where the trampled corpses of the weakest and the sea-water-soaked feed pellets that no one wants to eat lie scattered. She is thirsty, for they are rarely given water, despite the increasingly oppressive heat.

One morning, as the overloaded ship slowly approaches the Seychelles under a blazing sun, an explosion rings out in the engine room. Human screams and millions of terrified bleats rise up from all sides. The acrid smell of diesel and burnt flesh reaches the ewe’s nostrils along with the black smoke and flames. Panic breaks out. Under the pressure, a door slams shut. The sheep rush onto the burning deck. A huge crowd is already thronging there, turning in all directions. Some end up throwing themselves overboard. The fire devours the ship’s eight decks; fuel tanks explode, sending burning debris flying. The ewe’s fleece is on fire. She, too, plunges into the ocean, where the sharks await.

In the distance, the Mineral Century carries fifty-five crew members safe and sound. No one, however, has bothered to save a single one of those sheep swimming around the burning wreck.

This happened twenty years ago

On August 29, 1996, the MV UNICEB, a 20,884-ton cargo ship, caught fire on the sixth day of its voyage from Australia to Jordan. Abandoned in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the 67,488 sheep met a horrific death, either by fire or by drowning.

Twenty years later, nothing has changed. Pigs, cows, calves, and sheep are still being shipped by the millions from their places of birth to distant destinations. When a shipwreck or fire doesn’t kill them all, epidemics, hunger, cold, and exhaustion claim their share of casualties among the herds of animals on board. Finally, once they arrive at their destination, these sheep—most of which are destined for countries in the Middle East—are slaughtered without stunning, sometimes even on the unloading dock.

To mark the 20th anniversary of this disaster, CIWF is organizing the first Global Day of Action against Long-Distance Transport on Monday, August 29, 2016. One Voice and 38 other organizations from around the world are partners in this event. It is urgent that the transport of animals be rethought. Animals are not commodities, but sentient and sensitive living beings! We must reconsider how we treat them.

To support our cause, you can participate in one of the organized actions and write to Mr. Phil Hogan, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, to ask him to end animal exports outside the European Union:

Commission Européenne
M. Phil Hogan
Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat 200
1049 Bruxelles
Belgique

Galeo: a very happy dolphin (according to French law)

Galeo: a very happy dolphin (according to French law)
Port Saint Père
Galeo: a very happy dolphin (according to French law)
Exploitation for shows

Galéo was born in captivity. According to a forthcoming ministerial decree governing the management of dolphinariums in France, he would therefore be considered a happy dolphin. One Voice is calling for his immediate release and for the draft decree to be withdrawn.

How is Galéo doing?

Following the complaint filed by One Voice, Galéo’s condition has improved. But, having been exiled with Aïcko to the pools at Planète Sauvage, he remains vulnerable to attacks from other dolphins. No investigation has been conducted by the relevant veterinary authorities, as requested. It is true that, according to the draft ministerial decree establishing “the general characteristics and operating rules for establishments holding or displaying live cetacean specimens to the public,” all dolphins born in captivity are perfectly adapted to their restricted lives. Galéo would therefore be a happy dolphin, capable of enduring all the hardships of captivity with his eternal smile. Soon, if the decree passes, hundreds of Galéos will be produced in France, both for the domestic market and for export to Dubai or China. And this for the sole purpose of realizing the economic fantasies of a wolf-killing minister who would so much like to see the dolphin-slavery industry regain its former glory in France, just as in the heyday.

Why is this draft decree dangerous?

Yet its opening lines seem quite reassuring: “The keeping of cetaceans is prohibited in France.” Prohibited? Of course not—let’s not get carried away! Any cetaceans already in captivity six months after the decree takes effect, as well as any dolphins born in captivity, may be “retained.” The law therefore considers these “specimens” to be perfectly suited to the conditions of care that the law has provided for them. These standards generally reflect the minimum basic quality criteria set by the EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria). They also strangely correspond to the facilities that the Beauval Zoo planned to build for its future dolphinarium. As we know, this zoo had to backtrack under pressure from its own visitors but no doubt still dreams of its project, and it is not the only one…

The draft ordinance seems to have been written in the last century

Unreasonable work schedules are permitted for the dolphins, with five shows scheduled and twelve hours of nighttime isolation! While the importance of social groups is finally recognized, three orcas are considered a perfectly adequate community—a far cry from normal “pods” that often number over a hundred cetaceans—but this will undoubtedly allow Marineland Antibes to keep going for a few more years. As in the 1960s, the transfer of “specimens” is encouraged to form other artificial families in other pools around the world, avoid inbreeding, and increase the overall stock of available circus animals. This project therefore paves the way for an outdated and shameless exploitation of captive cetaceans, running counter to the shift in public opinion that has swept across the U.S. and Europe since the release of the documentary Blackfish.

Should we remind the Minister that the commercial giant SeaWorld is sinking deeper into financial ruin every day?

That the Baltimore Aquarium is planning to create a vast marine sanctuary in the Caribbean for its remaining captive dolphins? That the Barcelona Zoo is considering the same option? That Finland’s last dolphinarium had to close its doors due to a lack of visitors? That several marine sanctuary projects for captive cetaceans are in the works around the world, under the supervision of scientific experts?… And now the minister wants to revive this industry with a useless, obsolete, and devastating decree?!

Let’s be serious! We demand that the minister abandon this proposed decree and instead launch a broad initiative to explore the economic future of amusement parks without captive animals. As for the young dolphins Galéo and Aïcko, we demand that they be separated from the rest of the group until a satisfactory solution is found for them.

HOW TO TAKE ACTION

Write to the Minister of the Environment, Energy, and the Sea, asking her to permanently ban the keeping of cetaceans in France:

Ministry of the Environment, Energy, and the Sea
Ms. Ségolène ROYAL
Pascal Towers A and B
Sequoia Tower
92055 La Défense CEDEX

Send a polite email to Planète Sauvage: contact@planetesauvage.com
Ask them to take all necessary measures to protect Galéo from the attacks he is suffering at the hands of the other dolphins and to place him in a secure pool with his companion Aïcko.

Urge zoos and dolphinariums to stop breeding and inter-park exchange programs and instead transform themselves into animal sanctuaries.

Victory for the French and for the wolves!

Victory for the French and for the wolves!
12.08.2016
Nimes
Victory for the French and for the wolves!
Wildlife

Shooting wolves has been stopped Thanks to citizen associations! The Administrative Court of Nîmes has just ruled in favour of ASPAS, Ferus, One Voice and ALEPE, by suspending on an interim basis the Prefectural Decree of 22 July 2016 which unlawfully ordered the “reinforced levy on shooting” a wolf for a duration of 6 months in 6 communes in the Caucasus sector Méjean, in Lozère.

Most French people want wolves to be kept in our country. This is done: in his order suspending the order on 9 August, the judge stressed that the sustainability of sheep farming in the department is not compromised by the presence of a wolf, and notes the absence of the implementation of « defensive shooting » prior to the enhanced levy on shooting.

The administrative judge recalls that battling against wolves cannot be allowed if everything has not been implemented to protect herds at risk of predation. There are indeed other means of protecting herds than a spate of shootings that the Prefects can authorize, who aims to kill wolves. A protected species, only as a last resort should this be considered and only if damage is caused despite the implementation of protective means.

The court thus confirms a « serious doubt as to the legality » of this prefectural decree that does not respect the conditions defined in the ministerial decree governing the shooting of wolves, yet itself extremely permissive.

It is unacceptable that the Prefects, representatives of the law, continue to allow the shooting of a protected species while many herds are left without surveillance or protection, at the mercy of other natural predators such as stray dogs.

The solution is not in slaughter but in a profound change in farming practices and the subsidy system for pastoralists, which currently does not sufficiently encourage good practice.

In the run-up to the regional elections, this fundamental problem is surely too delicate to be tackled by politicians of all types who prefer to multiply the shooting of wolves by not rubbing hunters and the agricultural lobbies up the wrong way, at the risk of taking illegal decisions.

Finally, the associations demand the end of shooting wolves, and the suppression of the compensation given to farmers not protecting their livestock.

Press :

Madline Reynaud – ASPAS

Jean-François Darmstaedter – FERUS

Muriel Arnal – One Voice

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The world according to the lions

The world according to the lions
Monde
The world according to the lions
Natural habitat

In the savanna, a little lioness is born. She discovers who her family is and learns what life will be like for her and her brothers and sisters. Through her eyes, discover the world as lions see it.

Born in the Savannah

When she opened her eyes for the first time, ten days after her birth, the little lioness with her striped coat and thick, furry paws discovered a vast plain, covered with tall grass stretching to the horizon and dotted here and there with solitary acacia trees. The rains had stopped. That morning, the entire savanna was green all the way to the mist-shrouded mountains and buzzed with a thousand birdsong. Near the watering holes, heads bowed, gazelles and zebras drank the ochre water in long gulps. Giraffes walked in the distance, and farther still, a herd of elephants. It was a very lovely season to be born.

Learning and Hiding

With her sister and two brothers, she would sometimes be left alone all day. Their mother would go off to hunt. Hidden in a thicket atop a small hill, the four lion cubs wouldn’t move a muscle, silent, listening for the slightest sound. Threatening hyenas passed by, snickering, and herds of buffalo with deadly hooves, and the cubs flattened themselves even more. In the evening, finally, a low rumble warned them: the lioness was returning, a carcass in her mouth, and the cubs threw themselves at her to nurse and taste their first meat.

Social Big Cats

Today, the little lioness is a few months older. She has lost her stripes. She has just rejoined the pride that their mother had left to give birth in a sheltered spot. The other females welcomed her and licked her head with their huge, rough tongues. The four lion cubs play with children their own age. They roll around in the dust, growling like the adults. When they’re hungry, they can nurse from any lactating lioness in the group, because everyone protects them, everyone loves them. But if the play gets too rough, if one of the cubs screams too loudly, their mother immediately calls them to order with a growl and, with a glance, signals the danger. There are three males lying under the baobab tree, giants with dark manes who look like brothers and must not be disturbed.

The Battle of the Lion Kings

And they are indeed brothers, young and strong. They arrived here as a group of four a few seasons ago, before the little lioness was born. One of them died in battle during the power struggle, when the older males were driven out of the territory. The victor of the battles is undoubtedly her father; he is the one who roars the loudest to the farthest reaches of the horizon, letting out a tremendous sound, his flanks hollowed out, his chest thrust forward.

When he lets out his roar—mouth wide open, fangs gleaming, facing the dark red sun—the little lioness feels his voice vibrate through every bone in her body and purrs softly. Nearby, her brothers try to imitate the great male with comical meows.

She likes to listen to her father, for he is her protector. He appears when things go wrong, or when the prey is too big for the female pride. He prowls around the love-struck lionesses as they seduce him and his two lieutenants by arching their backs. As soon as they arrive, no one fears attacks from hyenas anymore, or even from elephants if they get angry.

The Wandering Knights

The little lioness looks at her brothers, so young and still without manes. They too will leave one day. They too will fight rivals and roar to rally their pack. Their mother will gradually refuse to help them find food; their father will roar right in their faces and swat at them with his paws. They will leave. With heads bowed and tails swishing, her two brothers will drift away from the pride and set off on an adventure. Another young lion might join them along the way—a childhood friend or a wandering male. They will feed on carrion, fighting jackals for it, before reaching the borders of a new territory.

They will face off against the dominant male and his own coalition, and if they defeat him after fierce battles, they will have to kill all the cubs. This is a necessary task to perpetuate the bloodline, but one that the mothers fiercely oppose—sometimes successfully.

The Wisdom of Lionesses

The little lioness, for her part, will remain with her mother, within the pride, for the rest of her life. Unless forced to leave by fire, disease, famine, or hunters, they will stay together.

As for the magnificent lion roaring tonight, he will eventually be dethroned. Other younger, more vigorous males will come to replace him. From then on, it will not be her father who approaches the young lioness when she comes of age, but a new lover full of arrogance and audacity. She turns her large orange eyes toward her mother. How beautiful she is, too, in her solid fawn coat! Her whole body is muscle, nerve, and power. But her mind is a tangle of attack strategies and knowledge acquired from the elders, which she in turn passes on to her own children.

Tonight, she will take her three eldest daughters with the pack on an expedition north. Those sisters were born two years earlier, and the little lioness envies them. But she is far too small to take part in these hunts, which are always difficult, always risky, and which fail most of the time.

These hunts may seem cruel, but without them, the adorable lion cubs would simply starve to death.

Stalking hunts and strategies

So, lionesses are constantly devising tactics to minimize the risk of failure. Subtle relay-style strategies are employed, as well as coordinated and complex stalking approaches that must account for wind direction, the sun’s position, the speed, and the presumed flight path of the prey—which they observe and sometimes track for weeks during major migrations.

Males participate little in these group hunts, except when it comes to taking down a buffalo or an elephant. They prefer to feed alone in the evening and are the first to help themselves to the feast brought back by the lionesses.

A lioness’s life is short, fourteen to twenty years at most. Yet knowledge is passed down from one generation to the next, and it is essential to the survival of all. Tonight, the little lioness’s eyelids are heavy. She has played so much, learned so much today! So she lies down in the sand in the shade of a termite mound, with other cubs. Sleep overtakes her immediately, carrying her off into wonderful dreams…

What could a little lioness possibly dream about? For she dreams a lot, like all big cats. No doubt of a peaceful savanna, populated by zebras and wildebeests, filled with intelligent, well-fed cubs, victorious companions, and successful hunts. The happy world of the savannah that her ancestors knew—and that she too would like to know—unchanged forever…

Read urgently: human beasts? For a vegan revolution

Read urgently: human beasts? For a vegan revolution
04.08.2016
France
Read urgently: human beasts? For a vegan revolution
Other campaign or multi-campaigns of One Voice

Vegan abolitionists advocate a real revolution to end the exploitation of animal persons and consider them as our equal by virtue of their conscience and sensitivity.

Inspired by the immediacy in the United States during the nineteenth century that demanded the immediate abolition of the slave trade and the recognition of their civil and political equality, they rejected the principles of gradualism (policy of « small steps »).
Hostiles towards the well-meant speeches and campaigns aimed at improving the daily lives of animal victims of slavery, loudly and clearly proclaim their rejection of the animal object and its exploitation by humans. They point out that the problem lies not in he way animals are used, but in the use of them. Farming, production of meat, milk, fur, wool, leather, honey, silk, etc., aquatic “shows”, hunting, fishing, bullfights, zoos, deportation, imprisonment, vivisection, genetic manipulation, domestication, confiscation, destruction and pollution of territories…: all of these crimes of speciesism that we are collectively collaborating in and that we have always turned a blind eye to.

Since we do not need animal products to live, we humans continue to unnecessarily enslave and massacre members of other species. The only reason we harvest and kill hundreds of billions of terrestrial and marine animals each year is that we like the taste of their flesh and their body-made products: eggs, milk, etc., just as we have always done. We love to put on their skin, their fur and their wool by habit.

This manifeston upsets our values and points to the good conscience behind which the followers of the «organic» and of a so-called ethical consumption of animals. Without detours or concessions, the authors claim that there is no « human » exploitation of others, nor is there any torture or « human » murder. They denounce the millennial concept of continuous consumption and defeat our alleged moral superiority, which is disproved by the way we treat other creatures who share with us the Earth – creatures we have enslaved, reduced to the state of means at the service of our own ends. To awaken the consciences, they do not hesitate to describe our behaviour as genocidal, quoting the famous sentence of Isaac B.
Singer, Nobel laureate of literature: « When it comes to animals,all men behave like Nazis. »

Writers, philosophers, legal experts and lawyers agree to give a voice to these silent victims who, like us, have the right to life and respect. This book is a platform for women and men working intellectually, practically, peacefully for the animal cause. To work for animals means to put an end to their exploitation and not to regulate them; it means proceeding to their emancipation and not planning their slavery. It means working for a more just world that includes in the community of equals all beings endowed with sentience, by virtue of that very sentience. Such goals can only be achieved through the adoption of a vegan lifestyle, a practical application of the abolitionist theory and fundamental moral principle.

This book (the first devoted to abolitionist veganism to appear in France) is still a powerful tool to lead others to reflect on animal liberation and its implications. Finally, he hopes to contribute humbly to stave off the circle of violence that we initiated and of we are tragically prisoners of.

Human beasts? For a vegan revolution (dir Méryl Pinque) was published by Autrement on March 11, 2015 in the collection « Universités populaires & Cie ».

With, in alphabetical order, the contributions of: Gary L. Francione, Valery Giroux, Patrick Llored, Meryl Pinque and Gary Steiner.

Preface by Michel Onfray.

Helping chimpanzees at home

Helping chimpanzees at home
01.08.2016
Congo
Helping chimpanzees at home
Wildlife

The true protection of endangered species can only be done in the wild, not in a Zoo. That’s why One Voice has joined partners with P-WAC to save the last chimpanzees in the Congo.

One Voice’s Project for Wildlife and Apes Conservation is led by Amandine Renaud, an experienced and passionate primatologist.

In France, P-WAC intends to raise awareness about deforestation and the disappearance of great apes in order to change the public’s perception of our closest cousins.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the association is setting up a rehabilitation centre for poached chimpanzees. Its objective is to protect this critically endangered species in situ, while contributing to the sustainable development of the local population. The creation of such a centre, in close collaboration with the women’s community, is indeed creating jobs for the villagers who are involved. Responsible ecotourism is still underdeveloped in the Congo despite the richness of its fauna and flora, while it would at the same time save the great apes, the heritage of the country and also to finance projects of this type.

It is indeed in Africa that chimpanzees live, not in a Zoo. Sanctuaries such as proposed by P-WAC are the only way to preserve not only the great apes as species, but also as animal people bathed from childhood in a particular culture, closely related to the world of trees and the forest, using tools, rituals, remedies, to track signs and gestural codes transmitted from generation to generation. Locked up on top of each other in a concrete enclosure, moved from one Zoo to another for breeding purposes, captive great apes can only give birth to mentally hybrid beings, born under human control in a socially and sensory impoverished space. Otherwise conserved in a refrigerated gene bank awaiting cloning!

And the great apes are also part of those other hominids that we have systematically massacred, from Australopithecus to Neanderthals, before moving on to indigenous peoples, threatened like chimpanzees by the destruction of their tropical forests.

It’s enough. Gorillas, bonobos, chimpanzees and orang-utans are the ultimate representatives of this abounding bush of anthropoid primates whose territories we have reduced only for Homo sapiens. We can still save them, if we really want to.

Many people today demand – and One Voice first – that fundamental rights be granted to great apes, the latter not only sharing with humans an ancestry barely 6 million years old, but also a great number of emotional and cognitive abilities.

An appeal has just been launched for UNESCO to finally adopt the concept of « living world heritage » and integrate great apes. This is the least we can do for those « tropis » on the blurred border between humans and non-humans that Vercors describes in his book “The Denatured Animals” and who have the misfortune to look so much like us.

And it is in this spirit that One Voice supports the P-WAC initiative.

Emergency: Wolfs and wolf cubs in danger

Emergency: Wolfs and wolf cubs in danger
19.07.2016
Savoie
Emergency: Wolfs and wolf cubs in danger
Wildlife

The wolves of Savoy have been the target of the Prefect for a few days now and they need you, your peaceful presence in the places they frequent, because they are threatened.

After the slaughter of a nursing wolf in the department, leaving her cubs defenceless and without food … it is the turn of her companion who tries the impossible to feed her young, to be targeted, with other wolves. The associations for the defence of animals and nature are mobilizing to prevent these massacres.

If you are on holiday or if you have free time, if you like hiking and watching wolves is your interest … You can help us.

We need witnesses, on the spot who can take turns morning and evening essentially since during the day the sector isquite well attended by observers, in order to watch and monitor the area (Méraloup sectors, ruines chien-loup Chavanu, Les Jeux, the Charmettes, Le Loup ruine), and to alert us if anything happens. Take with you a camera and a mobile phone and go out in two’s, it’s safer.

We remind you that every citizen is free to walk is these areas and is entitled to check what is happening on the ground, but of course remaining within the law, in a 100% peaceful way. If ONCFS agents, officers of the law, park rangers or other uniformed authorities ask you to follow them do not resist. We are not here to provoke confrontation, but to observe and testify. We did this for the ibex of the Bargy, successfully, today it’s the wolves who need us.

Thank you for your mobilization!

Contact:
info@one-voice.fr

Adam’s challenge on behalf of animals

Adam’s challenge on behalf of animals
19.07.2016
Pyrénées
Adam’s challenge on behalf of animals
Other campaign or multi-campaigns of One Voice

On the 27th of August, the athlete Adam Pardoux will cover a distance of 84km in the Tour des lacs in the French Pyrenees Mountains for One Voice. Here is a little more about this committed sportsman…

Adam Paroux is undoubtedly a fantastic example, demonstrating that we can compete at a very good level and be vegan at the same time. Sharing One Voice’s values, he wanted to take on this challenge to highlight the importance of the respect for animals and the planet. He is fund raising to support our campaigns!

One of his sources of inspiration is the professional athlete, Brendan Brazier, the author of a series of vegan recipe books for people who undertake intense sporting activity.

Adam says: « From a sports point of view, I am more focused, les tired and I recover more quickly between sessions, (…) vegan cooking also has the advantage of minimising the impact on the environment. (…) I buy locally where possible and I have a personal goal of ‘zero waste.’ (…) this objective goes hand in hand with the vegan lifestyle. »

Travelling between France and the United States, Adam noticed that the choice of vegetarian and vegan products and their accessibility was more developed over the Atlantic. The majority of restaurants there offer a vegetarian or a vegan option. In France, even if vegetarian or vegan restaurants are becoming more commonplace, the population is more interested in the consumption of organic and non-gluten products. Animal products are very much present.

Competing for One Voice, Adam wants to « defend the right to life of those who cannot express themselves in words, who are the precondition for our survival. I also want to raise awareness of the impact that modern life has on animals and our environment. »

Supporting him in this event will help raise public awareness of animal suffering caused by human activities and will contribute to One Voice’s campaigns. Find the link to his fundraising platform on Leetchi here: https://www.leetchi.com/c/asso…!

Two young dolphins on their way to greece

Two young dolphins on their way to greece
19.07.2016
Plailly
Two young dolphins on their way to greece
Exploitation for shows

Two dolphins from Park Asterix will soon leave France. The zoo which will rehome them is in a country in the midst of an economic crisis. One Voice demands this transfer to be stopped immediately.

The cabin door shuts with a bang on Ekinox and Naska. The two dolphins jump in their harnesses, despite the huge doses of sedatives that they have received. Soon, the airplane will vibrate from the roaring motor as the plane flies towards Greece. The two young dolphins, only five and six years of age, have just left their mothers forever. Farewell Bailly! Farewell Femke! Despite the fact that they are way off being adults yet, the park thinks they are mature enough to be sent to new aquariums, as part of the « European Endangered Species Programme (EEP), for the breeding and conservation of endangered species, » which dolphins are not.

All of their life, these young ‘stallions’ will encounter unknown inmates, furious to see them disembark into an always confined space. Each transfer is a nightmare for them. Recently, in 2014, the young Angel died of stress on the tarmac. In 2016, Galéo exposed the glaring problem of a bad social integration in an out of control community of detainees.

This is the fate that awaits these two young males who will be leaving Park Asterix. In a few weeks, they will be sent to Attica Zoo. They won’t be the only ones: Veera, Delfi, Leevi, and Eevertti will also soon join the Greek aquarium from the Tampere dolphinarium in Finland. Lacking visitors, the establishment was forced to close last October. After trying for some time to send them to a marine sanctuary, the Särkänniemi theme park finally decided to send the four survivors to Greece. But these survivors consist of an old couple of tired dolphins and their two young sick dolphins. And the remaining two Lithuanian dolphins from Attica Zoo will be the dolphins with which these French dolphins will share their new life? Are they hoping to recreate a new family with this motley crew?

At first populated by 11 Lithuanian dolphins, 3 of which were caught in the Black Sea, the Attica Zoo dolphinarium, like all of the others, can’t offer good conditions for dolphins. Two dolphins died and two were still-born between 2010 and 2015. And Park Asterix and the Särkänniemi theme park have decided to send their ‘specimens’ there instead of looking at a rehabilitation solution in a sheltered sea location.

Why? It should be known that for a few months now, there have been strange movements afoot in the European dolphinariums. Harderwijk seems to want to rid itself of its surplus in Spain or Dubai, whilst other dolphins circulate from one country to another in strict secrecy, discretely discharged and re-embarked. Is the dolphin market already reorganising itself?

One thing is certain, that supplying new dolphins to the Attica Zoo will reinforce its position. In Greece, the law banning wild animal shows was voted by parliament in 2012. Still not in application, it is just as valid for circus animals as it is for dolphins. In artificially increasing the population at Attica, the industry undoubtedly hopes to prevent its definitive closure and indefinitely slow the implementation of this law.

In their damp hammock, their skin covered in white lanolin, their eardrums screaming under the horrendous pressure, shivering with cold, our exiled dolphins don’t think about all of the above. They simply have to endure the long voyage and suffer the sadness and anguish, as they travel further away from their mothers and their family, left much too early to never be seen again.

This isn’t how wild dolphins travel. This isn’t how they create new ‘pods’ either.

Who would still like to lead us to believe that dolphinariums care about the dolphins that they exploit? How can Park Asterix justify such a commercial decision?

One Voice has written to them to ask them, backed up by experts, to put an immediate stop to the reproduction and exchange programmes for the dolphins.