News Archive - Page 14 of 129

Noiraude, a small cat, was shot near her home and died as a result of her injuries.

Noiraude, a small cat, was shot near her home and died as a result of her injuries.
17.06.2024
Noiraude, a small cat, was shot near her home and died as a result of her injuries.
Strays Noiraude should have died of old age, but…

Hit by a bullet in a town near Rennes, Noiraude was found very weakened by her family. After losing a lot of blood, the cat succumbed to her injuries at the veterinary clinic where she had been immediately taken. One Voice took action on her behalf, but unfortunately our complaint was dismissed.

When she was discovered lying in her basket outside her home on Saturday March 9, Noiraude was in agony, blood pouring from her left ear and her legs too weak to support her body. Where had she been hit by the bullet that had caused the bleeding? For the cat to have managed to drag herself back to her family after being shot like that, the accident, if it was one, couldn’t have happened too far away… Her people quickly took her to a vet. With a shattered eardrum, a lost eye, a damaged vertebra and the bullet still lodged in her neck with multiple splinters in her skull, Noiraude was very anemic at the time she was taken into care, due to the hemorrhaging. Every effort was made to save her. Despite emergency treatment, she did not survive.

A life prey to hunters…

Below the garden where the cat had taken refuge, very close to the houses, coypus are being stalked by hunters. Like foxes, martens and rooks, coypus are on the sinister list of “species likely to cause damage” (ESOD), and can be killed by guns and traps almost all year round.

For those who put them to death, Noiraude is just another collateral victim, like Mani, whose paw was caught in a snare, or Snooky, who had his middle and ring fingers amputated because of a leg-hold trap.

… and straying

Years before this ultimate violence, the little cat had been confronted with the scourge of straying. Born without a home, vulnerable to disease, bad weather and the cruelty of certain humans, she had finally been lucky enough to be taken in by a loving family, along with her mother. Thousands of felines can’t say the same and die every year in the streets, forgotten by all, when they’re not slaughtered at the pound.

Noiraude should have died of old age, in peace and love, at home, long after an eighth birthday she won’t be able to celebrate. The bullets that keep whistling through our countryside have robbed her of this right. On her behalf, we filed a complaint alongside her family. A few weeks later, the case was finally dismissed. As is all too often the case, the unidentified perpetrator remains unpunished.

For all stray cats, sign our petitions to demand a national emergency plan and an end to euthanasia in pounds.

Badgers: One Voice steps up the pressure against underground hunting! Eleven upcoming hearings

Badgers: One Voice steps up the pressure against underground hunting! Eleven upcoming hearings
Badgers: One Voice steps up the pressure against underground hunting! Eleven upcoming hearings
Hunting

At a time when young badgers are just emerging from their burrows and diggers are getting ready to go into action, we are stepping up the pressure on prefects more than ever! Together with AVES and ASPAS, we’ll be at the Bordeaux administrative court on June 19 at 10 a.m. to obtain an emergency suspension of digging in the Lot-et-Garonne department, and on June 26 at 10 a.m. for the Gironde department. Elsewhere in France, judges will give final rulings on the 2023 supplementary periods in the Puy-de-Dôme, Savoie, Rhône, Vienne, Charente-Maritime, Corrèze, Essonne, Morbihan and Côtes-d’Armor departments. Nine other hearings are already scheduled.

Urgent action to save badgers…..

Finistère, Aveyron, Cher, Morbihan, Eure, Côtes-d’Armor… In all these departments, hunters had to leave their shovels in the garage and will have to make do with forest walks instead of slaughtering animals right down to the bottom of their burrows! Although these procedures have already saved 2300 individuals, our fight is far from over: despite emergency court rulings across France, some prefects continue to authorize supplementary periods to the hunting season when badgers are already vulnerable.

We’re on deck, and will be attacking these outrageous derogations wherever we can! On June 16 and 26 at 10 a.m., together with AVES and ASPAS, we will be pleading before the Bordeaux administrative court to obtain the suspension of summer digging in Lot-et-Garonne and Gironde.

….. and putting an end to the supplementary period of underground hunting in all departments

In spring 2023, these pleas had enabled us, after a marathon lasting several months, to save almost 4,000 lives. In all these departments, judges must now rule definitively on the legality of all these authorizations! A number of hearings on the merits are scheduled over the coming weeks:

June 13 at 10am in Clermont-Ferrand for the Puy-de-Dôme department (with FNE Aura, FNE 63 and LPO Aura, AVES and Animal Cross);
June 20 at 2:15pm in Grenoble for the Savoie department (with FNE Aura, FNE 74, LPO Aura and Animal Cross);
June 25 at 2:30pm in Lyon for the Rhône department (with FNE Aura, FNE Rhône and LPO Aura);
June 27 at 9:30am in Poitiers for the Vienne department (with LPO and Vienne Nature) and the Charente-Maritime department;
June 27 at 9:30am in Limoges for the Corrèze department;
June 28 at 10:30am in Versailles for the Essonne department;
July 1 at 9:45am in Rennes for the Morbihan and Côtes d’Armor departments (with AVES).

The hours of the supplementary underground hunting period are more than ever numbered. In the face of this danger, hunters, seeing themselves as victims and blindly reversing the balance of power, have called for “general mobilization” and will do everything in their power to defend their “hobby”! But who’s got the guns? Who’s persecuting whom? Badgers and nature are the ones who bear the scars of their aggressions.

We’ll keep up the fight for as long as it takes, and speak out on behalf of these animals, in coordination with all the associations involved in this fight! To support us, sign our petitions for an end to underground hunting, the protection of badgers, and a radical reform of hunting!

Suspensions already obtained for spring 2024 on June 10, 2024: Finistère, Aveyron, Morbihan, Cher, Côtes-d’Armor, Eure.

Dolphinariums: a ban on orca possession, dolphin reproduction ?…

Dolphinariums: a ban on orca possession, dolphin reproduction ?
11.06.2024
Dolphinariums: a ban on orca possession, dolphin reproduction ?… More pretense with a draft ministerial decree
Dolphinariums More pretense with a draft ministerial decree

Broadly speaking, the November 30, 2021 law promised to ban the keeping of cetaceans in aquatic parks, as well as their reproduction, from 2026. But after the media impact, when you look at the asterisks, the reality is quite different. Dolphinariums can continue to operate as long as the exploitation of orcas or dolphins is part of a “scientific program”. However, almost three years after the law came into force, these terms are still not defined, leaving the field open to multiple interpretations.

In the meantime, the French Ministry of Ecological Transition has opened a public consultation until June 18, with a draft decree aimed at setting the general characteristics and operating rules of establishments authorized to house live cetacean specimens.

A facade of progress

While, regarding the form, the draft decree does seem to offer some improvements in terms of the well-being of orcas and dolphins held captive in these parks, several provisions remain open to criticism.

The 2021 law prohibits cetacean shows. Nevertheless, the definition of “spectacle” in the draft decree leaves the door open to misuse.

“Is considered a show the staging for entertainment purposes in front of an audience of exercises performed under duress by cetaceans, as well as those corresponding neither to behaviors specific to the species, nor to educational interests, nor to medical training.”

What is “duress”? What is “educational interest”?

The project also authorizes the reproduction of dolphins under certain conditions, notably in the context of the undefined notion of “scientific programs”. The parks thus retain the possibility of renewing and increasing their “stocks”, and perpetuating indefinitely the reproduction of this species endowed with extreme intelligence and sensitivity.

The National council of nature protection opposed this provision, pointing out that “the possibility of continuing to hold not only animals of the Orca and Bottlenose dolphin species held prior to December 2, 2026, but also of allowing (subject to authorization) bottlenose dolphins to be reproduced in captivity as part of scientific programs, is not only unjustified, but also constitutes an open door to increasing the number of animals in establishments, or even transferring them to foreign establishments.”

New standards also regulate the transport of cetaceans. Until now, there was no time limit. Transport is now limited to… twenty-four hours. Exports anywhere in the world will therefore be authorized, leaving Marineland free to sell and ship Wikie and Keijo to Japan. What are we to think, too, when we realize that it is “the veterinarian of the establishment of departure” who will be responsible for assessing the state of health and therefore the fitness of the animals to travel, prior to transport? The same veterinarian who would therefore be mandated by the dolphinarium, and not an independent specialist.

In January, we obtained a court order to prevent Wikie, Keijo and Inouk from leaving for Japan, pending the independent veterinary assessment ordered by the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal. Since then, Inouk has passed away, just a few months after Moana, who had only known a life in captivity. For his family, we continue to rally to obtain their placement in a sanctuary. Join us in this fight, sign our petition.

Kittens slaughtered and decapitated, or the horror of feline straying in France

Kittens slaughtered and decapitated, or the horror of feline straying in France
05.06.2024
Kittens slaughtered and decapitated, or the horror of feline straying in France
Strays

Monday May 20 should have been an ordinary day for the volunteer on Haute Street in the Gard town of Anduze. Every day, he visits the place where the cats sterilized by the association Un Chat pour la Vie live, to feed them and make sure they’re doing well. What a shock it was when he found the bodies of four severely injured kittens. Although the chances of identifying the perpetrator of these barbaric acts are slim, we are filing a complaint alongside this association, with which we have already cooperated, so that an investigation can be launched.

Photos : Association Un Chat pour la Vie

Stray cats, unloved ones and ready-made victims of all kinds of mistreatment

Across France, many cat lovers are taking action to care for, feed and sterilize stray cats in their municipalities. In Anduze, several cats have been cared for by our partner. Unfortunately, a cat that had been present on the site for several months proved to be more cunning than humans and would not let herself be captured. In April, she gave birth to four kittens. At the same time, two cat shelters were stolen. Clearly, the presence of these animals is disturbing someone.

Torture and barbarism, atrocities perpetrated on the kittens

On Monday May 20, the kittens, only a few weeks old, were found severely mutilated. Their tiny bodies had gaping wounds, and one had been decapitated, its head found a few meters away. Only one survived the barbaric acts to which they were all subjected. He is now safe. The clean, precise lesions suggest that a tool was used to make them suffer as much as possible before decimating the siblings.

The tragic fate of millions of cats

The short lives of these kittens should remind us of the fate of all these homeless felines. On a daily basis, they struggle to fight off disease, to find enough to live on, to protect themselves from bad weather, and to cope with the malice of those who consider them “pests” instead of seeing them for what they really are: victims. Of human violence, of the inaction of the State and our representatives, of the lack of real and a fortiori severe penal sanctions, of the absence of sterilization, of classified ads on the Internet, of wild abandonment, of slaughtering in pounds…

We are filing a complaint on their behalf. Sterilization is the only solution to put an end to all this misery. Individuals and public services alike must assume their responsibilities. Help us make the voice of stray cats heard, and sign our petition for a national emergency plan.

Second condemnation of the National Museum of Natural History: One Voice obtains transparency on the breeding of gray mouse lemurs!

Second condemnation of the National Museum of Natural History: One Voice obtains transparency on the breeding of gray mouse lemurs!
05.06.2024
Second condemnation of the National Museum of Natural History: One Voice obtains transparency on the breeding of gray mouse lemurs!
Animal testing

In Brunoy laboratory, part of the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN), small lemurs are euthanized and decapitated. All of this is carried out with a great deal of very convenient opacity. However, in a decision handed down on May 31, 2024, the Versailles administrative court ordered the MNHN to provide One Voice with all the documents requested concerning the conditions of detention and experiments to which the gray mouse lemurs are subjected.

An institution said to protect species reoffends with opacity and the torture of gray mouse lemurs

Since 2021, we’ve been calling on the MNHN to close the world’s largest breeding facility for gray mouse lemurs intended for experimentation, where 500 of these animals are kept to end up in laboratories. In order to reveal what was happening there, we demanded transparency from the Museum.

In February 2023, the Versailles administrative court had already ordered that we receive the inspection reports of the DDPP veterinary services carried out between 2014 and 2021, as well as statistical information on the use of animals, including information on the actual severity of the procedures.

Shedding light on the exploitation of these primates

Today, the court has ruled in our favor once again! The Museum now has two months to provide us with the ethical and retrospective assessments carried out since 2013 on projects exploiting these small, wide-eyed animals.

Prefectures, Inserm, the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research… In the space of just a few months, dozens of decisions have been in agreement with us and gave us access to hundreds of documents, allowing us to reveal the reality of the laboratories!

To put an end to the ordeal of experiments on gray mouse lemurs, sign the petition!

Mice who “boil” and life-size attempts at forced swimming in an Inserm laboratory

Mice who “boil” and life-size attempts at forced swimming in an Inserm laboratory
04.06.2024
Mice who “boil” and life-size attempts at forced swimming in an Inserm laboratory
Animal testing

Between sessions of forced swimming, mice at the Magendie Neurocenter have to endure tropical temperatures, extreme humidity levels and serial failures. Serious problems have recently affected this Inserm-affiliated laboratory at the University of Bordeaux. We are alerting the relevant authorities and demanding an immediate inspection!

Repeated tropical temperatures, faulty alarms, flooding… A real ordeal for the mice!

Locked up in temperatures of almost 40 degrees, with humidity levels reaching 75%: this is the hell experienced by the animals used in the Magendie Neurocenter. In 2022 and 2023, temperatures exceeded 30 degrees on several occasions! Mice and employees alike literally “boiled” for hours on end…

As if that weren’t enough, twice in recent months, flooding has affected the areas where the animals are kept. Are these specialists in forced swimming, a practice we’ve been fighting for years – especially as there are alternatives that don’t involve mice – trying to carry out life-size tests? Water has also damaged the fire monitoring system, endangering animals and employees alike.

We demand an immediate inspection of the laboratory!

When it comes to the Magendie Neurocenter, opacity is an understatement. In 2023, we met with the University of Bordeaux to express our incomprehension at their persistence, without obtaining the slightest change… More recently, Inserm refused to send us the images of the forced swim tests in the name of protecting its “copyright”… The courts rejected these arguments and ruled in our favor!

Today, we are writing to the laboratory, Inserm and the University to ensure that the mice do not suffer between experiments too! We are also writing to the Gironde Prefecture and the Ministry of Research to request an inspection as soon as possible.

We call on laboratories to systematically favor alternatives that avoid all animal suffering. So sign our petition to demand an end to forced swim tests and an end to animal experimentation by writing to the Minister of Higher Education and Research:

Download the model letter

Supplementary underground hunting period: 3 new victories and 1,500 badgers saved!

Supplementary underground hunting period: 3 new victories and 1,500 badgers saved!
03.06.2024
Supplementary underground hunting period: 3 new victories and 1,500 badgers saved!
Hunting

From one department to the next, badger parents and their young can relax! Together with AVES, One Voice attacked the decrees issued by the prefects of Morbihan and Côtes-d’Armor. In the Eure department, we joined forces with AVES, FNE Normandie and LPO Normandie. The Rouen and Rennes administrative tribunals ruled in our favor: the diggers will be leaving their shovels and picks in the garage this spring! However, the battle is far from over, and new hearings are already scheduled: summary proceedings in Nantes on June 6 (for the Vendée department), and final hearings in Rennes on June 17 (for the Finistère department).

Photo : Tiago Cabral – cc by-nc-nd 4.0 deed

Since May 15, 5 suspensions and thousands of lives saved!

After our victories in the Aveyron, Cher and Finistère departments, which saved 800 individuals, the courts have just suspended the digging of badgers in the Eure, Morbihan and Côtes-d’Armor departments! A carnage narrowly avoided, since nearly 1,500 badgers are killed there every year after hours of underground tracking.

As hunters were getting ready for action, judges recognized everywhere that this “hobby” was unjustified and endangered newborn badgers. All in all, almost 2300 badgers will be able to spend spring and summer in peace!

A marathon for the animals: new hearings to come!

Opposition to underground hunting is a long-term battle. Prefectures everywhere use strategies to make our task more difficult. But we’re not giving up, and we’ll be back in court in the coming days.

On June 6 at 10am, with AVES and ASPAS, we will be in Nantes to obtain the suspension of the supplementary period in the Vendée department. And on June 17 at 10.30am, just a few days after suspending it as an emergency measure, the administrative court in Rennes, which we appealed to with the LPO Finistère, will rule definitively on badger hunting in this department.

More than ever, badgers need your support. For their sake, sign our petitions to ban underground hunting and obtain protection for badgers, and for a radical reform of hunting!

Suspensions already obtained for spring 2024 to date (June 3, 2024): Finistère, Aveyron, Morbihan, Cher, Côtes-d’Armor, Eure.

Stray dog culling campaign in the Haute-Vienne department, One Voice attacks the decree

Stray dog culling campaign in the Haute-Vienne department, One Voice attacks the decree
03.06.2024
Stray dog culling campaign in the Haute-Vienne department, One Voice attacks the decree
Zoe Cell

Is the killing of stray dogs becoming the new “national sport” in France? Less than two months after the Aveyron prefecture’s decision to authorize lieutenants of louveterie and pests to kill stray dogs approaching flocks, the Haute-Vienne department has decided to do the same in the villages of Saint-Paul and Saint-Genest-sur-Roselle. We have just lodged an application with the Limoges administrative court for urgent suspension of this decree.

From “destruction” to “neutralization”, different names, same objective

While the Aveyron prefecture clearly referred to the “destruction of stray, wandering or evil dogs”, the Haute-Vienne prefecture prefers the term “neutralization of stray dogs”. A more polished name, which might suggest a different purpose… However, once again, it’s a question of slaughter.

What’s new: this time, the decree is in force “until further notice” and with no specific timetable. Lost or abandoned dogs, or dogs walking more than 100 meters from their families and approaching flocks, can therefore be shot at – even in the middle of the day! So much for human safety…

Dogs or wolves, the gun at the end of the road

The farming and hunting lobbies are no longer satisfied with being allowed to kill several hundred wolves a year. In the Haute-Vienne department in early May, the Coordination Rurale trade union even threatened to resort to poaching: “Prefect, please act quickly, or we’ll get organized”. French anti-wolf/pro-ranching politicians are bending over backwards to pander to their electorate, now issuing permits to kill dogs.

Train farmers to implement protection measures effectively and efficiently? Make the protection of all farm animals compulsory and subsidize it? Use non-lethal methods to capture and rescue dogs who were abandoned on the eve of the vacations? Why would the State bother to protect sheep, cows and horses destined for the slaughterhouse when it can simply have wolves and dogs killed?

As we did with the decree issued by the Aveyron prefecture, we’re attacking the Haute-Vienne decree to protect dogs. And we are keeping up the fight for wolves, victims of shooting all year round. Join us and sign our petition!

Inauguration of the Chatipi at Cadillac Hospital Center on Friday, June 14, 2024

Inauguration of the Chatipi at Cadillac Hospital Center on Friday, June 14, 2024
02.06.2024
Inauguration of the Chatipi at Cadillac Hospital Center on Friday, June 14, 2024
Zoe Cell
Press release

One Voice, which has been fighting feline straying for many years, has set up three-way partnerships with municipalities or lively facilities, and local associations, to identify, sterilize and release homeless cats, providing them with a wooden chalet for hydration, food and shelter. The Chatipi program enables cats without a human family to reduce the suffering associated with their wandering.

To achieve this, the Cadillac Hospital Center in Gironde contacted One Voice.

The inauguration will take place at 11:30 a.m., in the presence of Mr. Luc Durand, Director of the Hospital Center, Dr. Nathalie Messer, President of the Establishment medical commission, and Mrs. Pascale Chevalier, Secretary-general of One Voice.

Chatipi, a lasting solution to the vicious circle of feline straying

Chatipi is not a cottage. It’s an ethically-driven plan designed to create spaces for stray cats in order to help them, while raising public awareness of their distress and needs.

Several Chatipis have already been set up near nursing homes, health centers and hospitals to provide comfort to residents. It was with this in mind that the Cadillac Hospital Center contacted One Voice. Since 2015, the structure has regularly carried out sterilization campaigns on its premises. While some cats have been able to be placed in families, several have died as a result of their precarious living conditions, despite the good care and food provided by hospital staff.

Indeed, life outdoors remains a painful experience for our feline companions, who fall ill far more often than those living with families, have to cope with the cold and bad weather, and sometimes even with human malevolence.

Without premises, it was difficult for the volunteers to centralize the cats, monitor their health and feed them. This is where Chatipi comes into its own.

Distribution of tasks and responsibilities

At present, around ten cats are still living on the hospital grounds.

One Voice, which invented the Chatipi concept, supplies the chalet and cat flaps, and pays for several kilos of kibble and veterinary expenses (sterilizations, identifications, tests) for 12 cats at the start of the project, as well as for the educational panel.

For its part, the Hospital Center laid the concrete slab and proceeded to assemble the chalet and decorate it in the form of activities with its patients.

For many years, the center’s staff have been responsible for feeding, trapping and transporting the cats to the veterinary clinic for treatment and sterilization.

Cats as a means of soothing patients

To soothe and enhance patients’ skills, the hospital has developed a number of projects involving animals. They were involved in setting up the chalet and feeding the animals. Patients in the ergotherapy workshop enthusiastically created crates to serve as shelters. They also made a CHATIPI wooden sign, which now hangs at the entrance to the chalet. Other patients from the FALRET unit created scratching posts. Other projects will gradually be proposed to patients.

The One Voice website dedicated to the Chatipi program provides a wealth of information about this educational program about cats.

Sign our petition calling for an emergency plan on feline straying.

To defend wolves, FNE Ain and One Voice appeal to the administrative judge in Lyon on June 10

To defend wolves, FNE Ain and One Voice appeal to the administrative judge in Lyon on June 10
02.06.2024
To defend wolves, FNE Ain and One Voice appeal to the administrative judge in Lyon on June 10
Wildlife

In the Ain department, where wolves have only just re-established themselves, a few months ago, a birth was observed for the first time in 100 years! Instead of rejoicing in the return of this species, so important for biodiversity, the prefecture is starting to hand out permits to kill. A decree issued on May 6 authorizes the farmers from one farm to shoot wolves. Before this, unsurprisingly, nothing had been done to protect the herd in question. Electric parks have since been installed, but not efficiently. This is why we have decided, alongside our partner FNE Ain, to lodge an appeal to request the urgent suspension of the decree. An initial hearing has been set for June 10 at 10:30 am at the Lyon Administrative Court.

Update as of June 5, 16:25: Victory by forfeit for FNE Ain and One Voice!

The contested decree has been repealed by the prefecture, even before the hearing scheduled for June 10!

We are continuing to fight for a total halt to wolf shooting. In the meantime, the State has a duty to comply with regulations, and cannot hand out shooting permits when flocks are not properly protected.

We remain vigilant to ensure that a new decree is not published in the coming weeks.

Fewer wolves, but still more shooting

As we learned last week, the wolf population has fallen by 9% in one year, from 1,096 in 2022 to 1,003 in 2023. This is hardly surprising, given that the slaughter quota increases year after year. Although this species is strictly protected, it can be the subject of numerous derogations, authorizing its killing throughout the year, even during the breeding and cub-rearing periods.

Effective protection : a sine qua non

On the farm in question, electric fencing has been installed. But the photographs in our possession show a completely different reality: on some plots, the fences are not fitted with electricity; while on others, if they are on, they are in places badly stretched, inclined or lying on the ground. An animal as agile as a wolf will have no difficulty in jumping or slipping through. And yet, to benefit from a shooting authorization, farmers must have installed effective and proportionate protection measures. This is clearly not the case here. In the press, the people concerned are shouting loud and clear that they don’t want to cohabit with wolves.

On June 10, we will be present at the Lyon administrative court to defend the wolves alongside FNE Ain and request the emergency suspension of this decree, pending its definitive annulment. Join our fight and sign our petition to demand real protection for wolves.