News Archive - Page 15 of 124

Mayors: for the sake of animals and the environment, ban hunting!

Mayors: for the sake of animals and the environment, ban hunting!
22.02.2024
Mayors: for the sake of animals and the environment, ban hunting!
Hunting

Every year, hunting kills tens of millions of animals. From farm-raised pheasants released to be slaughtered, to badgers chased into their burrows, to foxes and birds, this hobby spreads suffering throughout our forests. In addition to stealing lives, it is also a mortal danger to the environment: nearly 8,000 tonnes of lead are discarded every year, not to mention millions of plastic and metal cases. Because action is urgently needed at all levels, One Voice is providing mayors with a draft “turnkey” municipal bylaw to put an end to this absolute plundering of nature.

Animals poisoned, nature polluted: the true toll of hunting

There are the tens of millions that hunters take pleasure in killing every year. Then there are all those – protected species included – who are only wounded and survive with their bodies riddled with lead. This metal, still massively used, is a mortal danger: it pollutes waterways and subsoils and, when ingested by mammals or birds, is the cause of numerous diseases, such as lead poisoning. If they don’t die quickly, they in turn contaminate other animals.

While lead is currently banned only in the immediate vicinity of wetlands, and is still regularly used in ball-trap events, it’s high time to go further: together with the European Environmental Bureau, One Voice is campaigning for these bans to be strengthened. The survival of fish, birds and all those who pay a high price so that a handful of individuals can practice this deadly hobby depends on it.

Every walker knows that, in addition to lead, the soil of our forests is littered with cartridge cases, a mixture of plastic and metal. This pollution is largely kept secret, yet there are ways of taking action!

Mayors: you can act!

Local councilors are often powerless to prevent the destruction of the environment in their communities. When it comes to hunting, the prefects are all-powerful, and it’s easy to understand why when you see how their decisions are all too often taken with the sole aim of satisfying the demands of this lobby – to the point where they sometimes get things mixed up.

However, mayors are not condemned to impotence. They have important prerogatives when it comes to waste. And what is hunting, if not an activity aimed not only at killing living creatures, but also at scattering tons of waste in the countryside with guns, with complete impunity?

Because it’s urgent, we’re calling on mayors to adopt the draft decree to drastically limit this practice and take action to protect the environment. To support us in this initiative, please forward this draft bylaw to your mayor! And to raise the voice of animals even higher, sign our petition for a radical reform of hunting!

Underground badger hunting: new victories and new hearings!

Underground badger hunting: new victories and new hearings!
19.02.2024
Underground badger hunting: new victories and new hearings!
Hunting

The fight against the supplementary period of underground venery is a long-distance race. After securing more than 30 emergency victories last year, which saved 4,000 badgers, the courts are now overwhelmingly confirming the illegality of all these decrees. In two new annulment decisions, judges in Nantes (Vendée) and Amiens (Oise) ruled that digging up badgers at this time of year was quite simply illegal. But the battle is far from over: next hearings are scheduled for March 7 and 12, at 10 and 10.30 a.m. respectively, at the administrative courts of Limoges and Nancy, for the 2023 supplementary periods in the Haute-Vienne and Meuse departments.

Update April 2, 2024

Two new victories against badger digging! In Haute-Vienne, hundreds of badgers were due to be killed in the spring of 2023. After the emergency suspension of the prefect’s decision, AVES, ASPAS and One Voice have just obtained its definitive annulment! In Meuse, the court also overturned the decree, which this time we had challenged on our own. Judgment after judgment, justice confirms it: in addition to being cruel, the supplementary underground hunting period is illegal.

Everywhere it has been suspended as a matter of urgency, underground hunting is about to be declared illegal for good

Last summer, while hunters were sharpening their knives, shovels and pickaxes to go hunting for badgers in their burrows, we launched a large-scale campaign against badger digging. Because it’s a cruel practice that we documented by infiltrating the community, and because it leads to the killing of newborn badgers every year – which is illegal, as the Conseil d’Etat has reminded us – the courts we appealed to suspended it as a matter of urgency in over 30 departments. Nearly 4,000 individuals have been saved as a result!

And the victories continue. In two new rulings, judges in Nantes and Amiens have joined those in Caen, Clermont-Ferrand and Limoges and overturned the prefect’s decrees for the Vendée (year 2020) and the Oise (year 2023) departments.

For the Amiens judge, the situation is very clear: until they are emancipated, badgers are “young” within the meaning of the law, and “the hunting method used involves the killing of the parents and the destruction of the burrow, or even the accidental injury of a young badger by the dogs“.

New hearings and new appeals in prospect

Having obtained the suspension of the orders in Haute-Vienne and Meuse last spring, the administrative courts of Limoges and Nancy will rule definitively on these cases at the end of two hearings scheduled for March 7, 2024 at 10 a.m. and March 12, 2023 at 10:30 a.m. respectively.

Despite all these decisions, we know that the prefects, still hand in hand with the hunters, will no doubt once again authorize massacres in many departments. Everywhere, we’ll be speaking out on behalf of these individuals, killed for the sole pleasure of a few people. To help them, support us and sign the petition to put an end to underground hunting!

Leghold traps claim a new victim: we file a complaint for Snooky

Leghold traps claim a new victim: we file a complaint for Snooky
16.02.2024
Leghold traps claim a new victim: we file a complaint for Snooky
Hunting

On January 31, 2024, in the town of Couëron, Loire-Atlantique, passers-by discovered a cat with his leg caught in a leg-hold trap, a cruel and non-selective device that has been banned since 1995. This is not the first time one of our companions has fallen victim to these outdated tools. And that’s without taking into account all the wild animals that are deliberately targeted. We have filed a complaint for Snooky.

This January 2024 could have ended with the usual outdoor walks and indoor meals with his family. But Snooky had the misfortune to wander into the wrong garden and stumble across a leghold trap that closed violently on his left front paw. As he struggled, he found himself hanging against a low wall overlooking the street, his bruised limb still trapped on the other side of the railings. Neighbors discovered him on the morning of Wednesday, January 31, thanks to his frantic mewing. How long had he been in distress, wounded in his flesh? His worried humans hadn’t seen him since Monday evening…

After he arrived at the vet in a state of shock and hypothermia, X-rays also revealed a dislocation of the phalanges and a suspected tear in the poor feline’s brachial plexus. Placed on a drip, Snooky eventually warmed up. But his injuries were irreversible. Two weeks after being taken into care, he had to have his middle and ring fingers amputated.

Traps sometimes illegal, always barbaric

Just a year ago, it was Cooper who found himself caught between the sharp teeth of a leghold trap. At the same time, Mani was discovered in agony, almost losing a leg to a snare. However, the older, unregistered version of the former device has been banned throughout the European Union for almost thirty years. How much longer will the rules be trampled all over ? And how long before these cruel, non-selective traps disappear and cease to deliver their victims to hours of intolerable suffering from which they cannot escape? For cats and dogs like Cooper, Mani and Snooky, but also for all the wild animals knowingly martyred, these practices must stop.

We join Snooky’s family and the association L’Arche de Ninie et ses Amis, who called us for help, in lodging a complaint. Together, let’s continue to defend the animals fallen victim to hunting by calling for a radical reform of this immoral hobby.

Common tenrecs: against animals and justice, little arrangements between the prefecture and hunters

Common tenrecs: against animals and justice, little arrangements between the prefecture and hunters
15.02.2024
Common tenrecs: against animals and justice, little arrangements between the prefecture and hunters
Hunting

Every year, between fifty and one hundred thousand common tenrecs are hunted on Reunion Island. Although the administrative court in Saint-Denis issued an emergency injunction suspending this announced massacre before it even began, a new decree is due to be adopted to authorize it in spite of everything. In addition to contempt for the animals, there is contempt for justice. And for good reason: it would appear that it was not the prefect, but the hunters themselves who held the pen… One Voice is calling for mobilization to oppose the massacre and these methods!

Update on 21/02/2024

After launching the public consultation for a new draft decree authorizing the hunting of common tenrecs, the prefecture closed it prematurely. But the collusion between the prefect and the hunters is total and, from now on, assumed: the authors of the draft decree and the presentation note are still… the director of the hunters’ federation and her lawyer!

The only difference, and it’s a big one: if this new decree is adopted, hunters will be allowed to kill common tenrecs every day of the week, instead of three days previously. To say no to these methods and to the extension of the number of hunting days, take part in the consultation!

Decree suspended, thousands of common tenrecs saved

Already victims of large-scale poaching, common tenrecs are killed for several months each year. While their newborns are still in their burrows, hunters set their dogs after them. Those who don’t die directly are picked up and killed later. It’s a sad fate not unlike that suffered by badgers and foxes in France’s underground venery.

Because tradition will never justify the violence inflicted on animals, we are fully mobilized wherever animals are targeted in its name. In December 2023, the Saint-Denis administrative court ruled in our favor, annulling the 2022 decree a posteriori. On February 12, it confirmed its position: the procedure for adopting the decree for 2024 was more than dubious, and the use of dogs directly endangers the pups. A relief for these animals and their defenders, on the island and everywhere else.

Never better served than by oneself: at the meeting, the hunters write the regulations themselves!

But the respite was short-lived. On February 12, a new draft decree was already online on the prefecture’s website. On reading the attached documents, we were doubly stunned to discover that the draft decree and its presentation note seemed not to have been drafted by the State services, which are supposed to be the guarantors of the general interest, but by… the director of the departmental hunters’ federation and her lawyer! We immediately had this information noted by a bailiff and will be contesting this new decision by all available means.

This is a shameless way for the prefect to allow the slaughter of these animals and silence the voices of all Reunion Islanders who are opposed to these practices. You too can make your discontent known by taking part in the public consultation!

Wolf park in the Sologne region: the investigating commissioner’s condescending opinion

Wolf park in the Sologne region: the investigating commissioner’s condescending opinion
14.02.2024
Wolf park in the Sologne region: the investigating commissioner’s condescending opinion
Wildlife

Last December, we voiced our opposition to two projects designed to keep wolves in captivity for profit. One of these projects was to use wolves for corporate seminars. Now that the public inquiry has been completed, the investigating commissioner has issued a favorable opinion, despite a record level of opposition.

1,235 unfavorable opinions for 22 favorable opinions and 3 not applicable, according to the commissioner’s count. Although he acknowledges that “the number of comments is proof of proven opposition to the project” (sic), he nevertheless implies that the opponents were manipulated, having “followed a collective or directives” (sic).

In his view, it is simply inconceivable that the participants would have agreed with the arguments calling into question the park’s objective.

He doesn’t stop there, going so far as to question the validity of the opposition to this program of locking up wolves for paid coaching sessions. Which, as we all know, is a perfectly natural activity for these wild animals… “It seems that unfavorable observations are not explored in depth by anyone. The aspects that come up most often and quite laconically are above all the park’s small size, the lucrative aspect and the general local fright. This permanence of recurring aspects strikes me as rather odd.” (sic)

On the other hand, there was no criticism of the opinions in favor of the project…

Profit, always profit

As for the size of the enclosure – which, let’s not forget, is 4200 square meters for 6 wolves, who in the wild travel several dozen kilometers daily – we need to stop panicking, on the grounds that other zoos offer enclosures of this size, or even smaller! If others do it like that, then… One more, one less, it doesn’t matter.

Profits and entrepreneurial freedom are the main arguments used to validate the project: “[…] if the prefectoral authority authorizes the construction of the wolf park, Cerdon-en-Sologne will have an additional business and Wolf Project customers will be able to benefit from the good restaurant on Argent-sur-Sauldre road and the high class hotel next door.” (sic) So you’ll have a leg of lamb for lunch, before going to be psychoanalyzed by wolves who haven’t asked for anything and don’t know what they’re doing there?…

So much for the animals who will be exploited. Moreover, it is emphasized that they will come from captivity, and not be captured in their natural environment – glad to hear it! So it doesn’t really matter under what conditions they will be taken prisoner.

And to conclude on a high note, you who defend the wolves and are opposed to the project should know that you are “miscreants”, and that it is feared that you will be malicious “towards the company, its organizers, the animals and even the public attending a seminar”. (sic)

It’s now up to the prefecture to decide, and we hope that the prefect will respect the results of this consultation and the opinions of the public.

For our part, we continue, and always will, to oppose the enslavement of animals and to fight so that they can live free and in peace. As far as wolves are concerned, we’re continuing to fight for an end to their extermination. Help us by signing our petition.

One Voice and its partners around the world target Max Mara for its use of fur

One Voice and its partners around the world target Max Mara for its use of fur
09.02.2024
One Voice and its partners around the world target Max Mara for its use of fur
Fashion

Today, the Fur Free Alliance, of which One Voice is the French representative, launched an international campaign urging Italian fashion giant Max Mara – long targeted in France by the SIPE collective – to join its competitors (including Gucci, Versace, Armani, Prada, Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana and many others) in adopting an anti-fur policy.

The campaign will take place during Fashion Week in New York, London, Milan and Paris. Thanks to the notoriety of the Fur Free Alliance, a coalition of 50 animal protection associations in 35 countries, the Max Mara anti-fur campaign will probably be the biggest ever, resulting in tens of thousands of emails, calls and posts on social networks.

In September 2018, the Fur Free Alliance asked its supporters around the world to urge Prada to give up fur. The Italian luxury brand heeded the call and abandoned it the following year, responding to the public’s shift in values. The Fur Free Alliance has also worked with Gucci, Armani, Hugo Boss and many others to establish anti-fur policies. Today, over 1,500 brands and retailers have committed to going fur-free by joining the Fur Free Retailer program.

Email Max Mara to let them know you care about animals and want them to go fur-free! Follow the news by leaving a comment on Max Mara’s social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn) (see end of article).

This international campaign targets the flagship Max Mara brand as well as the Max Mara group as a whole and related brands such as Marina Rinaldi, SportMax and many others, all of which still offer fur (mink gloves, fox cuffs, raccoon dog charms or lined hoods).

On fur farms, wild animals are locked up for life in wire-bottomed cages. Deprived of the opportunity to behave naturally, they end up killed by gassing or anal electrocution. In the wild, they agonize for days in traps without food or water until trappers come to retrieve them. Often, they gnaw on their own limbs in a desperate attempt to escape.

Fur production is also devastating for the environment. Farms and tanneries are extremely harmful to soil and waterways, releasing waste and toxic chemicals into the environment. Traps, meanwhile, are not selective, often mutilating and killing non-target individuals, such as members of endangered species or pets. In short, this industry is a nightmare from A to Z.

While the majority of consumers reject fur, major fashion brands have reacted by announcing policies that ban its use. Twenty European countries have banned its production because of its cruelty to animals and risks to the environment and public health. In addition, Israel, California and fourteen US cities have banned its sale in order to create a more ethical market and stimulate innovation.

«Max Mara’s support for this archaic and barbaric trade makes it seem old-fashioned and indifferent to animal suffering. Max Mara should join its peers who have renounced fur, and prioritize compassion over profit.

»Joh Vinding, President of the Fur Free Alliance

For Max Mara to give up fur

Let’s show Max Mara that it has no excuse for promoting the barbaric fur trade!

Max Mara is one of the last international fashion brands not to have adopted an anti-fur policy, even though most of its competitors (including Gucci, Prada, Armani, Valentino, Versace and Dolce&Gabbana) have already done so.

Thanks to people like you who defend animals, these brands have understood that consumers no longer want a product that is cruel to animals, bad for the environment, risky for public health and totally unnecessary since quality alternatives exist.

Take action for the animals: with One Voice and its partners, ask Max Mara to stop using fur!

You can stop Max Mara from continuing to use fur. Write to the brand urging it to abandon fur for good!

Send a letter by e-mail to Max Mara’s executive staff and board of directors via the online form on the brand’s website. You can use the text suggested below or, better still, express yourself in your own words.

Dear Max Mara directors and collaborators,

I am shocked and saddened that Max Mara continues to profit from the barbaric fur trade when there are so many cozy, fashionable alternatives. I will not shop at your store until your brand abandons fur as many of its competitors have already done, including Gucci, Prada, Versace, Armani, Valentino and many others, committed to One Voice and its Fur Free Alliance partners.

Make the compassionate choice: give up fur. Thank you.

Hearing in Vannes on February 12, 2024 for a lion and two lionesses held by the William Zavatta circus

Hearing in Vannes on February 12, 2024 for a lion and two lionesses held by the William Zavatta circus
09.02.2024
Hearing in Vannes on February 12, 2024 for a lion and two lionesses held by the William Zavatta circus
Circuses

On July 17 and 22, 2019, in search of Sultan, we had investigated the William Zavatta circus and found that it was keeping a lion and two lionesses in semitrailers from which they never got out, considering that they weren’t even taking part in the shows. On their behalf, we filed a complaint against the circus three days later. On February 12, at 4:30 p.m., we will be present at the judicial court in Vannes to demand sanctions against the trainers and to obtain the seizure of the animals.

Update February 13, 2024:

The Vannes judicial court handed down its decision on the day of the hearing.

Justice was once again on the side of the animals, and the two trainers from the William Zavatta circus were found guilty of professional mistreatment of animals. They received a six-month suspended prison sentence, as well as a five-year ban on keeping non-domestic animals.

We’re delighted that animals are increasingly being taken into account in the courts, and we’re continuing to fight to maintain this trend!

Locked up in semitrailers in direct sunlight, without litter under their paws or water to hydrate themselves… During the two days we spent observing them in the summer of 2019, the lion and two lionesses held by the William Zavatta circus never once had access to the outside, condemned to bake in their gaol, without the slightest enrichment on which to focus their attention and get them out of boredom.

Not content with making these big cats live in indecent conditions, the circus performers hadn’t even bothered to secure their cages, exposing anyone, including children, to a potentially fatal accident. To get to the cages, anyone could have moved the removable barriers placed there. These were flimsy measures for animals that the establishment was not even allowed to keep. In fact, it did not comply with the “circus” decree, since they did not take part in the shows… as they were kept in their cage-trucks to attract customers.

A circus that revels in illegality and a missing lion

Between 2016 and 2018, we had already filed two complaints against this circus, for Sultan. At the time, he only came out of the trailer in which he was completely isolated to be exhibited during parades, a practice that was also illegal. Since then, he has disappeared without a trace, probably sold or “naturalized” by one of the taxidermists at the heart of the trade in which many circuses engage…

For the lion and two lionesses held captive there in 2019, we have filed a complaint for placing animals held in captivity in an environment likely to cause suffering, mistreatment and illegal exploitation.

And we have another procedure underway against the same circus for different animals…

On February 12, 2024, at 4:30 pm, almost five years after the event, we will be present at the judicial court in Vannes to demand that the lions be seized and handed over to us.

One Voice files a complaint for libel against Gircor, the animal experimentation lobby

One Voice files a complaint for libel against Gircor, the animal experimentation lobby
08.02.2024
One Voice files a complaint for libel against Gircor, the animal experimentation lobby
Animal testing

After months of pushing the boundaries, it’s taken the plunge. Two weeks ago, Gircor, the communication arm and lobby for animal experimentation, crossed the line with a defamatory post about One Voice. According to Gircor, we are seeking to “manipulate public opinion” by relying “on emotion to create a buzz”. With his unsubstantiated assertions, distortions of our statements and attacks on the association’s reputation, it falls straight into the realm of defamation. We have lodged a complaint with the Paris judicial court and requested a right of reply.

This latest fact-checking is no better than the previous ones, that reacted to our reports on primates and dogs. As usual, there are no links to our investigation into the Mauritian macaque farms, only extracts (“some flagrant examples of misinformation”, it seems) taken out of context to be better criticized. As for our images, they are labelled “misleading”, “lies” or “staged”.

Some (poorly) chosen pieces

The award for absurdity goes to the criticism of one of the shots: “by choosing a particular moment and camera angle, One Voice would have us believe that this is the macaques’ daily life”. However, on this shot, the first words are: “So every six months”.

Besides, the lobby is generally content to make assertions without proof. This is particularly embarrassing when it mentions AAALAC, described by Gircor as “an international non-profit organization that promotes excellence in animal welfare in science”. The idea is that, since the farm we’re talking about is accredited, it would somehow by definition respect regulations and “animal welfare”. In reality, the only independent study on the subject, published in 2014, showed that laboratories accredited by the aforementioned organization infringed regulations even more than the others!

From easy claims to unfounded accusations

Faced with the fact that the Macaca fascicularis species was declared “endangered” in 2022 (in Asia, which we clearly announced in our investigation), the so-called “fact-checking” states that Mauritian macaques are invasive. This is based on a 2007 ranking that has not been re-evaluated since, and which explicitly states that capturing monkeys for experimentation is not an appropriate solution. A fill-in-the-gaps kind of reading, therefore.

But things are becoming more problematic with repeated attributions of malicious intent on our part. We are said to have lied about various elements, to have tried to “cover our tracks”, to have staged a sequence where the monkeys are being intimidated… These are serious allegations, especially as they are false!

Defamation and right of reply

Despite the pretense of linguistic precautions, the conclusion of their article drives the point home: “Affirming, deceiving, lying, idealizing and, above all, staging seem to be the leitmotifs of this new ‘investigation’ by One Voice”. The nuance between “seem to be” and “are” – also present in the English version of their post (which considerably broadens their audience) – doesn’t convince anyone.

We dare to hope that, in view of all these remarks, the Paris judicial court, to which we have filed a complaint for defamation, will not be fooled by these false precautions. In the meantime, we have requested a right of reply.

One Voice and the Whale Sanctuary Project Propose Collaboration with Marineland Antibes to Retire Three Orcas to Sanctuary

One Voice and the Whale Sanctuary Project Propose Collaboration with Marineland Antibes to Retire Three Orcas to Sanctuary
07.02.2024
One Voice and the Whale Sanctuary Project Propose Collaboration with Marineland Antibes to Retire Three Orcas to Sanctuary
Dolphinariums

The French animal defender organization One Voice and the Whale Sanctuary Project, a U.S. charity, agreed several years ago to work together toward Inouk, Wikie and Keijo, the three orcas at Marineland Antibes, being retired from commercial display and transferred to a coastal sanctuary in Nova Scotia, Canada. In the wake of the judicial court of Grasse calling for a pause on the transfer of orcas from Marineland Antibes to Japan pending an independent expert assessment and the Ministry of Ecological Transition launching a consultation process to study non-commercial solutions for captive whales, our organizations now propose a collaboration with Marineland and the French Ministry of Ecological Transition.

«The Whale Sanctuary Project is the only current sanctuary project that can accommodate orcas. We are now working together in offering to cooperate with Marineland to retire the whales to a more natural environment that will be most beneficial to their health and welfare.»Muriel Arnal, President of One Voice

Collaboration is an essential ingredient

The Whale Sanctuary Project emphasizes that the success of retiring the orcas to sanctuary will depend on a fully collaborative effort among the staff and management of Marineland, the Whale Sanctuary team, One Voice and other partners, along with government agencies.

This approach is modeled on earlier collaborative ventures. In 2019, the Whale Sanctuary Project worked with the Russian government, Russian animal protection groups and One Voice to successfully return to the ocean 10 orcas and 87 beluga whales who had been captured illegally for sale to marine entertainment parks in China. And in 2023, members of the Whale Sanctuary team worked hand-in-hand with Miami Seaquarium staff through Friends of Toki, in a joint effort to return the orca Toki (also known by her display name Lolita) to her home waters in the Pacific Northwest, from where she had been captured in 1970. (Sadly, Toki died from chronic conditions including renal disease and pneumonia before she could be moved.)

«The impact of what was a first-ever, formal collaboration between a marine entertainment park and the animal protection community to care for a whale on site at a marine park cannot be underestimated. It demonstrated that different organizations that in the past might have been working against each other can successfully work together with shared values of respect and care for the animals.»Charles Vinick, Executive Director of the Whale Sanctuary Project

The sanctuary

The coastal sanctuary that the Whale Sanctuary Project is establishing is situated in Port Hilford Bay, Nova Scotia. This protected bay will offer its resident whales more than 100 acres (40 hectares) of water space with depths up to 18 meters, allowing the whales to swim, dive and experience a natural seaside environment. They will be able to explore the seafloor, chase birds on the surface and spend their time in nature while benefiting from human care for the rest of their lives.

It will also ensure that the family group stays together.

«Orcas are highly intelligent, emotionally sensitive and socially bonded animals. In the ocean, they live in strong family groups and their emotional and behavioral health is intimately connected with their social group.»Dr. Lori Marino, Founder and President of the Whale Sanctuary Project

Transporting whales to a new situation inevitably causes stress. But any such stress is multiplied exponentially when their destination is another entertainment facility where they must try to accommodate to living long-term in a concrete tank with orcas with whom they are entirely unfamiliar.

“By contrast, at an authentic sanctuary like at Port Hilford Bay,” Dr. Marino explained, “they will be able to stay together as a unit and not be stressed by being confined in a small space with orcas with whom they have no relationship. A sanctuary will provide the best chance they have for a successful life.”

Sanctuary standards

Whale Sanctuary Project lease area, Port Hilford Bay, Nova Scotia

The sanctuary is being designed according to standards prepared jointly by the National Aquarium, Sea Life Trust and the Whale Sanctuary Project, and published by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries.

The National Aquarium is currently establishing a sanctuary in the Caribbean for its six dolphins, and Sea Life Trust operates a sanctuary in Iceland for two beluga whales who came from an entertainment park that was acquired by its founding partner Merlin Entertainments Group. Merlin Entertainments has a policy of not using cetaceans at any of its marine entertainment parks.

An accelerated plan to meet the needs of Wikie, Inouk and Keijo

Given the urgency facing Wikie, Inouk and Keijo, the Whale Sanctuary Project has developed an accelerated approach to provide the absolutely necessary elements for accommodating the whales before completing the full sanctuary plan.

Phase One of the accelerated plan will include the engineering, fabrication and installation of a bay pen of approximately 6,500 square meters, along with temporary staff quarters and facilities, so that the orcas can be moved to sanctuary. In Phase Two, permanent sanctuary facilities are installed, along with the perimeter net surrounding the 404,000 square meters (100+ acres) of sanctuary water space.

Environmental studies

Over a three-year period since announcing the selection of Port Hilford Bay, the Whale Sanctuary Project has been conducting comprehensive environmental studies to ensure the suitability of the site for whales – and equally to be sure that the presence of the whales will not be detrimental to the local flora and fauna.

One of these studies is specific to Nova Scotia because of historical gold mining that took place across the province from the 1880s through the 1930s. Analyses of soil, water and invertebrate species at the site concluded that while the water throughout the bay is clean, the area onshore where there was once a stamp mill will need to be capped with soil, gravel or concrete at any places that may be disturbed by construction. There are also levels of arsenic sequestered in a small area of the seabed and in some samples taken from invertebrates that inhabit the seabed. We are engaged in consultations with scientists and other experts to determine whether mitigation is required.

A global sanctuary movement

Over recent years, public opinion has fueled a global movement to bring an end to keeping cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) in captivity for the purpose of entertainment.

There are already hundreds of first-class sanctuaries all over the world for land animals, including for elephants, big cats, bears and great apes who had spent their earlier lives in zoos (both public and private) and circuses. In working cooperatively and in collaboration with the entertainment industry, we look forward to a time when cetaceans are no longer confined to concrete tanks and have all been retired to authentic sanctuaries.

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.