News Archive - Page 16 of 129

Atrocity and abundance of animal experimentation projects in France: the banality of everyday life

Atrocity and abundance of animal experimentation projects in France: the banality of everyday life
14.05.2024
Atrocity and abundance of animal experimentation projects in France: the banality of everyday life
Animal testing

Starting today, we will be presenting projects selected on the basis of the number of animals used or the severity of the tests they undergo. All have been validated by the French Ministry of Research. We’re calling for a real wake-up call that will bring about a change in practices. For this, we need your help!

Every day in France, a multitude of animals are subjected to experiments. These projects may be linked to research (fundamental and applied), or to regulatory and toxicology testing.

The transition to animal-free science is massively supported by the French (Ipsos/One Voice poll, April 2023), by nearly 150 European scientists from 19 member states, by European elected representatives in 2010 and 2023, and by French parliamentarians*.

Thus, between April 10 and May 10, 2024, the following projects were published in the database listing projects authorized at European level:

Concerning monkeys :

Blood and cerebrospinal fluid sampling: 400 monkeys used, of whom 80 will undergo procedures without awakening (i.e., slaughter at the end of the project).
72 monkeys will undergo surgery to implant a telemetry transmitter, blood samples, take medication and be placed in metabolism cages for over 6 days.
Sampling, surgery, gavage treatment, brain stimulation, etc. 60 monkeys will be euthanized as a result of these invasive tests and surgical procedures, which make it impossible for them to survive further experiments.
1 to 3 neurosurgeries involving cranial electrodes, multiple samples and injections: 12 monkeys will be used, 4 of whom will be euthanized.

Injection into the brain, followed by several surgeries to implant electrodes delivering different intensities of electric current into the brain. They will also undergo the administration of parkinsonian syndrome through daily intramuscular injections: 6 monkeys will be used and undergo pain of a severe degree of severity until euthanasia.

For dogs :

Blood and cerebrospinal fluid sampling: 200 dogs will be used, of whom 40 will undergo procedures without awakening.

For rabbits :

Tissue samples taken from 3,000 young rabbits, who are then slaughtered at weaning.

Concerning fish :

Severe experimental infections: 13,680 fish will be euthanized.

Concerning rodents :

Severe pain following spinal cord injury: 554 young mice euthanized.
Ear or tail tissue sampling: 158,000 mice and 1,000 rats, some euthanized and others “reused” (number not specified).
Biopsy and blood sampling: 79,950 mice, some euthanized and some reused.
Administration of various compounds by gavage or other means, the mice will undergo stress and pain and be housed in metabolism cages: 50,600 of them will be put to death at the end of the procedures.
Tumor transplants involving severe pain, inability to move, etc. 30,000 mice will be used and euthanized, 2,000 of them will undergo experiments of severe severity and the remaining 28,000 of moderate severity.
Tumor implant insertion: 27,500 mice will be killed at the end of the operations in order to recover and analyze their tissues.
Tumor cell transplantation: 20,500 mice will be euthanized, either during or at the end of the study.
Injection, blood sampling and bone marrow harvesting, following which the 19,959 mice will be euthanized.
Intracerebral injections generating pain and neurological disorders: of the 13,500 rodents used, 6,400 will undergo experiments of severe severity, the others of moderate severity. All will be killed at the end of the study.
Auditory hyperexcitability is tested by means of sound exposure that can generate reflex epileptic seizures. Surgery and painful injections are expected: 15,385 mice will be used and then euthanized at the end of the procedures, as these animals “cannot be reused, replaced or adopted, being genetically modified organisms“. We have already asked the judge to prohibit a similar project.
Administration of colitis generating intense pain and of severe severity: 10,000 mice and rats used, all to be euthanized.
Cutting off the end of the tail: 8,500 mice will then be euthanized. “Animals that do not contain the mutation of interest or are too old (to be used for mating or included in a research protocol) or have not given birth to litters for 2 months will be euthanized, even if they show no signs of ill-being“.
Surgery and implantation for adults and cerebral injection and substance injection that induce neurodegeneration in young mice, with severe pain and behavioral and dietary stress: 6,050 mice will be killed, 3,540 of whom will undergo procedures of severe severity.
Heavy surgery resulting in hypothermia and motor disorders that prevent the animals from moving: 5,402 mice will be killed, 2,520 of whom will suffer severe pain.
Bacterial infection resulting in severe pain: 5,160 mice will be euthanized.
Heavy surgery to alter brain function, resulting in a risk of severe pain in some individuals: 3,374 rats will be put to death.
Hypoxia for several days with severe pain: 2,475 mice will be euthanized.
Administration of products that induce convulsions leading to death: 1,100 mice will be used and 1,000 of them will suffer severe pain.
Inducing a stroke, which inflicts intense pain of severe severity: 1,000 mice will be euthanized.
Amphetamine and anesthetic injections that induce severe pain: 360 mice will be killed.
Lesion of the spinal cord causing paralysis for several weeks and severe pain: 25 rats will be euthanized.

We call on laboratories to systematically use alternative methods when they exist, as required by law. We also encourage professionals to train in animal-free testing methods. In addition, we urge our political representatives to vote in favor of much greater funding for research into alternative methods. Although the majority of them agree with this principle, it is now imperative to have real political will to make progress. Stagnation is a significant obstacle, and we need to adopt an innovative approach and invest more in this field.

The number of animals who are still victims of animal experimentation is colossal and their numbers are not decreasing, be they monkeys, dogs or any other species, despite the passage of legislation calling for a reduction.

To put an end to these methods, which have had their day, join us in calling for an end to animal experimentation, and write to the Minister of Higher Education and Research:

Download the standard letter (in French)

* Sources :

Decree no. 2013-118 of February 1, 2013 on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes.
Order of February 1, 2013 setting the conditions for approval, layout and operation of establishments using, breeding or supplying animals used for scientific purposes and their controls.
Order of February 1, 2013 relating to the ethical evaluation and authorization of projects involving the use of animals in experimental procedures.
Order of February 1, 2013 setting the conditions for supplying certain animal species used for scientific purposes to approved user establishments.
Order of February 1, 2013 relating to the acquisition and validation of skills of personnel from user establishments, breeders and suppliers of animals used for scientific purposes.

300 lives saved. In the Finistère department, badgers will spend the summer of 2024 in peace!

300 lives saved. In the Finistère department, badgers will spend the summer of 2024 in peace!
13.05.2024
300 lives saved. In the Finistère department, badgers will spend the summer of 2024 in peace!
Hunting

In the Finistère department, the diggers were ready for action: on May 15, the prefect authorized them to kill badgers in their own burrows. But that was without our action: together with the Ligue pour la protection des oiseaux (LPO) Bretagne, we urgently appealed against this decision, and the Rennes administrative court has just ruled in our favor! A first victory against the supplementary underground hunting period for 2024, which will save almost 300 lives.

Photo : Nicolas Bazerque

A massacre narrowly avoided

Every year in the Finistère department, hundreds of badgers are cornered by dogs, hunted down by diggers, then pulled out of the ground by metal pliers, before being executed with knives or guns. And the prefecture itself has admitted: of these 300 individuals, almost 20% are youngsters, even though the law forbids the killing of young badgers!

As usual, the State blames them for everything. So-called damage to crops, to road infrastructures, it tries everything and there’s never a shred of evidence on the horizon, with the exception of a few purely declarative “damage reports”, each more fanciful than the last. And with good reason: they are not subject to any controls! All this did not fool the interim relief judge, who suspended the decree even before the hunting season opened.

The first of many hearings to come

After a historic year in 2023 in the fight against underground venery, with the rescue of almost 4,000 badgers, the long-distance race continues in 2024. In the coming days and weeks, we’ll be attacking dozens of decrees authorizing this cruel practice: from Nantes to Toulouse, via Rouen and Orléans, everywhere, we’ll be defending badgers’ right to live without fear of being put to death in the name of a small group of people’s hobby.

Support us in this fight! We look forward to seeing many of you on May 15 for World Badger Day and beyond, as part of our nationally coordinated action. And in the meantime, if, like more than 8 out of 10 French people, you are opposed to this deadly practice (IPSOS/One Voice poll, October 2023), sign and share our petition for the abolition of underground venery and the protection of badgers.

Six hearings to come and twelve towns invested in our action for badgers!

Six hearings to come and twelve towns invested in our action for badgers!
06.05.2024
Six hearings to come and twelve towns invested in our action for badgers!
Hunting

Despite the victories that came one after the other, prefects are persisting, and One Voice is going back into battle. On 15 May, the day that underground hunting with hounds will be reopened in numerous departments, we will be present throughout France to spread awareness of these animals who are hunted down into their setts. And, like last year, we will refer to the legal system to get the illegal decrees authorising massacres suspended. The first hearings are on 7 May at 11am at the Rennes Administrative Tribunal (Finistère), 13 May at 2:30pm in Nantes (Mayenne and Loire-Atlantique), 14 May at 2:30pm in Orléans (Cher) and Toulouse (Aveyron), 16 May at 11am in Rennes (Morbihan), and 23 May at 3pm in Rouen (Eure).

On 11, 12, 18, and 22 May, we are organising action to raise awareness in several towns against digging out (NB: check the event on the day). In Aix-en-Provence (on the 18^th), Amiens, Angers, Bar-le-Duc, Bourgoin-Jallieu, Brive-la-Gaillarde (on the 22^nd), Gap (on the 12^th), Flers (on the 18^th), Lille, Limoges (on the 12^th), Metz and also Nice, join our activists against this practice that has been rejected by more than 8 in 10 French people year after year since 2018 (IPSOS/One Voice survey, October 2023)!

The objective: show who these animals truly are, who just want to live. And show the fate reserved for them, documented thanks to our infiltration investigation among badger, and also fox, diggers, and which allowed this subject to enter into public debate in 2020.

On 15 May, as part of International Badger Day, we will also be participating in a conference organised by the local branch of ASPAS in Grenoble. We will be waiting for you there!

We will also continue to defend these animals before public authorities. The fight is tough as hunters are so influential. In Limoges, they have even decided to organise a day in honour of underground hunting with hounds, to interfere with our action.

But things are changing! We are calling on the National Forestry Office, a collective that we are part of, who recently committed to encouraging a ban on the hunting of badgers and foxes in its area from 2025.

One Voice’s action is decisive in the change that is happening against digging out!

The year 2023 will have marked a turning point in the fight against underground hunting with hounds outside of the hunting season: in more than 30 departments, it has been urgently suspended thanks to the association’s legal actions! Judges have confirmed this decision after decision: digging out in the spring and summer constitutes a major danger for badger cubs, who are in fact protected by law. These same badger cubs who, in Eure-et-Loir, have been killed by hunters despite the ban, and have had their stomachs analysed as part of a “study” by the National Federation of Hunters. Weaning does not constitute proof that the young are autonomous, for their species any more than for us humans. We are attacking for them too.

But prefects prefer to purely and simply brush aside the 37 rulings in favour of badgers in 2023 and the dozens from previous years to better satisfy hunters. Our first emergency interim proceedings for 2024 will be looked into in the weeks to come:

With the LPO for Finistère (Rennes Administrative Tribunal on 7 May at 11am).
On our own for Mayenne and Loire-Atlantique (Nantes Administrative Tribunal on 13 May at 2:30pm) and for Cher (Orléans Administrative Tribunal on 14 May at 12:30pm).
With AVES for Aveyron (Toulouse Administrative Tribunal on 14 May at 2:30pm), for Morbihan (Rennes Administrative Tribunal on 16 May at 11am), and for Eure (Rouen Administrative Tribunal on 23 May at 3pm).

More than ever, sign our petition for a radical reform on hunting, specifically for a ban on digging out, and for the pure and simple abolition of underground hunting with hounds and the protection of badgers, and join us from 11 to 22 May throughout France for our actions to raise awareness of foxes and badgers who are victims of hunters!

Rats and mice experimented on: One Voice condemns Inserm to reveal its forced swimming footage

Rats and mice experimented on: One Voice condemns Inserm to reveal its forced swimming footage
06.05.2024
Rats and mice experimented on: One Voice condemns Inserm to reveal its forced swimming footage
Animal testing

In April 2022, we asked a laboratory linked with Inserm (French National Institute for Health and Medical Research) to provide us with its videos of forced swimming. Two years later and despite opposition from this organisation, the Paris Administrative Tribunal has just compelled them to send us the footage within one month. A decision that is consistent with transparency, which we have been fighting for for a long time!

Photo credit : Understanding Animal Research

To justify their refusal to send us the videos of forced swimming filmed on their premises, the Neurocentre Magendie mentioned… copyright! We were outraged that they would use such an argument to hide the footage from the public, which results from standardised tests that, naturally, are fairly typical. Although the Committee for Access to Administrative Documents (CADA), who we referred to, refused to go along with us, the Paris Administrative Tribunal has made an unambiguous decision.

Following the hearing on 12 April 2024, the Paris Administrative Tribunal ruled that Inserm’s recordings:

“Were carried out with bias with a fixed camera connected to a computerised tracking system to register the data resulting from subjecting laboratory mice and rats to common and standardised tests with a view to collecting and automatically processing them in order to produce reports on the basis of predefined settings. Therefore, these recordings cannot be considered as an original creation reflecting the creator’s personality, and thus cannot be qualified as intellectual property.” Extract from the ruling issued by the Paris Administrative Tribunal.

In favour of more transparency

Based on these conclusions, the legal system ordered Inserm to send us their footage before 3 June. A significant result to highlight these experiments that are extremely stressful for rats and mice who are plunged into containers of water, having no way of knowing if they will survive, and which the Ministry of Research and Higher Education persists in authorising. And all of this while a growing number of businesses and universities are moving away from these practices. Faced with resistance from an industry that prefers to make statements in place of revealing the actual facts , we will continue to reveal what is happening in laboratories for the animals.

Sign our petition to call for the end of forced swimming tests!

Victory for birds: traditional hunting banned for good!

Victory for birds: traditional hunting banned for good!
06.05.2024
Victory for birds: traditional hunting banned for good!
Hunting

It was a long and difficult battle, from the administrative courts to the Conseil d’État, via the European Court of Justice. Years later, after dozens of legal actions and hundreds of thousands of skylarks saved, we finally got the courts to put an end to traditional hunting. One Voice and the Ligue pour la protection des oiseaux (LPO) have appealed to the Conseil d’État, which has annulled the decrees authorizing capture with “pantes” (nets) and “matoles” (cages) in the South-West of France. For the first time in decades, no bird in France can be subjected to these particularly cruel “leisure activities”.

No more pantes and matoles!

Every year, in the Landes, the Lot-et-Garonne, the Gironde and the Pyrénées-Atlantiques departments, hunters were allowed to kill tens of thousands of birds with matoles and pantes. They used individuals as “decoy-birds” to attract the skylarks before activating their traps: cages and nets that collapsed violently, pinning the animals to the ground. All the trappers had to do was pick them up and finish the job.

Every year since 2021, we’ve managed to get the Conseil d’État to urgently suspend these outdated practices. This time, we went even further and, together with the LPO, demanded the definitive repeal of the decrees authorizing the very principle of these devices. And, once again, the courts ruled in favor of the birds!

Will the State continue to persist ? We won’t let our guard down!

This decision is the fruit of a long struggle against these traditions, which cause thousands of animals to suffer for the sole purpose of entertaining a handful of individuals. After our victory before the European Court of Justice in 2021, we had already obtained a ban on glue, then on “tenderies”, which trapped the birds using strings, then on “tendelles”, which crushed the birds under a rock. All that remained were matoles and pantes. With this decision, for the first time in decades, traditional hunting is no longer authorized in France!

But as we all know, the State will do anything to satisfy hunters, as demonstrated by its authorization of “scientific experiments” in autumn 2023, the sole aim of which was to justify these archaic practices (and whose suspension we largely succeeded in obtaining)… Despite this victory, which marks a crucial stage in the fight, we will not drop our guard: if the government continues to be relentless, we will be there!

Monkeys from Mauritius transported by Ethiopian Airlines to the United States

Monkeys from Mauritius transported by Ethiopian Airlines to the United States
30.04.2024
Monkeys from Mauritius transported by Ethiopian Airlines to the United States
Animal testing

One Voice has been warned by Action for Primates of Ethiopian Airlines’ involvement in transporting monkeys originating from Mauritius from Ethiopia to the United States.

These intelligent and sensitive animals are subjected to unimaginable stress and anxiety, shut up in small crates and loaded into the hold, exposed to the exceptional, confusing, scary sounds and sensations of a flight over thousands of kilometres around the world. It is a cruel and barbaric business.

Join us, Abolición Vivisección, Action for Primates, Cheshire Animal Rights Campaigns, Monkey Massacre in Mauritius, One Voice, and PeTA, to ask Ethiopian Airlines to definitively stop their active and commercial involvement in transporting monkeys for a life of endless experimentation and sign the petition to tell the French government: stop using macaques in laboratories!

Email template :

Mr Mesfin Tasew Bekele
Group Chief Executive Officer
Ethiopian Airlines

I have learnt that Ethiopian Airlines is transporting endangered wild species (long-tailed macaques) for the research industry. Two hundred and fifty monkeys, originating in Mauritius, were loaded into the holds of your airline company in April 2024.

I urge you to immediately stop transporting monkeys and to join the growing number of airline companies, including many of the largest and most respected worldwide, who have stopped sending monkeys to laboratories.

Sincerely,

Send to: Mesfin Tasew Bekele mesfinta@ethiopianairlines.com with corporatecommunication@ethiopianairlines.com and allcargoexport@ethiopianairlines.com in copy

Discover our infiltration investigation into Mauritian breeding farms

Official opening of the Yeu Island Chatipi on 30 April 2024

Official opening of the Yeu Island Chatipi on 30 April 2024
29.04.2024
Official opening of the Yeu Island Chatipi on 30 April 2024
Strays

One Voice, who have fought against feline straying for years, are implementing three-way partnerships with town councils or drop-in centres and local associations to microchip, neuter, and care for homeless cats and release them, while providing them with a wooden chalet for them to rehydrate themselves, eat, and take shelter. The Chatipi programme therefore allows cats without a human family to find shelter. The Chat Toit Yeu and the Yeu Island town council have contacted One Voice for this. The official opening will take place at the Chatipi on Tuesday 30 April at 11:30am on rue Saint-Hilaire (Grotte de Saint-Amand) on Yeu Island.

The official opening will take place in the presence of the Mayoress, Carole Charuau and her deputy, Ms Le Ralle, and the local Chat Toit Yeu Association in the form of its president, Ms Agathe Dupont Sacquépée, treasurer, Ms Laura Charuau, and Ms Claire Walder-Jarny, their executive secretary who will also represent One Voice in her capacity as volunteer for the association.

Chatipi: a lasting solution for the vicious circle of feline straying

On Yeu Island, many cats who are traumatised by their life of straying cannot be placed with a family. On the island, they lack a safe place where they can release these cats after they have been neutered and a place where they can be fed and monitored. Contrary to popular belief, our feline companions that are abandoned and returned to a life far from humans struggle to survive. They are faced with hunger, bad weather, and illnesses, and they reproduce indefinitely. The Chatipi will offer them the protection they need and will also raise awareness of stray cats’ distress among the local population and tourists. It is for this purpose that several Chatipis have been established throughout France near residential care homes for the elderly, nursing homes, or hospitals to bring comfort to the residents, and close to schools.

Caring for cats to protect biodiversity

Due to the specific nature of this island town, the impact of neglected and starving cats on local biodiversity is all the more significant. Thanks to the Chatipi, cats will be neutered and fed daily, all while benefiting from a comfortable place to live; small wildlife will also be protected.

Sharing out tasks and responsibilities

One Voice, who invented the Chatipi concept, provides the chalet and the cat flaps, the kibble, and the veterinary fees (neutering, microchipping, tests) for 15 cats at the beginning of the operation as well as the educational board. Two cats have already been able to be neutered as part of the Chatipi programme thanks to the work of the Chat Toit Yeu Association and residents worried about cats who have helped with trapping them and taking them to the veterinary clinic. The association has also taken care of ensuring that they are fed every day and the daily maintenance of the chalet. The local council is in charge of building the chalet.

The One Voice site dedicated to the Chatipi programme presents lots of information regarding this educational programme on cats. Sign our petition calling for an urgent plan to sort out the problem of feline straying.

To keep Briançon’s cats safe, a Chatipi will be opening on Tuesday 20 April 2024 at 5pm

To keep Briançon’s cats safe, a Chatipi will be opening on Tuesday 20 April 2024 at 5pm
29.04.2024
To keep Briançon’s cats safe, a Chatipi will be opening on Tuesday 20 April 2024 at 5pm
Strays

One Voice, who have fought against feline straying for years, is implementing three-way partnerships with town councils or places such as hospitals or retirement homes and local associations to microchip and neuter homeless cats and release them, while providing them with a wooden chalet for them to rehydrate themselves, eat, and take comfort. The SOS Chats des rues du Briançonnais [SOS Briançon Street Cat] Association, situated in the Hautes-Alpes department, which is very invested in protecting stray cats, has contacted the One Voice Association to take charge of the situation in the town with the help of the Briançon town council. The Chatipi programme therefore means that cats without a human family will no longer suffer from deprivation. The official opening of the Chatipi will take place in Briançon on Tuesday 30 April at 5pm.

Photo credit : SOS Chats des rues du Briançonnais

The official opening will take place on Tuesday 30 April at 5pm in front of the Chatipi that is located in ‘Petit Bois’ on the route des Toulouzannes in Briançon. It will take place in the presence of Mr. Hervé Boulais, municipal councillor responsible for culture, tourism, and enhancing the town, and Cité Vauban and the SOS Chats des rue du Briançonnais Association, with the participation of its president, Ms Jacqueline Gaillard, her vice-president, Ms Dominique Chone, her secretary, Ms Rachel Touverey Praly, and her treasurer, Ms Caroline Vassault. The One Voice Association will be represented by Ms Mathilde Perrot who is in charge of the Chatipi projects.

Chatipi: a lasting solution for the misery caused by feline straying

Chatipi is a plan with the ethical aim of creating areas for stray cats in order to keep them safe while raising awareness among citizens of their suffering and needs. Around twenty are currently being developed. Several Chatipis have been established near residential care homes for the elderly, nursing homes, or hospitals to bring comfort to the residents, and close to schools as One Voice’s goal is to raise awareness about cats.

In fact, young cats are too often wrongly described as independent animals that know how to fend for themselves. In reality, for the millions of them that are condemned to a life of straying, survival conditions are miserable: prey to hunger, thirst, illnesses, bad weather, sometimes human violence… Starting as un-neutered house cats, stray cats are destined for an infernal cycle of breeding, leading to fights, illnesses, and untreated wounds. Even if kittens born outside survive, they are in turn condemned to this life of misery, perpetuating indefinite births.

Sharing out tasks and responsibilities

One Voice, who invented the concept of a Chatipi, provided the chalet, cat flaps, and educational information boards. The veterinary fees (neutering, microchipping, tests) for 15 cats will also be taken care of, as well as several kilos of food in order to help kickstart the operation.

For their part, the town council poured the concrete slab and assembled the chalet, as well as the fenced enclosure to protect it.

Finally, the SOS Chats des rues du Briançonnais Association, already very active in this domain with more than 150 stray cats being neutered yearly, will ensure that the health of the feline population living in the Chatipi will be monitored and will be in charge of trapping, feeding, long-term veterinary fees, and cleaning the chalet. In total, around fifteen cats should benefit from the Briançon Chatipi.

The website dedicated to the Chatipi programme was launched at the beginning of March 2022 and gives a lot of information on this educational programme on cats. Sign our petition calling for an urgent plan for feline straying.

One Voice, Animal Cross, and AVES are attacking the ministerial decree authorising new killings for wolves

One Voice, Animal Cross, and AVES are attacking the ministerial decree authorising new killings for wolves
29.04.2024
One Voice, Animal Cross, and AVES are attacking the ministerial decree authorising new killings for wolves
Wildlife

After the publication of the national action plan for wolves and farming activities revealed an openly anti-wolf stance, a few weeks ago, the government published a new decree in order to further relax the conditions in which these animals can be killed. Because the writing of it is vague and not very detailed, and therefore even more permissive, we have, along with Animal Cross and AVES, filed a plea before the State Council to request its cancellation.

Measures that are in all likelihood illegal

An increase in the number of shooters during simple defence authorisations, according to “objective criteria”… which the ministries have not taken the trouble to go into detail about; the lack of any requirement to implement scaring methods prior to any lethal shooting; the removal of the obligation to identify “targets” before firing; maintaining the shooting authorisation after a wolf is killed…

The objective is clear: the State does not want to give wolves the slightest chance, giving them even fewer possibilities of escaping.

The majority are opposed, and yet…

During the public consultation on this project, 98.58% of opinions given were unfavourable! The French National Council for the Protection of Nature (CNPN), made up of experts and scientists on issues relating to biodiversity, also opposed it several times without much success (“We must remember that, since the start of the national action plan for wolves and farming activities 2018-2023, the CNPN has been contacted three times regarding decree projects with the same subject as the ones on which the CNPN has, until now, given unfavourable opinions on, of which the latest was unanimous.”).

By allowing wolves to be even more easily slaughtered, ministries are calling into question the survival of the entire species, which, let’s not forget, is still strictly protected at this time.

For all of these reasons, we have decided, with Animal Cross and AVES, to join forces and attack this decree to request that it be cancelled. Even if the fight is tough against agricultural and hunting lobbies, we will never give up. Along with us, demand protection for these magnificent animals who enrich our very fragile biodiversity and have a right to live in peace.

Following the wolves, dogs are being slaughtered to pacify farmers

Following the wolves, dogs are being slaughtered to pacify farmers
23.04.2024
Following the wolves, dogs are being slaughtered to pacify farmers
Zoe Cell

Although a vast majority of herds in Aveyron are not protected due to the “sheep density” in the department (more than 110,000 sheep), the State has chosen the usual solution: kill, kill, and kill some more! And when wolves are not targeted, it’s dogs’ turn. Clearly, a building, a human presence, or anything else are not options for them: we should not start spending money on animals that will end up in the slaughterhouse anyway… We are attacking this decree.

Lost dogs, deemed ‘malicious’, shot on sight

From 10 April until 10 May, all “stray, wandering, or bad” dogs approaching herds in Couvertoirade, Hospitalet-du-Larzac, Nant, Sainte-Eulalie-de-Cernon, and Saint-Jean-et-Saint-Paul can be slaughtered overnight (between 8pm and 8am).

Do we still need to remind ourselves that animals are not “bad” by nature, but that it is circumstances that make them aggressive, such as hunger or violent training? The choice of this term, in official laws, is significant…

All dogs that are “out of earshot” or more than 100 metres away from their owner can be targeted. Those living in Aveyron: be careful during your evening or morning walks not to lose sight of your pets, and to bring them in at night. If not, they could be slaughtered in the vicinity of pastures.

There is little distinction between dogs and wolves in Aveyron

The Aveyron prefect’s choice is revealing of the State’s negligence on this subject. Rather than supporting farmers by training them in implementing protection measures and subsidising them to help them to set guidelines for cows and horses, the government can no longer hide its anti-wolf/pro-farming position. They prefer to relax conditions for slaughtering rather than making protection measures for all types of animals obligatory.

Dogs, wolves, and any other type of living being: we will continue to defend them in the face of agricultural and hunting lobbies. For these dogs, who may have been abandoned and are struggling to survive, or are quite simply lost and making do as best they can, and who the prefect prefers to have killed rather than help, we are attacking this decree. For wolves, join the fight: sign our petition to demand their protection and an end to shooting them.