News Archive - Page 18 of 129

A chain of hearings against badger digging: Orléans and Châlons-en-Champagne on 28 March and Pau on 4 April!

A chain of hearings against badger digging: Orléans and Châlons-en-Champagne on 28 March and Pau on 4 April!
25.03.2024
A chain of hearings against badger digging: Orléans and Châlons-en-Champagne on 28 March and Pau on 4 April!
Hunting

Will badgers end up finding peace? Additional periods for underground hunting with hounds are in the spotlight more than ever. Although the courts are now ruling largely against this archaic practice that decimates thousands of individuals each year and adds to the already deadly hunting season, our hearings continue. On 28 March at 9:30am, the Châlons-en-Champagne administrative tribunal will study our plea on the Aube, Haute-Marne, and Ardennes prefects’ decrees for the 2023-2024 season. On the same day at 10:15am, the Orléans judges will examine the case of the 2020-2021 decree in Loiret. And on 4 April at 8:45am, the Pau tribunal will examine the Pyrénées-Atlantiques decrees for 2022-2023.

Updated 12 April 2024

Two new victories! In Loiret, the additional periods for underground badger hunting with hounds from 2020 and 2021 were in fact illegal. This is what the Orléans administrative tribunal has just confirmed once again. While many prefects prepare to authorise this cruel hunting from 15 May, we are appealing to them: respect court decisions and ban badger digging in spring and summer!

Now the badgers have been saved, we are on the road to cancelling the decrees!

In these five departments, prefects authorise digging out in spring and summer in the middle of the reproductive period. Families are terrorised: with no way to escape, the young and their parents are massacred down in the bottom of their setts. For several years, we have been systematically attacking these decisions, with or without our partners (Loiret Nature Environnement for the 2020-2021 decree in Loiret, and AVES for the 2023-2024 decrees in Aube, Haute-Marne, and Ardennes).

In spring 2023, One Voice also obtained an urgent suspension on hunting in these departments as well as in around thirty others, allowing thousands of individuals to be spared !

Let’s give badgers a voice in the face of prefects’ persecution!

Slowly but surely, the legal system is taking its course and confirming the illegality of these decisions throughout France. Recently, the Caen, Limoges, Nantes, and even Amiens tribunals definitively cancelled these decrees, recalling that underground hunting with hounds puts the badger cubs in danger.

And if prefects continue to authorise these massacres despite all of these rulings, they have been warned: we will always be there to give a voice to these true underground architects, killed in their thousands for the sole pleasure of a small number of people who are looking to keep themselves occupied outside of the hunting season.

To send a strong message to all prefects, sign our petitions to insist that badgers be protected and for a ban on underground hunting with hounds, as well as a radical reform of hunting!

Appeal hearing in Rouen on 26 March for ‘Caresse de Tigre’ who trafficked wildlife with Masson

Appeal hearing in Rouen on 26 March for ‘Caresse de Tigre’ who trafficked wildlife with Masson
25.03.2024
Appeal hearing in Rouen on 26 March for ‘Caresse de Tigre’ who trafficked wildlife with Masson
Circuses

One of the people involved in wildlife trafficking with trainer Mario Masson is none other than the ‘Caresse de Tigre’ breeder, for whom our case was rejected in the first instance. We refuse for such acts, uncovered by AVES France and Four Paws, to be taken lightly and for the associations involved in these subjects to be dismissed. On 26 March at 9:15am, we will be at the Rouen court of appeal to contest this decision.

Photo credit : AVES France / Four Paws

Updated 30 January 11:15am

Initially set for 30 January 2024, the hearing was deferred to 26 March 2024 at 9:15am at the request of Caresse de Tigre’s lawyer.

Uncovered in 2019 by the AVES France and Four Paws investigation, the so-called rescue centre for captive wild animals in Seine-Maritime was in fact a breeding facility welcoming the public in without authorisation or even the slightest notion of safety.

And it was the little felines that resulted from this breeding that the bosses based their business on. For 50 euros for ten minutes of playing with the lion cubs, they had found the goose that laid the golden eggs! This handling, which is extremely stressful for the baby animals, is just as dangerous for them as it is for humans.

But for the couple in charge, it does not matter if visitors are regularly bitten or scratched: the animals will quite naturally be punished, like Nala the lioness who was beaten in front of the public for not being docile. Retired circus performers think they can do whatever they like…

Close links with trainer Mario Masson

If these wild animals are not condemned to live their entire lives in this initial place of exploitation, it is only to be shamelessly sold to other circus performers, under whose whip their ordeal continues. Among the many names that have emerged from this lucrative trafficking is Mario Masson, the trainer who was found guilty in 2022 after our almost two-year investigation and the rescue of ten tigers who were locked in the circus trailer day and night.

Wildlife trafficking is still and will always be a no!

The irony: although the twelve animals behind bars at the property in Normandy have since been placed under the responsibility of legal authorities, the 2023 conviction for illegal exploitation nevertheless saw it fit to entrust their care to their torturers themselves! Not only did the Rouen magistrates’ court rule the suspended fines sufficient, but they also declared our participation as a civil party alongside AVES France and the Robin des Bois Association inadmissible. An incomprehensible decision given our mission and our fights.

Today, wildlife trafficking is still on the podium for international trade, along with weapons and drugs. In 2023, we have not given in at all to this illegal trade carried out off the backs of animals and have succeeded in getting the ministerial decree that facilitates it cancelled by the State Council. Still this year, we are demanding that this subject be treated seriously and that associations be allowed to work on this colossal project.

On 26 March at 9:15am, we will be at the Rouen court of appeal to have our legitimacy recognised in the case involving ‘Caresse de Tigre’. Hand in hand with other associations, we will assert our right to defend the lions and tigers being exploited so that animals will finally stop being treated like common merchandise.

Red Collar, taken by a leg-hold trap, has lost a leg. One Voice is filing a complaint for the little cat.

Red Collar, taken by a leg-hold trap, has lost a leg. One Voice is filing a complaint for the little cat.
24.03.2024
Red Collar, taken by a leg-hold trap, has lost a leg. One Voice is filing a complaint for the little cat.
Domestic animals

Red Collar was found badly injured by a leg-hold trap set up illegally. Suffering from a double fracture, the young cat had to have her front right leg amputated up to her shoulder. For this new collateral victim of a device that targets thousands of animals every year, who are unjustly perceived as being bothersome, One Voice is filing a complaint.

The list of our companions who are victims of traps keeps getting longer. After Cooper and Mani in 2023, then Snooky just a few weeks ago, it is now Red Collar who has paid the price for hunter-trapper-poachers.

On the morning of 7 March, the young cat had not come back from her walk the day before in a small town in Centre-Val de Loire. Worried, her family started looking for her. A few hundred metres from their home, having been in agony for hours, their bloodied pet was imprisoned by a leg-hold trap. The mother and her daughter had to be helped by a neighbour, a local worker, and the deputy mayor to free her. She was immediately taken to a veterinary clinic where they found that she had a double fracture and extremely significant tears to her flesh. With the injuries being so severe, she had to sacrifice her whole limb to be saved.

Hunters who trap animals indiscriminately and completely illegally

If Red Collar had been able to return home and regain her strength, she would never have had to have her leg removed. The trap in question, by definition already cruel and non-selective, was not even linked to a number allowing it to be identified. Nor had it been declared to the town council.

Not content with completely legally trapping thousands of foxes, stone martens, martens, and weasels every year, hunters and other enemies of nature do not hesitate to illegally install these deadly devices, indifferent to the risks that they can run for all other animals. Sometimes some people even attack cats in particular! Until when will these practices be tolerated? For all of their victims, whether they be wild or protected, as well as for our pets, impunity must stop.

We are joining Red Collar’s family and filing a complaint ourselves too. Demand a reform of hunting along with us by signing our petition.

Animal trafficking: Leboncoin is back publishing adverts from a wild cat skin seller

Animal trafficking: Leboncoin is back publishing adverts from a wild cat skin seller
22.03.2024
Animal trafficking: Leboncoin is back publishing adverts from a wild cat skin seller
Wildlife

On Leboncoin, three adverts offering wild cat skins for sale have been put online like they are simple objects, even though they are borne from illegal trafficking. They have no place on this platform, which has once again turned a blind eye to animal trade and cannot even manage to follow their own rules. We are filing a complaint for these victims of poaching.

A few days ago, on the Leboncoin platform, a seller clearly acting under a pseudonym put three adverts online in the hope of selling wild cat skins. It is therefore possible for any buyer whatsoever to acquire a “rug”, stolen off an animal’s back, for no more than 10 or 20 euros. And all this in total peace.

Even though the victims of these acts belong to a triple-protected species. This far from stops traffickers: globally, the illegal trade of wild animals and their ‘derived products’ can reach up to some 20 billion euros per year. And France is included in this since it is one of the European Union countries where the majority of these exchanges are concentrated.

Leboncoin is complicit in animal trade

Did the company already forget about the statement that they published in September 2023, announcing that they would (finally!) ban the sale of these animals? We have to believe that they have… Behind the advert results, checks seem to still be non-existent.

At the end of 2023, with the help of our partner, the École du Chat Libre de Toulouse [Toulouse School for Stray Cats], who are also working with us in this new proceeding, we filed a complaint against Leboncoin for thousands of our companions being given away un-microchipped and sometimes even before the legal age. A completely illegal and irresponsible lack of checks, while thousands of animals continue to be slaughtered in pounds every year and rescue centres more and more desperately lack spaces.

We are referring to the legal system

For the animals who try their best to live far away from humans, we also condemn these failings that facilitate trafficking and allow poachers to do their trade off the back of their victims. And for the felines who have paid the price for these practices, we are filing a complaint against the seller.

To demand an end to the trade of living beings online, continue to write to the managing director of Boncoin by using their contact form or by sending them our template letter to the postal address shown on it.

A mass grave for foxes in Jura: we are filing a complaint!

A mass grave for foxes in Jura: we are filing a complaint!
20.03.2024
A mass grave for foxes in Jura: we are filing a complaint!
Wildlife

A horrific scene in Morillon in Jura, where decomposing foxes’ bodies have been discovered at the river’s edge. What is most shocking about the scandal is that this mass grave is the work of a lieutenant of louveterie and pests, a hunter commissioned by the mayor or prefect to kill animals considered to be “problematic” for purely ideological reasons. For these foxes, and faced with the risk of polluting the river water and those who live in it, One Voice is joining forces with the Athénas Centre and filing a complaint.

Killing animals and polluting the environment: when lieutenants of louveterie and pests no longer have a limit

Foxes are systematically accused of all evils, particularly by the authorities who organise official hunts and instruct lieutenants of louveterie and pests to line one kill up after the next year-round. Most often, these operations are illegal and are simply a justification to satisfy hunters. In January, we also obtained the cancellation of eight decrees by the Nièvre prefect.

When these hunts are authorised, it is a real playground for lieutenants of louveterie and pests who are able to merrily kill dozens or even hundreds of animals! Then, after taking their lives, the shooter simply threw the foxes on the side of the river… with presumed disregard and at an increased risk of polluting the water with the decomposing bodies. One Voice is joining forces with a partner and filing a complaint, because the suspension of the person responsible for these acts does not take away from the severity of them.

Unlimited persecution of foxes

Each year, far from the half a million stated – which does not take into account those that are poached and leaves numerous individuals killed by hunting to pass under the radar – almost a million of them are killed. Already targeted under the context of hunting with guns, hounds, and official hunts, including during the night in some areas, they are also caught in traps in many departments given that they are included on the infamous list of ‘species likely to cause damage’ that we have attacked. And their ordeal continues with those digging them out, not even sparing the young as we have shown in our infiltration investigation.

For these red foxes, to say stop to these massacres, and to oppose all those who despise animals and nature, sign our petitions to take foxes off the ‘species likely to cause damage’ list and for a radical reform of hunting!

A new hearing in Réunion in the face of tenrec persecution!

A new hearing in Réunion in the face of tenrec persecution!
20.03.2024
A new hearing in Réunion in the face of tenrec persecution!
Hunting

As soon as it is suspended, it is reopened! In Réunion, collusion between hunters and the prefecture is coming to light. Although the administrative tribunal came down against digging out tenrecs twice in a few months, the prefect chose to defend the practice tooth and nail by authorising the killing of several thousands of them despite everything. To stop this planned massacre and these unacceptable methods, we are going back to the tribunal: the hearing is in Saint-Denis on 4 April at 2:30pm!

Updated 05 April 2024

We have just learnt, with much disappointment, that our second plea has been rejected by the Réunion prefecture. Diggers can therefore continue to kill tenrecs in the days to come. In any case, our relentless actions will allow the authorised hunting season to be halved and will highlight the prefect’s clear position from this point forward: leave the hunters to decide upon suitable rules themselves. While waiting for the tribunal’s definitive decision, which will be given in a few months, we will continue the fight for tenrecs!

After a short respite, is France in favour of tenrecs?

At this very moment, the young are leaving their burrows to discover the Réunion forests. Accompanied by their parents, they are learning to come out and feed themselves in this new environment. For the first time in many years, they have been able to get through the month of February without being slaughtered. A few days ago, the Saint-Denis administrative tribunal, who we had referred to, had in fact urgently suspended the opening of the hunting season, confirming their decision of December 2023 that definitively cancelled an older decree.

But this respite was short-lived: the prefect passed a new law and, at the time of writing this article, diggers threw their dogs down into the burrows to hunt down tenrecs. And to make amends, the state representative even authorised digging out every day for a month, instead of the usual three days per week…

We are starting the fight up again against the prefect’s contempt for tenrecs and the legal system!

This shows the total lack of respect that the Réunion prefect has for the legal system and general interests…. In a few weeks, he has simply brushed aside clear rulings. And, the cherry on the cake, he published his decree the same day of the opening – a well-known scam to allow hunters to indulge in their morbid hobby in complete peace while waiting for the hearing.

Although the prefect is supposed to represent all citizens, in Réunion things are now clear: he has chosen the side of hunters and their traditions, going so far as to leave them to draft the prefectural decree themselves. He has sent a clear message to all Réunion residents who are opposed to this practice: your voice does not count.

It is about time to put an end to systematic collusion between the State and this small group of very powerful individuals, which leads to a real disaster for animals. For tenrecs, we will once again be at the Saint-Denis administrative tribunal on 4 April at 2:30pm! While waiting, you can still sign our petition for a radical reform on hunting!

Memphis: another horse who is a victim of hunting

Memphis: another horse who is a victim of hunting
13.03.2024
Memphis: another horse who is a victim of hunting
Hunting

Around 45 million lives are stolen every year due to various types of hunting. And this is only the tip of the iceberg: added to all of these animals voluntarily killed are those who are poached and those who are injured and killed “by accident”. The most recent example to date: Memphis. This 23-year-old horse was grazing peacefully in his field in Charente when he was killed by a bullet. Unsurprisingly, the investigation was dismissed…

Hunting: a constant danger for all animals… and humans

9 December 2023 could have been an ordinary day for Memphis and his family… but hunters decided otherwise. On that day, the bay-coloured horse was found dead in his field, lying in a pool of blood, a deep wound on his side. His autopsy revealed that the injuries had been caused by a bullet. A coincidence? A hunt had taken place on the same day in close proximity to the field…

Faced with suspicion, hunters obviously outright denied it… And even threatened the whistleblower. “The police have no evidence, and neither do you, so it wasn’t us!” […] When you are dead, you’ll stop being a pain in our arse”. Nothing less…

Faced with these tragedies, we are launching an appeal to the authorities!

Far from being an isolated example, this death is added to the long list of all domestic animals who are victims of this cruel practice. Cats and dogs of course, mutilated by traps set in forests, like Snooky or Cooper, but also many horses: from Connemara to Olympe and also New Song, all of them have been slain by “accidental” bullets; the threatening and armed men who were practising their weekly hobby obviously have nothing to do with it…

While the investigation to find those responsible has been closed with no further action, we are appealing to the mayor: after such a tragedy, it is about time that this deadly hobby is banned in the areas close to homes and pastures. To put an end to these tragedies, sign our petitions for a radical reform of hunting and for horses to benefit from domestic animal status!

One Voice is facing the veterinarian who authorised what would become Micha’s last exploitation: hearing in Orléans on 14 March

One Voice is facing the veterinarian who authorised what would become Micha’s last exploitation: hearing in Orléans on 14 March
12.03.2024
One Voice is facing the veterinarian who authorised what would become Micha’s last exploitation: hearing in Orléans on 14 March
Circuses

On 7 September 2019, while Micha was struggling both to move and to breathe, a veterinarian specialising in horses provided the Poliakovs with a certificate allowing them to inflict yet another performance on him – his last one – around 350 kilometres from his prison cell. We then took this to the National Order of Veterinarians. Four years after the bear’s death, we are facing up to the professional on Thursday 14 March 2024 at 10am at the Orléans law court.

Updated 23 May

Two months after the hearing on 20 May, the Regional Council for the Order of Veterinarians gave their verdict. The veterinarian was found guilty of ethical breaches and sentenced to a one-month suspension from professional practise and a ban on holding any position within the Order for a 10-year duration. The accused has one month to file an appeal. Even though this sentencing will not bring Micha back, who died from an anaesthetic that his body, bruised and exhausted by a life of exploitation, could not cope with, it represents strong symbolic value for captive wild animals in a critical state and we hope this will allow such dramatic pitfalls to be avoided in future.

Three bears and a monkey hidden from view

After the inspection led by authorities in 2019, which concluded that Micha, disabled by his overly long claws, should no longer be moved or shown to the public, the bear and his imprisoned friends remained invisible. We therefore decided to lead an investigation in order to find them.

An investigation into the winter residence of the circus trainer couple

In the summer of the same year, we consequently went to Loir-et-Cher. We filmed Micha struggling to breathe, his gaze imploring, alongside Glasha and Bony as well as the small female monkey, Mina, who was hardly in any better state. The bear had infected wounds that were swarming with maggots that had also taken up residence in his mouth…

A few days later, after driving 250 kilometres, as if nothing had ever happened and armed with the sacrosanct veterinary certificate, the Bruneau-Poliakov couple exhibited the poor animal at a village show. Among other things, they made Micha climb onto a ball, perching on his painful extremities. AVES France documented the female trainer squeezing his paws to make him obey.

Despite maggots devouring Micha, the veterinarian actually dared to state that the “cardio-pulmonary auscultation had no irregularities”

On the veterinary certificate authorising this journey, it was mentioned that, despite weighing 160kg when he should have been 250kg, “the animal [was] in good condition”. A visit that the practitioner never would have actually carried out! Nor would he have asked the circus trainers what the document was going to be used for, a document which he admitted he did not have the expertise to issue…

Although the state of the animals and the conditions they are kept in, revealed by our footage, allowed a new urgent inspection that, alas, proved us right, Micha was condemned to the earth where he died on 12 November 2019. Bony and Glasha were saved from this hell; Mina and several rare birds succumbed to it.

After many re-launches and delays, on Thursday 14 March at 10am, we will be at the Orléans law court so that the veterinarian, who will appear before the disciplinary chamber, will be held responsible for his actions.

Galliforme hunting suspended in Ariège in 2021: moving towards an annulment? Hearing on 15 march 2024

Galliforme hunting suspended in Ariège in 2021: moving towards an annulment? Hearing on 15 march 2024
12.03.2024
Galliforme hunting suspended in Ariège in 2021: moving towards an annulment? Hearing on 15 march 2024
Hunting

Although our emergency action made it possible to prevent the massacre of ten rock ptarmigans and thousands of grey partridges in the Pyrenees (mountain Galliformes), in Ariège, we are now waiting for the Toulouse administrative tribunal to definitively decide upon the illegality of this decree published by the department’s prefecture in September 2021. The hearing is set for 15 March 2024 at 9:30am.

Updated 2 April 2024

Victory in Ariège! With their decision on 29 March 2024, the Toulouse administrative tribunal has definitively cancelled the decree authorising mountain Galliforme hunting in 2021. Our emergency interim proceedings have already allowed the urgent suspension of this law and have saved the rock ptarmigans and grey mountain partridges used as targets. Let’s hope that the prefect and hunters have heard the message: the time has come to put the guns down and to leave these birds (and all other animals too) in peace.

Always there when it comes to harassing animals to death, the Ariège prefect had authorised, for the 2021-2022 season (like they did for all the others…), the hunting of thousands of grey partridges in the Pyrenees (20 per shooter!) and ten rock ptarmigans. Within a few days, we had obtained an urgent suspension of this decree.

In Ariège, prefects and hunters go hand in hand with galliformes

The judges’ decision left no room for doubt: authorising the deaths of hundreds of birds directly endangers the very survival of the entire population that is already subject to so many threats. The time for urgency has passed and the legal system will now definitively decide on our request, scarcely a few months after having cancelled the decree relating to the 2020-2021 season.

How many rulings do there need to be before these birds are left in peace?

Although frustration is high in the face of this determination to organise the massacre of thousands of these individuals who simply just wish to live, we will continue to give them a voice and defend their existence wherever they are targeted. Since 2020, in Ariège, our actions have allowed thousands of them to be saved (or even the whole species if we are to believe the judges), in line with our numerous victories in France in Autumn 2023.

For the hazel grouse, rock partridges, black grouse, rock ptarmigans, and grey mountain partridges, for all beings inextricably linked to mountainous landscapes, killed for the sole pleasure of a small minority of individuals, and for so many others, support our requests for them by signing our petition for a radical reform of hunting!

Tenrecs: the prefect outdoing everyone else with hunting authorised every day?

Tenrecs: the prefect outdoing everyone else with hunting authorised every day?
11.03.2024
Tenrecs: the prefect outdoing everyone else with hunting authorised every day?
Hunting

The tenrec hunting saga continues in Réunion… Although the massacre was suspended thanks to our emergency action in front of the Saint-Denis administrative tribunal, the prefect now plans to open digging out from 15 March, every day of the week instead of the three days normally allowed. A way to satisfy hunters who, clearly, have access to the prefecture to the point where they are drafting prefectural decrees themselves…

Several thousand tenrecs used as targets… including the young

At this time of year, although the austral summer is coming to an end, tenrecs are in the middle of their breeding period. The families are growing and the young do not risk venturing out of their burrows alone. They are entirely dependent on their parents to feed them and to survive. This is the precise period in which the prefect has authorised them being hunted down and subsequently killed.

Although many hunters are attached to this traditional practice, no tradition has ever or will ever justify making animals suffer. Because for tenrecs, it is carnage: entire families are killed by dogs, and those who survive are killed by any available means.

Hunters weild their pens to be able to kill every day!

It is an understatement to say that the prefect of Réunion has taken up the cause of those digging them out. Even though the Saint-Denis administrative tribunal has definitively cancelled the 2022 decree, the prefect put out a draft decree that is identical in every aspect for consultation in 2024, which was immediately suspended by the tribunal.

A few minutes after it being put online, we discovered that the draft decree and the decree itself had been drawn up…. by the Federation of Hunters and its representatives! A wave of panic at the prefecture, which immediately suspended the consultation before opening a new one. But to our great surprise, the authors of the draft decree are still representatives from the Federation! One single thing was changed: they now plan to authorise hunting every day instead of the usual three days per week. In short, they are passing a new illegal decree to be forgiven for having passed one that was just as illegal the time before…

It is scandalous that a representative of the State defends particular interests rather than general interests for the protection of tenrecs and the natural heritage of the island. To express your dissatisfaction, participate in the consultation up until this evening!