The State’s lack of action to stop feline straying: One Voice is going to court

The State’s lack of action to stop feline straying: One Voice is going to court

The State’s lack of action to stop feline straying: One Voice is going to court
15.11.2023
The State’s lack of action to stop feline straying: One Voice is going to court
Zoe Cell

On 30 November 2021, a new law was created to fight against animal mistreatment in France. However, almost two years later, its aims are clearly not being met. Pet animals, among others, are not to be outdone: the sale of cats and dogs in pet shops will be banned from 1 January 2024, but puppy shows are still allowed, and commitment certificates continue to go nowhere. When it comes to stray cats… they can be left dying for even longer, while the Ministry of Agriculture couldn’t care less.

While the requirement to neuter stray cats that have been taken in by communities was initially planned for, it has been quashed under pressure from local councillors. Instead of this, there are campaigns led on an experimental basis by the State in cooperation with mayors and presidents of local volunteer communities. An initial step all the same… yes, but…!

Even writing a report seems to prove too complicated for the State…

To begin this experiment, the government must hand a report providing a detailed assessment on the issue of feline straying to Parliament, estimating the cost of capturing and neutering as well as financial methods, all while presenting recommendations to respond to this problem. All of this is to be done no later than six months after the enactment of the law… so by 1 June at the latest. We have written to the Ministry of Agriculture several times, who have not deigned to respond to us, thus showing their disdain for the suffering of stray cats. One year later, last June, the government announced that the work was underway. If the Ministry does not want to face up to their responsibilities, we will force them to before the courts. Now that the deadline has passed by a year and a half, we have today filed a plea before the Paris Administrative Tribunal so that it can order the government to hand over this document.

A life of misery

While waiting, stray cats continue to breed and to suffer. When they are not under the protection of a volunteer, they fight daily to find something to eat and lay dying for days when they are ill or injured. Instead of helping them, many towns do all they can to get them to disappear in a heartless way: they ban feeding them, they destroy their shelters, but above all they will not pay a penny to get them neutered and take this weight off their shoulders. When they are finally captured, it is not to be cared for and loved: they are sent to a pound, where they are left to die. After the legal limit for keeping them there has passed, they are quite simply slaughtered. The arrival of the Olympic Games this summer does not bode well, since sporting events often generate large-scale eradication campaigns.

To put an end to this infuriating cycle of suffering and mass slaughter, there is one solution: obligatory neutering, as is already the case in neighbouring Belgium and Spain. Ask for an urgent national plan for stray cats with us: sign our petition.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Against all odds for Samba, the last ‘circus’ elephant, whose suffering has broken the State’s indifference

Against all odds for Samba, the last ‘circus’ elephant, whose suffering has broken the State’s indifference

Against all odds for Samba, the last ‘circus’ elephant, whose suffering has broken the State’s indifference
14.11.2023
Against all odds for Samba, the last ‘circus’ elephant, whose suffering has broken the State’s indifference
Circuses

While the Cirque d’Europe circus reappeared for the second time in November 2023, after almost 6 months with no news of Samba, we are worried about the government’s shift regarding the law against mistreatment – already lacking – which has been confirmed again and again. According to a leaflet boasting of the merits of the show combining the exploitation and training of endangered wild animals, a note to towns requires them to accept circuses with animals despite the imminent implementation of the 2021 law (which should ban them from moving around) and implies that any checks would only aim to prove the absence of suffering… A practical exercise in Épinay-sur-Orge.

In July, the publication of our latest investigation footage, along with the announcement of our complaint to which testimonies from veterinarians specialising in elephants were attached, sparked things off… Or rather, Max Aucante, Samba’s trainer, had done a runner, before the planned performances had even started.

Since then, we feared that the last circus elephant in France would be sent abroad, like Dumba, then Kamala, and around the same time Bambi and Rosa as well as Nelly and Brigit, and finally Baby… with authorities helping or turning a blind eye. Samba’s ordeal would have continued, and we would then no longer have had any legal leverage to offer her a better life.

Authorities are waiting for a ‘thank you’ from Samba and those who defend her…

Also, when the Cirque d’Europe circus was brought to our attention in Morangis, a suburban town next to Orly Airport, we didn’t think twice: we went there to confirm their presence and filmed them… prey to stereotyping. Since then, we had a bit more hope, but there wasn’t enough time for a check of any kind to take place.

Capturée, battue, dressée, exploitée… Nous avons retrouvé Samba, entre piste et camion, à deux pas d’un aéroport… ce qui n’a rien de rassurant. Que va devenir la dernière éléphante de cirque que nous défendons depuis plus de 20 ans? #UnSanctuairePourSamba #CirquesSansAnimaux pic.twitter.com/24RsiI5p9B

— One Voice (@onevoiceanimal) November 2, 2023

Yesterday, a supporter let us know of their presence in Épinay-sur-Orge, still in the Paris region. And there, once again, the pitfalls are piling up. The town published a press release stating that a veterinarian would be there so that the animals’ suffering would be reduced. The initial reaction was to celebrate, but why would we still let ourselves be fooled like this?

…or a “tide”?

A memorandum from the Ministry of the Ecological Transition, which we knew about and dated back to mid-October 2023, “relating to the checking procedure for travelling establishments keeping animals from a non-domestic species with a view to showing them to the public” specifically aims to put pressure on communities who refuse the presence of a circus with animals in their town.

The wording of this document and the accompanying email are totally biased. There was already a previous one a few years ago, between the ministerial measures and the law against animal mistreatment being drawn up.

This update is harmful: it presumes that the checks that it plans to carry out will guarantee the absence of animal mistreatment”! In travelling establishments, this is specifically targeted.

An overwhelming step back after the passing of the weak 2021 law

Nothing surprises us any more when this so-called ‘Ecological’ Ministry, who has still neither written nor published any kind of implementing decree, even though the implementation of the law was supposed to take place on its second anniversary at the end of the month. Neither for the animals kept in lorry-cages nor for the rest of them either (feline straying, dolphinariums, etc.). It is no longer about resistance: we went past this stage a long time ago.

The captive animal portfolio, from their exploitation to their disappearance in the wild

The rare progress made in 2020-2021 has been reduced to nothing. Circus performers’ proficiency certifications are now the same as those for zoos, and the regulations of those is about to be reviewed at a cut-rate. We are going to go to the State Council to fight against this dumbing down.

Worse, a leaflet glorifying the circus, written, created, and published by them, is being distributed by prefectures.

We will never stop calling out State ministers and junior ministers who follow each other’s lead: there has only been a guilty silence in response to our letters… But for Samba and all the others, after more than twenty years of persistent fighting, nothing will stop us.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Cage hens: during the hearing before the State Council, the public reporter proves NGOs right

Cage hens: during the hearing before the State Council, the public reporter proves NGOs right

Cage hens: during the hearing before the State Council, the public reporter proves NGOs right
14.11.2023
Cage hens: during the hearing before the State Council, the public reporter proves NGOs right
Breeding and food

Nine animal protection organisations asked the State Council for the partial cancellation of the decree of 15 December 2021 relating to the redevelopment of breeding buildings for caged laying hens. On Friday afternoon during the public session, the reporter appealed to the supreme administrative court to follow NGOs’ requests by cancelling this decree that “amounts to making cage breeding viable”. She added that “retaining a restrictive interpretation of redevelopment would not necessarily serve the economic interests of the sector” while “eliminating cages seems inevitable”.

An awkward commitment for the government…

In 2017, during his presidential campaign, Emmanuel Macron made “a commitment to banning the sale of eggs laid by battery hens before 2022”. In Rungis, during his speech as President, he reiterated his commitment and promise that “eggs sold to consumers will only come from free-range farms by 2022”.

In 2018, the Egalim law meant that almost all of the amendments aiming to ban this farming system were wiped out. The only one that remains is the ban on new or redeveloped buildings for caged hens. This minor step forward is still pending since the Ministry of Agriculture, who initially delayed in issuing an implementing decree and only complied after having been forced to do so by the State Council, published a law in December 2021 that reduced the scope of the ban and which NGOs have therefore decided to attack.

And as a result: we have discovered that the government was working with the industry to limit the idea of redeveloping only to redeveloped buildings that would increase their production capacity, showing contempt for and twisting the terms of the law in a scandalous way. The Minister of Agriculture at the time, Stéphane Travert, effectively made this promise to lobbies in the industry, in a letter that the CIWF was able to present to the administrative tribunal… after two years of proceedings!

The 9 NGOs fighting it out

The contentious decree shows what “constitutes a building redevelopment:

  • 1° Works or improvements to an existing building to make it suitable for farming using laying hens in cages;
  • 2° Works or improvements to an existing building leading to an increase in the number of laying hens who can be kept there in cages. ”

On 10 February 2022, 9 French NGOs, from the coalition that led to the historic success of the European Citizens’ Initiative “for an era without cages”, filed a joint request before the State Council and asked for the cancellation of these paragraphs.

For the NGOs making the request, it was about the illegal restriction of the notion of redevelopment, given that the manager for a building that was already used for breeding caged laying hens could undertake all work and construction, whatever the consequences might be, and escape the ban on redevelopment of article L. 214-11 of the rural and maritime fishing code, on the simple condition that they continue to keep the same number of laying hens.

They believe that the Egalim legal text is very clear: a redevelopment is not an extension. If not, an existing building for breeding in cages could be entirely renovated to be identical and the cages would go back into production for 20 years!

Hope in the decree to come from the State Council

Today, on 10 November 2023, during the hearing, the public reporter defended the partial cancellation of the decree before the State Council as asked for by the NGOs. She believed that “the decree is ignorant to the objective intended by the law”. Citing parliamentary debates and the views expressed by the Minister and the French President, she considered that “the law aimed at putting an end to breeding in cages to respond to society’s expectations while leaving breeders time to adapt to these changes”. For the public reporter, “the cap is clearly set by the law, and the decree contravenes this by allowing reinvestment” while “article L214-11 specifically aims to allow a progressive transition in order to avoid a full-force brutal banning measure.” She decided on the cancellation of the decree which “goes back to making cage breeding viable”. Moreover, she stated that “retaining a restrictive interpretation of redevelopment would not necessarily serve the economic interests of the sector” while “eliminating cages seems unavoidable”.

The State Council must decide. They will deliver their ruling within a few weeks.

Agathe Gignoux, legal affairs manager at CIWF France stated: “NGOs have all their hopes on the decree that will be ruled on by the State Council after today’s hearing, so that the ways in which the government attempted to obstruct the progress expected by citizens and obtained in parliament will be sanctioned. We would expect the government to support transitions rather than perpetuate systems that lead French breeding to an impasse”.

For Frédéric Freund, Director at the OABA [a French organisation for the protection of farm animals]: “the public reporter’s opinion is a significant setback for the Ministry of Agriculture who persists, and has done for several years, in ignoring animal protection NGOs’ constructive comments regarding regulatory laws that are presented to them for their opinions, during meetings at the CNOPSAV (French national guidance council for animal and plant health policies).

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

A slew of victories against badger digging: Bern’s reason for rejecting 10 NGOs’ complaints…

To condemn additional hunting periods for underground badger hunting in France, One Voice and its nine partners, animal and wildlife welfare associations, filed a complaint before the Bern Convention Committee on 15 May 2023 for the second World Badger Day. After five months of waiting, under the pretext of periods for underground hunting with hounds being in decline due to the numerous local victories obtained since 2020 before administrative tribunals, the Committee’s Bureau has decided to reject our complaint without consulting the studies that were mentioned.
We regret this (lack of) decision that is unambitious and purely diplomatic. As a consequence, we will now be going back to the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, in order to obtain strong political action from his side against the cruelty inherent to this practice of underground hunting with hounds and in line with the positive case law gathered in recent years in favour of badgers.

One Voice is referring to the courts to put the spotlight on the goose neck game in Saint-Bonnet-près-Riom

One Voice is referring to the courts to put the spotlight on the goose neck game in Saint-Bonnet-près-Riom

One Voice is referring to the courts to put the spotlight on the goose neck game in Saint-Bonnet-près-Riom
13.11.2023
One Voice is referring to the courts to put the spotlight on the goose neck game in Saint-Bonnet-près-Riom
Domestic animals

On 19 September 2023, after having published our investigation footage on the goose neck game organised the previous weekend in a town in Puy-de-Dôme, we have called for a ban on this sadistic practice that involves tearing animals’ heads off in the name of tradition. Today, we are going further by asking the courts to expose the slaughter conditions of these geese, chickens, and rabbits, whose lifeless bodies have been exhibited and assaulted to the applause of the crowd.

Faced with the atrocities that we revealed in September, indignant reactions erupted from all sides. Two regional councillors specifically came down against the mutilations inflicted on the animals that were victims of the cruel game organised by the town of Saint-Bonnet-près-Riom and asked the Puy-de-Dôme Prefect to ban this practice.

Those responsible persist…

But the organisers and participants persist and approve. For them, there is nothing problematic about mutilating animals’ corpses since they are already dead and would be eaten after having been tormented. The town mayor defends this “heritage to be safeguarded by any means” with his heart and soul. Read: violence only comes from those who speak out against it. And while they kill and entertain themselves with the corpses of their victims, there is nothing but “joy”, “love”, and “friendship”! A bloodthirsty pleasure so intense that the mayor and their citizens would be incapable of finding another way to entertain themselves to maintain the “warm atmosphere” of their village.

… we are counter-attacking

We are taking these decapitation enthusiasts at their word and referring to the Clermont-Ferrand legal tribunal to find out how these geese, chickens, and rabbits were killed. Were they slaughtered in an establishment dedicated to this activity and following hygiene rules specific to food? With each participating family having to, according to our sources, personally provide one or two animals to the organisers, this seems very unlikely… We are asking the legal system to make a decision. For our part, we maintain that there should not be any need to “celebrate” decapitating animals, whether they are dead or alive.

Continue to rally alongside us for the victims of this practice from another era by signing our petition to ban these morbid events throughout France.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Underground hunting with hounds: are we moving towards a cancellation in Manche and Orne following the suspension? New hearings for badgers

Underground hunting with hounds: are we moving towards a cancellation in Manche and Orne following the suspension? New hearings for badgers

Underground hunting with hounds: are we moving towards a cancellation in Manche and Orne following the suspension? New hearings for badgers
13.11.2023
Underground hunting with hounds: are we moving towards a cancellation in Manche and Orne following the suspension? New hearings for badgers
Hunting

This year, the unbearable persecution that badgers are subjected to has taken a serious hit. Dozens of departments had authorised them being dug out as part of ‘additional periods’, outside of the hunting season, in spring and summer. The legal system has urgently suspended almost 30 decrees following our requests, allowing the lives of 4000 badgers to be saved. From now on, judges will rule on the merits of the case files and, we hope, will cancel the laws. On 14 November 2023 at 11:15am, the Caen Administrative Tribunal will open the hearings with three case files: Orne for the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons, and Manche.

Updated 24 November 2023:

A triple victory against underground hunting with hounds!

The Caen Administrative Tribunal has definitively cancelled the decrees authorising additional periods for which One Voice obtained a suspension, coming from the Manche and Orne prefects, where we were the only ones to bring a case file forward for the 2022-2023 season, and we with our partner AVES in Orne for the 2023-2024 season.

A clear message sent to the prefects in these departments (and all the others): digging out in the spring and summer is illegal, the law and legal system are on badgers’ and their defenders’ side – do not issue new decrees of this kind!

Underground hunting with hounds

In these departments, hundreds of badger cubs that have only just been born are preparing themselves to be subjected to the hell of underground hunting with hounds. Year after year, the State has shown their extreme familiarity with the hunting social circle. Underground hunting with hounds sadly illustrates this statement: despite rulings, prefectures persist in authorising this cruel practice for the pleasure of a small number of people, at the risk of resorting to ruses that do not fool anyone.

In Manche and Orne, this is exclusively with intervention by us and AVES, our partner on this case file: on 10 May and 4 August 2023, the Caen Administrative Tribunal suspended the prefectural decrees. Clear decisions that have swept away authorities’ arguments and immediately put an end to the additional digging out that was requested. And the results were the same almost everywhere in France, making 2023 a record year for badgers.

The stake: a pure and simple end to additional periods

On 14 November, the Caen Administrative Tribunal will definitively decide on the decrees that they themselves suspended, a few weeks before the State Council unambiguously stated an absolute ban on killing young badgers. Although the Nantes Administrative Court of Appeal has just confirmed that the additional period for underground hunting with hounds in 2021 in Calvados was illegal, we are hopeful that the one in Caen will not retract their statement and that they will cancel the decrees.

And we will not stop at national jurisdictions: because this morbid hobby violates the Bern Convention, which protects badgers, we have filed a complaint alongside ten other associations against France before the Bern Committee. More than ever, these actions allow us to envisage the end of digging out badgers in spring and summer.

Today, 84% of French people oppose hunting animals in their burrows. To help us to give them a voice and to save as many badgers and their cubs as possible, support us and sign our petition to say stop to underground hunting with hounds, including outside of the additional periods!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

We will defend the animals from the Franco-Belge Circus before the courts.

We will defend the animals from the Franco-Belge Circus before the courts.

We will defend the animals from the Franco-Belge Circus before the courts.
12.11.2023
We will defend the animals from the Franco-Belge Circus before the courts.
Circuses

From 13 to 14 September 2023, the Franco-Belge Circus occupied a car park in Strasbourg. An illegal set-up with lionesses and baboons bored out of their minds, minuscule cages… Once again, Serge Muller is renowned for the lack of importance he attaches to the well-being of those that he exploits. We have filed a complaint against his establishment for mistreatment committed by a professional.

In September, many people who were concerned about the set-up of the Franco-Belge Circus in the car park of a business park in Strasbourg, in Bas-Rhin, warned us. The town council, who has opposed welcoming set-ups with animals for a long time, immediately brought forward a complaint, much like the manager of the Intersport shop whose car park the circus performers had occupied without any authorisation to be there.

A few weeks before, the trainer had called the association, threatening to take legal action if we did not take down the footage of its circus animals posted on social networks. Intimidation, as always.

Unacceptable living conditions

On site, the lion, lionesses, and tigers kept by the head trainer share a ‘relaxation’ area placed in full sunlight, even the tarmac. And never mind the tigers by the way, who are solitary animals who do not share territory with lions in the wild, since they do not even live on the same continent. To make yet more profit off their backs, circus performers force them to cohabit in this ridiculous space. When they are not there, they are left languishing in dingy lorries that transport them from town to town or they are subjected to being hit by the trainer to subdue them. Wherever they are, they cannot escape being watched by humans, boredom, and the impossibility to run and jump. Why are we surprised, in such circumstances, about the incessant pacing of the lionesses grappling with their angst?

A bit further away, goats and horses are not entitled to any more respect. There, a dog is chained to a fence, its neck raw from pulling on the lead…

Problems that we have been reporting on for a long time

Already in March 2020, two camels collapsed in the middle of the show when they were forced to do laps. In the cages that keep them prisoner, the tigers and the lions have been showing the full extent of their suffering for a long time.

On 26 September, we also brought a complaint against the establishment belonging to the brother of the owner of the Zavatta-Muller Circus who, among others, keeps Jumbo.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Illegal animal adverts online: One Voice is filing a complaint against Leboncoin

Illegal animal adverts online: One Voice is filing a complaint against Leboncoin

Illegal animal adverts online: One Voice is filing a complaint against Leboncoin
07.11.2023
Illegal animal adverts online: One Voice is filing a complaint against Leboncoin
Strays

It is no secret to anyone that the sale and rehoming of animals on the internet is often done completely illegally. What is even more vague, however, is the scale of this trafficking. Since April 2023, more than 4500 adverts regarding more than 11,000 animals have been flagged by our partner as they are not following the law: unidentified animals being given away, often before the legal age, or even without giving the obligatory information… One Voice is filing a complaint against Leboncoin and asking for a ban on animals being rehomed online, which is the main cause of abandonment and slaughtering in pounds.

A few months ago, the École du Chat Libre in Toulouse [a French stray cat organisation] asked for our help with painstaking work in taking down illegal adverts on Leboncoin. So that this work was not done in vain, we have united forces by initiating a legal proceeding in order to put an end to this shameful trade involving living beings.

Although identifying cats and dogs is compulsory, in fact, on the internet, no checks are carried out and many puppies and kittens are given away without being microchipped. However, this obligation makes it possible to limit discrepancies with animals coming from “puppy factories”, those given away before the minimum age, or those coming from a private individual that refuses to neuter their animals. It also contributes to putting an end to the irresponsibility of those acquiring the animal, some of whom would abandon an un-microchipped animal with no qualms a few months later.

A ridiculed legal obligation and it is still animals that are the victims

However, since 2021, the law has been very clear: hosting sites must implement a checking system prior to the publication of an advert in order to verify the microchip or tattoo number of the animals. Adverts with a fake number cannot therefore be put online, and even less can those regarding cats and dogs that are un-identified! Despite this, dozens of non-conforming adverts flood the site every day! Although the majority of them are taken down, how many are passing under the radar? No less than five complaints have been filed along with our partner, the École du Chat Libre in Toulouse. A sixth will be sent very soon.

Working towards the end of selling and rehoming animals on the internet

One month ago, Leboncoin stated that they were putting an end to the trade of wild animal species. It is hard to celebrate when we know that we have had to wait until 2023 to achieve such a step forward, and that it was therefore completely possible to obtain a parrot or tortoise just a few weeks ago.

Cats and dogs do not have any such ‘luck’. Less scrupulous sellers continue their fruitful business without batting an eyelid, with the complicity of this platform. Once again, it is the animals that pay the highest price: given away online to the first person that comes along, with no verification, while thousands of them are killed in pounds every year due to there not being enough space in rescue centres.

You can act too!

While waiting for a complete ban on rehoming animals on the internet, we have filed a complaint so that obligatory checks finally have to be implemented. Join our fight and sign our petition for better protection for our companions.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Mountain Galliformes: more than a thousand birds spared from hunting

Mountain Galliformes: more than a thousand birds spared from hunting

Mountain Galliformes: more than a thousand birds spared from hunting
06.11.2023
Mountain Galliformes: more than a thousand birds spared from hunting
Hunting

So that the birds at the mountain tops get some respite, we have made sure that hunters did not get any. Since the end of August, we have attacked numerous decisions made by prefects or directly by hunters’ federations with emergency interim proceedings. Their aim is to allow the killing of black grouse, rock partridges, hazel grouse, rock ptarmigans, and grey partridges in the Pyrénées. Judges have announced numerous suspensions, thus sparing the lives of a considerable number of mountain Galliformes.

In the Alps, more than a thousand birds will not be riddled with bullets

The Grenoble and Marseille Administrative Tribunals (ATs) have suspended hunting, sometimes based on our reasoning linked to the intolerable nature of hunting animals that are already shaken up by the consequences of global warming and the constant disruption linked with tourist numbers in mountain ranges, and sometimes on more technical arguments. More than once, prefects have simply given carte blanche to hunters and left them to determine the quotas of animals to be killed themselves.

The absurdity of continuing to kill individuals whose species is in a poor state of conservation also hits home when it comes to hazel grouse in Isère and before the Marseille judge whose rulings made it possible for black grouse and rock partridges to be spared in their masses.

Despite a few steps back, the fight continues

There are unfortunately several downsides when it comes to the Pyrénées and Alpes-Maritimes departments, where we clashed with the against-the-tide line of reasoning from the Montpellier, Toulouse, Pau, and Nice Administrative Tribunals, who rejected our requests. The disappointment is particularly bitter because, due to a lack of suspension, the bloodbath of partridges, grouse, and rock ptarmigans has in fact happened.

But we are not discouraged yet. Although the cancellations that we will obtain a posteriori will not bring the birds back to life, they will be used in future appeals to potentially spare the next ones. In fact, given the energy used by the State to pander to hunters’ every whim – as evidenced by a new decree just after the suspension of the previous one in the Pyrénées-Orientales, where questionable experiments were aimed at reviving the traditional hunting of larks, lapwings, etc. – there is no doubt that the massacring of mountain birds, even though they are threatened everywhere, will be authorised for the 2024-2025 season.

In total, the lives of 20 hazel grouse in Isère, 422 rock partridges (6 in Haute-Savoie, 219 in Savoie, 35 in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, and 162 in the Hautes-Alpes) and of 723 black grouse (201 in Haute-Savoie, 404 in Savoie, 45 in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, and 73 in the Hautes-Alpes) will be saved with our actions! How is it accepted that we, animal defenders, have to end up hindering the prefectures who authorise this themselves?

Our rallying helps to give these fragile animals visibility, silent witnesses to their own decline, and to protect them from guns. No bird or animal has to die at the hands of a small group of humans for their entertainment. We will continue to hammer this home until the State listens to reason.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice