Killing in pounds: the SACPA group tries to divert attention

Killing in pounds: the SACPA group tries to divert attention
18.12.2023
Killing in pounds: the SACPA group tries to divert attention
Domestic animals

SACPA’s justifications after our investigation into a pound do nothing to advance the fight for animals.

Following our investigation denouncing the policy for managing stray animals in France, the SACPA group has decided to refer to itself by publishing a press release in response to what it interprets our intentions to be – we are also touched to note that its Facebook and Instagram pages were created especially for the occasion – while at no point did we ever point the finger in their direction. On the contrary, we were even careful to point out that what was happening in the organisation that our images came from was compliant with legislation.

The aim of this investigation is to raise awareness among the entire population, both in the public arena and among our leaders. They need to understand that the situation will not change until real measures are taken: an urgent national plan for neutering cats; a ban on rehoming online by individuals; the strict application of the existing requirement for animal identification; the end of puppy parlours and other events promoting impulsive sales; severe criminal penalties for abandonment and acts of abuse.

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“[…] ethical animal pounds” (sic)… Oh really?

Trying to justify killings by highlighting the animals who got out of this prison alive, all while implying that those who were slaughtered were “lucky” to still be alive after the legal deadline of eight days, does not in any way resolve that which we are condemning.

Is it really possible to be happy knowing that Cayenne, the Malinois whose killing we filmed, entered the pound on April 12 2023 and was killed on August 21 2023? Should we revel in knowing that he spent 133 days suffering mental and physical torture, locked within four walls without ever seeing outside, without any human warmth, without even a toy or a blanket, before being killed in cold blood, pressed against a wall, handled with no qualms until being lethally injected in the heart, spending his last moments of life alone and afraid?

Yes, we are relieved to learn that some were lucky enough to have been saved by associations after days of being locked up. But this will not make us forget the deaths; and it should not make us forget what these innocent animals experience when they go into pounds. Not everyone is lucky enough to survive and some end their days in conditions even worse than those we have revealed. On May 22 2024, a hearing will be held at the Perpignan legal tribunal against a manager at the SACPA pound in Perpignan for acts of cruelty. He is suspected of having carried out “savage euthanasias” and of having killed animals himself, which constitutes an illegal use of veterinary medicine, in addition to lack of care and abuse. We will of course be present at the hearing to give animals a voice.

We have also not forgotten the fate of the animals at the Passerelles Vers l’Emploi Pound and at SIVU 47.

Underneath all the smooth talking, thousands of animals suffer

In its press release, SACPA explained that several euthanasias happened following canine distemper. Does this diagnosis justify a living being being executed, without any consideration or dignity, in its own excrement? What does this say about the health measures implemented? With this virus being particularly contagious and dangerous for dogs, were strict isolation and quarantine measures carried out? Were the premises properly disinfected to put an end to the epidemic? We doubt it, given the number of contaminations within the pound itself and when, according to their own statement, the dogs develop the disease in the organisation, this is the reaction: “Regarding the Border Collie cross, female. Accidental arrival from the town of Peyremale. She was the source of the distemper virus […]. She was resistant to treatment. Date of entry 14/07/2023. Date of medical euthanasia: 23/08/2023.” (sic)

Transparency is a facade

We are accused of not having made enquiries, of not having contacted management for a “guided tour” of the premises. However, at the end of August, we sent letters by recorded mail to 35 SACPA organisations in the country asking them for copies of their animal records for 2022. All were left without a reply. However, a call from management informed us of their intention to publish certain data online in 2024. While waiting, we have not obtained the requested documents. Can we believe for a single moment that we would have been let in and shown the true reality by filming this series of slaughters in these conditions?

As long as the law does not change to reduce the number of abandonments and slaughters in pounds, we will continue to condemn what is happening there. Should the private SACPA group not be supporting our fight and aligning with our requests to fight against these tragedies? But why would they? With the “management” of stray animals being their business, they have no interest in seeing abandonments decrease.

Help us to change the fate of thousands of animals each year: sign our petition for the end of killing in pounds.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

One Voice’s investigation into a 5-star pound: the industrial slaughter of cats and dogs

One Voice’s investigation into a 5-star pound: the industrial slaughter of cats and dogs
11.12.2023
One Voice’s investigation into a 5-star pound: the industrial slaughter of cats and dogs
Domestic animals

The third part of One Voice’s investigation into pounds in France. After having condemned some peoples’ abuse, we have wanted to understand how those who are regulated work, “good in all respects” in the eyes of local councils who give them the task of “cleaning” public streets of animals that are wondering around or are strays. It was horrific there. This time legally.

Within pounds, they get the very best. Our investigators infiltrated one of the best rated “animal centres” in France to confirm what is referred to as the “management” of cats and dogs that are lost, abandoned, or born on the streets. Following our investigations at SIVU 47 and Passerelles, two establishments that are merrily circumventing regulations, it was important to have an idea of “best practices” within this sector.

Public “service”

The organisation where we led the investigation prides itself on its website as being exemplary and as doing everything possible for the happiness of its “residents”. You had to make yourself very small and film with a hidden camera to get a clear picture.

Around once a week, a packed truck drops off its load: rams, wallabies… you can find all kinds of animals inside. But mainly it is many cats and dogs, rescued from the roadside with no “owner” in sight, who end up there.

Delegated by the local council to ensure a public service remit, this private company is funded, as in most cities in France, by local taxes. Its role: to rid the local territory of stray animals, the responsibility for which lies with the mayor. The law in fact states that the town councillor can, by decree, place them in a “drop-off place suitable for taking them in and keeping them”, with the caretaker bearing the cost in cases where the “owner” does not come forward.

“Suitable drop-off place”

What actually is this? Rows of tiny concrete kennels, dogs abandoned in their own excrement, cats stored in transport crates at the back of dark rooms, an upside down infirmary… This was the spectacle witnessed by our investigators when they entered the “standard” premises where the animals are shut up.

In this world full of anxious barks and plaintive meows, new arrivals are quickly brought up to speed. No staff to reassure them, lavish them with an affectionate gesture, or even just some attention. Only their peers are there to tell them about the less than warm environment.

At least the bowls are full here, of course, but under what conditions? Incomprehension, stress, and cries for help are everywhere. Tearful and terrified looks are behind each wire fence. Only a few still express a little bit of joy when they hear the sound of footsteps. No doubt they still believe in human friendship and in a bright future. Not for long…

Death row

Because their days are numbered. After the eight-day time period, if no one has come to reclaim them, most of them are killed. At an industrial rate, even. We have to make way for the next lot and above all do the maths: it is a very profitable activity.

Our investigators filmed everything: the terror of those condemned, the capturing of dogs with a lasso allowing them to them bite themselves, the administration of lethal doses by a robotic and violent veterinarian. Abandoned by everyone except their traumatised cell neighbours, dozens of perfectly healthy animals die every day on this death row before being eliminated.

Into a skip

During this investigation, our investigators crossed paths with many of them, each more endearing than the last. However, they found them in the form of corpses, killed mercilessly, guilty of not having been loved.

Regularly, the pound employees pile the frozen or still warm bodies into a huge container to send them to the slaughterhouse. The curtain then falls for the final time on these trampled, massacred, and completely invisible lives. A way that is as efficient as it is discreet for the State to erase the tragedy of abandonment, mistreatment, and straying with public money rather than funding a proper policy to fix the problem.

Stop the code of silence!

Rally with us to break the deafening silence surrounding these cover-up mass killings. Our investigation is there to shed light on them and call them out. We demand transparency about what is happening right now, every day, in our country’s pounds where thousands of animals are killed legally on the assembly line. As long as our leaders put up with it or prefer to turn a blind eye, they remain complicit in scandalous practices even though solutions exist. Elsewhere in Europe, they take care of their animals. France must take inspiration from them!

One Voice will not stop campaigning for our country to commit to a large-scale neutering programme to resolve the issue of feline straying and ban the online sale of animals, one of the main sources of abandonments and slaughters in pounds.

It is high time to call on our leaders to take action. What is the project? Taking in animals or getting rid of them? Faced with inhumanity, what do politicians do? Are they even aware that thousands of cats and dogs are killed every year? To ensure that they are, share our videos with your elected representatives: mayors, MPs, regional presidents, and the Minister of Agriculture. And sign the petition below to demand an end to the code of silence and euthanasia in pounds.

Sign the petition

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Stray animals: France opts for massacring at pounds

Stray animals: France opts for massacring at pounds
11.12.2023
Stray animals: France opts for massacring at pounds
Domestic animals

Although the French State appears insensitive to the tragic fate of thousands of stray animals, this is not the case for our European neighbours.

To “clean” their streets, France has chosen a “strategy” of large-scale slaughtering. When an animal is seen wandering, town councils are in charge of involving the services of a pound. Once captured, they are kept for eight days in a cold kennel, as shown in our latest investigation. After this time, if they have not been claimed, they can be taken in by an association. But there are too many stray or abandoned animals for them to have any hope of finding a family. When the time period has passed, being slaughtered at a pound is what awaits them. Deaths by the thousands, in the greatest secrecy, even though solutions exist, as proven by our European neighbours.

For years, we have been fighting to raise awareness about the plight of stray cats and so that our leaders will finally take measures to stem this tragedy. Faced with a lack of action by the government, we are obliged to initiate legal proceedings to make things happen, while our neighbours are acting in concrete terms to stop abandonments.

Countering mass slaughter: neutering…

In September 2022, Greece implemented the “Argos Programme”, allocating a budget of 2.9 million euros to help town councils to improve stray animal welfare.

In Luxembourg, to reduce the number of abandoned cats, some towns offer individuals financial aid to get their animals neutered.

On the other side of the border, Belgium made neutering cats obligatory in 2018. An initiative that also applies to pet cats as well as street cats and which has borne fruit in just a few months: ‘euthanasias’ in pounds due to a lack of space have reduced by half, going from 37% to 13%. The Belgian government has gone further by offering grants to towns for neutering stray cats, but also by providing help for vulnerable people for the care of their animals.

… because killing an animal is indeed a criminal act

In Italy, since a law passed in 1991, stray cats and dogs’ lives have been protected. It is strictly forbidden to kill them for population control purposes. Only genuine euthanasias that are for medical reasons, in the case of incurable suffering, are authorised and must be carried out by a veterinarian. In 2018, the Italian court of cassation even confirmed the conviction of those responsible for illegal killings, who had executed dozens of animals without medical necessity and out of pure convenience.

This is a long way from what happens in our pounds, where animals can be slaughtered after eight days in freezing conditions… Solutions exist, and we are asking the authorities to finally take the necessary measures. Sign our petition for an end to massacres and demand the implementation of an urgent plan to put an end to the suffering of millions of stray cats with us.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Ten days after our investigation into Arche de Noël was published, authorities have finally done their work after forty years of inaction.