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Forced swimming: a long-term battle

Forced swimming: a long-term battle

Forced swimming: a long-term battle
27.09.2023
Forced swimming: a long-term battle
Animal testing

Since we discovered that a project involving inflicting electric shocks and forced swimming tests on hundreds of rats had been authorised, we have been trying to find out more, obtain footage of similar projects already carried out in France, and to motivate businesses and French universities to commit against this test. To face resistance from authorities, One Voice is referring to administrative tribunals.

The forced swimming test is one of the most criticised practices in animal testing nowadays. Not only have businesses and universities committed to no longer authorise its use globally for several years, but an Australian parliamentary committee has recently taken an interest in asking for it to be abolished. Closer to home, a British committee on the scientific use of animals has received numerous requests regarding this test. But either way, authorities’ responses clearly lack ambition and imagination.

Authorities and their waffle

In France, authorities are still less receptive. The Ministry of Research has already confirmed the existence of the project that we condemned to the media, all while qualifying it with the usual reassurances of ethical committees following the ‘strictest regulations in the world’: a response void of any content and that you would probably also receive if you wrote to the Ministry.

Not content with having passed the buck, the Ministry continues to authorise projects involving stressful and painful situations for animals, but also the forced swimming test. In November 2022, a project was approved that would subject more than 3000 mice to various stressful procedures in order to make them depressed in different ways. Forced swimming is part of a range of tests destined to assess the value of these depression ‘models’.

We would like more information

Our letter did not only contain an allegation. It also asked the Ministry to provide us with the documents containing the details of the project and on the deliberation by the ethical committee that approved it.

The Ministry has refused to grant our request. We contacted the French Committee for Access to Administrative Documents [Commission d’accès aux documents administratifs (Cada)] who proved us right. But with the Ministry still turning a deaf ear, we had to resort to the Administrative Tribunal – a lengthy and fastidious procedure, but one which will force the administration to provide us with the requested documents.

Forced swimming footage in France

But can these same laws be applied to obtain the footage taken in laboratories by the research teams themselves? While footage of forced swimming is relatively rare on the Internet, a fortiori
when it comes to France, we have asked three university teams to provide us with the videos of forced swimming that they have taken.

The first claimed to have already deleted them, which raises questions about the transparency of the research and open science, important concepts in the 21st century. The second did not bother to reply at first, then said that they too have already deleted the videos from 2012 to 2017. And finally, the third tried to refuse to send us the footage due to… copyright! As though videos of standardised tests would constitute an original approach to the point of it being elevated to intellectual creation rank in the eyes of the law.

Administrative tribunals must make a decision.

Sign to put an end to the forced swimming test

One Voice’s campaign against the forced swimming test:

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Orcas at Marineland: One Voice has succeeded in having an independent expert assessment arranged!

Orcas at Marineland: One Voice has succeeded in having an independent expert assessment arranged!

Orcas at Marineland: One Voice has succeeded in having an independent expert assessment arranged!
21.09.2023
Orcas at Marineland: One Voice has succeeded in having an independent expert assessment arranged!
Dolphinariums

We could say that this is a victory for justice. This morning, One Voice has succeeded with what they have been asking the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal for: for an independent expert assessment of the state of Inouk and Moana the orcas, and of the infrastructures at the Marineland park in Antibes where they are kept along with Wikie and Keijo. A decision that we hope will allow clarity to be given on their state of health and to contribute to allowing them a life far away from shows and concrete pools.

To support our case on appeal, we have provided the courts with expert reports from Drs Ingrid Visser, Naomi Rose, and David Perpiñan, which highlight the detrimental state of health of the two oldest males in the group, accompanied by videos of the orcas and pools taken from above and by the poolside showing the potential underlying and, in the eyes of the association, outrageous problems. Inouk’s tooth pulp is damaged due to her biting at the concrete pool. According to scientists, the pain is constant.

In the first instance, the case file presented by One Voice was rejected. With these new elements, the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal has granted our request for an independent expert assessment to be carried out. A balanced and sensible decision that we approve of.

What future?

For us, it is now a matter of seeing what can possibly be done in terms of alternatives so that the four French orcas are not sent to a Japanese dolphinarium (or any other place where they would still be exploited). A never-ending journey for the animals that have never left the water in these pools in Antibes, with their suffering also having been linked to the effects of gravity on their organs. The fact that they would be separated is also detrimental to their balance given that these four orcas form a real family, the only one in captivity that we know of. Yet, in the wild, orcas spend their whole lives with their families. A few days ago, One Voice also published a report on Wikie, the female and matriarch of the group, whose health also concerns us. We have written to the Japanese authorities about her.

For years, we have also been working on supporting and implementing alternative solutions to those set out by Parques Reunidos (owner of Marineland Antibes) with all of our partners on a European and global level. The solution of a sanctuary would require Marineland to accept our helping hand and work with us on mutual understanding for the future of these orcas. Until now, the park has refused to speak or respond to anyone from One Voice.

The ‘animal protection’ law of 2021 plans for orcas to be sent to a marine sanctuary, with our structure being under construction. However, the Ministry of Ecology seems to be doing everything they can to get rid of the animals before making clear decrees. In the orcas’ case, as for circus elephants, this law is worse than a status quo.

Our determination to find a better life for Inouk, Moana, Wikie, and Keijo is unfailing. Sign our petition !

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Animals’ heads torn off: One Voice reveals its investigation footage on the goose neck game

Animals’ heads torn off: One Voice reveals its investigation footage on the goose neck game

Animals’ heads torn off: One Voice reveals its investigation footage on the goose neck game
19.09.2023
Animals’ heads torn off: One Voice reveals its investigation footage on the goose neck game
Domestic animals

On 17 September 2023, we went to investigate at the goose neck festival organised in Saint-Bonnet-près-Riom, in Puy-de-Dôme. To mark their passage into adulthood, ten young men tore the head off twenty geese, chickens, and rabbits that were killed for the occasion to cheers from the public. We are asking for a ban throughout France on this barbaric practice.

Young people all smiles, laughter, music… you could almost believe this was a good-natured party. Until we notice the rope stretched horizontally where twenty animals have been hung from. Geese, chickens, and rabbits whose lifeless bodies hang in the air were killed especially to be subjected to the most degrading treatment and to entertain the inhabitants of Saint-Bonnet-près-Riom. So how were they killed? Like in the Basque country: “either we drown them or we open their mouths and stick a knife in them”.

An extremely violent event

The ‘fête’ begins when a couple of these young men who have turned 18 that year pass under the rope, sitting in pairs on the back of a horse. With their arms raised, they hit the goose which hangs above them. The most violent blows send the animal’s head into the air before it falls, dangling limply at the end of its white neck. As if this French piñata were not sinister enough, the women make a second pass under the rope, alone, to kiss the bird, sometimes pulling on its neck so hard that it seems close to dislocating. At the height of the action: the men then tear off the heads of the geese, rabbits, and chickens with their bare hands before brandishing them while singing joyfully to the crowd. What better way is there to enter adulthood and ensure a promising future than these abject acts and the accompanying degrading spectacle? Of course, these beings are lifeless, but they are still animals.

A ‘tradition’ that creates victims each year

This is not the first time that we have condemned this barbaric ‘tradition’ which is still very much alive in certain French villages. We did so in August 2022, when a goose was mutilated in Beaux, then in August 2023 in Arfeuilles, where the decapitation was carried out using a sabre… The organizers defend themselves by boasting that they are not cutting off the heads of living animals. But they don’t seem to mind having them killed beforehand to allow their corpses to be torn apart. Here we are dealing with a practice dating from the Middle Ages that trivialises animal abuse and establishes it as a real rite of passage to adulthood. This initiation should be done without incitement to cruelty. Does our society really need this? The festival committee, organiser of the event, does not even take responsibility: the program for the day does not even say who they are.

To ask for a ban on the goose neck ‘game’ throughout France for all of the geese, chickens, rabbits, and ducks killed and decapitated every year, and for the protection of our youth who represent and constitute the future of our society, sign our petition.

Sign the petition

Translated from the French by Joely Justice