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One Voice is back at the Administrative Tribunals to save mountain Galliformes

One Voice is back at the Administrative Tribunals to save mountain Galliformes

One Voice is back at the Administrative Tribunals to save mountain Galliformes
29.08.2023
One Voice is back at the Administrative Tribunals to save mountain Galliformes
Hunting

Following our victories last year, in particular in the High Alps and Savoie, we decided to heighten our fight for mountain Galliformes. The hunting season is open, as are those from the hearings! The first one of this new 2023-2024 season will take place on 30 August at 2pm at the Montpellier Administrative Tribunal.

These wonderful birds truly have many threats weighing against them… for example, we are thinking about global warming that strongly affects mountain environments and the animals that live there, disruptions during sensitive periods due to tourist seasons, or even deforestation… And on top of this, they are still hunted despite common sense and their deplorable conservation status!

As an example, the grey mountain partridges are classified as ‘near-threatened’ on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list in France, which indicates that the species will be faced with a heightened risk of extinction in the wild in the near future.

Despite this sub-species of grey partridge only being present in the Pyrenean chain, the Pyrénées-Orientales Prefect has, within the decree opening the 2023-2024 hunting season, directly authorised killing two partridges per day and per head (with a maximum limit of 10 partridges per hunter) during the period from 17/09/2023 to 11/11/2023.

It is all the more unbearable that this morbid quota is perfectly arbitrary since the administration has not even waited for the results of the tally that took place in the summer to define a number of grey mountain partridges to be slaughtered. The Prefect has therefore not based this on any methodology.

Either way, continuing to authorise this massacre is quite simply absurd and unjustifiable. Slaughtering birds does not respond to any justifiable need to ‘regulate’ (impossible for hunters to hide behind this kind of argument) a species that is already threatened everywhere and whose representatives are just asking to live in peace. In other words, such a hunt has no other function than a hobby for those who practice it. An unhealthy and particularly debatable hobby on an ethical level, at a time when biodiversity and the living beings who comprise it are suffering a mass slump.

For all of these reasons, One Voice has entered a plea for a cancellation and an emergency interim suspension proceeding. The hearing, set for 30 August, will tell us if our sensible arguments have convinced the Tribunal. In any case, we will continue to fight for every grey partridge’s life and all the more so for all mountain Galliformes!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Animal testing: twenty rulings asking for transparency

Animal testing: twenty rulings asking for transparency

Animal testing: twenty rulings asking for transparency
25.08.2023
Animal testing: twenty rulings asking for transparency
Animal testing

Case files come one after the other and are similar: since last summer, thirteen new tribunals have told prefectures in twenty departments to provide their inspection reports for animal testing laboratories. This is in addition to around thirty rulings already obtained since Autumn 2021.

These new rulings concern the Charente-Maritime, Landes, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Seine-Saint-Denis, Dordogne, Gironde, Yvelines, Essonne, Côte-d’Or, Guyane, Mayenne, Maine-et-Loire, Loire Atlantique, Vendée, Corrèze, Indre, Calvados, Haute-Garonne, Haute-Vienne, and Drôme Prefectures. The laboratories are in particular those at the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment [INRAE], several University Institutes of Technology [IUT] and Universities, Sanofi, and also the French Office for Biodiversity, Dordogne Breeders’ Association, Dijon Agro Institute, French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, and the Equitechnic company among others.

We find it difficult to understand how prefectures and their veterinary services (DDPP) still refuse to provide animal testing laboratory inspection reports after all of the rulings that oblige them to do so.

Transparency scares administrations

Prefectures’ justifications are always the same: (unfounded) fears for safety, criticism from animal associations, or the unbelievable idea that if the public have access to laboratory inspection reports, this would undermine investigations into violations and the enforcement of the law.

But tribunals are rarely fooled: while some rulings have authorised prefectures to hide very specific information, almost all of them only authorise names of laboratory staff and veterinary inspectors being redacted.

Such reluctance from the administration would be almost laughable if it were not so dramatic, when we know that sanctions are excessively rare and insignificant.

Transparency is substantive work

Not that these are the first lies issued by the administration to cover up their lack of transparency… It is therefore our responsibility to continue monitoring and carrying out substantive work, in order to gather information helping to report on the limits of the regulations and their application.

These documents allow us to finally note situations of animal mistreatment – always serious, sometimes illegal -in order to report on them and to attack those responsible through the justice system or to act against the inaction of the administration when this is possible.

Thus, even when the administration does not learn any lessons, each new ruling in favour of transparency is a victory.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Feline straying: one year later than the set deadline and still no government report in sight

Feline straying: one year later than the set deadline and still no government report in sight

Feline straying: one year later than the set deadline and still no government report in sight
23.08.2023
Feline straying: one year later than the set deadline and still no government report in sight
Strays

The passing of the 30 November 2021 law aiming to fight against animal mistreatment has allowed a few rare steps forward when it comes to animal welfare. They are, however, largely insufficient, and those on feline straying are completely ignored. More than a year and a half after these new standards coming into force, nothing has been done about it.

This law effectively plans for neutering campaigns led on an experimental basis by the State in cooperation with mayors and presidents of volunteer local authorities.

To launch this process, a key element must be submitted by the Ministry of Agriculture: a report setting up a quantified diagnostic on the issue of stray cats in France, evaluating the cost of capturing, neutering, and formulating operational recommendations to respond to this issue, all while presenting the arrangements for financing the system by local authorities and the State.

This document must be put forward no later than six months after the enactment, which means that 1 June 2022 is the latest deadline.

August 2023, still no report…

In summer 2022, the government explained that they had already faced difficulties and did not know when the said report would finally be published.

In December of the same year, the MPs in charge of deciding on how this legislation is applied were concerned about the lack of publication, criticising “the inaction of communities and a lack of drive on the State’s part” on the situation of feline straying, all while recalling that “there is an obligation to neuter stray cats in the initial bill and that this had been taken out at the Senate under pressure from local representatives.”

In February 2023, we wrote to the Ministry of Agriculture to ask them for information, question them on a delivery date for the report, remind them of their obligations, but also to send them our research on the subject. A letter that has still not been answered.

And so, we are at the end of the summer and the case still has not progressed.

While waiting, cats continue to suffer

There is nothing very unusual about the government’s inaction on subjects regarding animals and the environment. But here, stray cats continue to reproduce, fight against cold, heat, hunger, bad weather, and human malice. Thousands of kittens born outside continue to die every year from disease or being run over by cars. Those who survive give birth to other individuals, themselves destined for a tragic fate, and so on…

When it comes to mayors, many of them refuse to take responsibility by carrying out neutering campaigns, and can find nothing better to do than ban feeding cats or destroy their shelters. We receive dozens of witness statements along these lines every week. The associations, who are weighed down by requests for support and continue to struggle, are on their side: those defending animals do the best they can to feed, treat, and even neuter stray cats at their own expense, despite inflation making their work more and more difficult.

The only solution to put an end to this misery can be found in obligatory neutering, as is the case in Spain or in Belgium, where this provision even made it possible to reduce the number of euthanisias.

Help us to move forward with this fight: share our report with your local council and sign our petition demanding an urgent national plan to put an end to feline straying and the suffering that it causes.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

2023: a record year for badgers!

2023: a record year for badgers!

2023: a record year for badgers!
18.08.2023
2023: a record year for badgers!
Hunting

2023 was a milestone year. In ten new departments, judges have once again suspended additional periods for underground hunting with hounds. A grand finale that has closed an historic season where 80% of decrees contested by the association were suspended: in 29 areas out of the 36 where we have attacked, badger cubs and their parents will have their lives saved. More than 4000 of them will live and digging out is on the chopping block more than ever.

In March 2023, we launched a big legal push against additional periods for underground hunting with hounds. We have pulled out all the stops, along with our partners where it was possible, and rallied all of our energy to fight this type of unbearable hunting. Up until the middle of the summer, we attacked the prefectural decrees and continued to obtain bans on these planned massacres, often before the hunting season even started.

Ten new victories, and thousands of badgers saved

The ten suspensions obtained recently can be added to the 19 suspensions already obtained throughout the spring and summer.

In Aveyron, Corrèze, Creuse, Haute-Vienne, Indre, Indre-et-Loire, Seine-et-Marne, and Orne, with our partner AVES, we have convinced judges of the necessity of urgently suspending digging out. Faced with a total lack of any serious data and the risks for badger families that we have systematically shown, judges have heard us and have swept away the hunters’ untruthful arguments that they were whispering to the State.

We have even pushed the limits of the law on the ban on killing the young! In Essonne, in which we attacked alongside the LPO, the Tribunal did not let themselves be fooled by the Prefecture’s attempts, who had reported the opening of this type of hunting on 15 July supposedly to protect the young, and said ‘stop’ to this carnage despite the late date, since badger cubs are present in the setts for at least one year.

And in Puy-de-Dôme, the Clermont-Ferrand Administrative Tribunal confirmed its position: even though the Prefecture took out a second decree following our first victory – scheming that did not really surprise us much as the Prefectures are used to these practices – we once again achieved our aim with Animal Cross, AVES, FNE Aura, FNE Puy-de-Dôme, and LPO Aura.

In total, more than 4000 individuals were saved in total in 29 departments that went against the closure of this type of hunting that was already authorised for the rest of the year, and which we condemned the cruelty of thanks to a high-risk infiltration investigation within a team of diggers.

Additional period for underground hunting with hounds: the beginning of the end!

Thanks to all of this success, digging out in the spring and summer is jeopardised more than ever. The State Council itself confirmed without ambiguity the law banning killing badger cubs, and invited us to continue, department by department, to attack decrees. They are counting on us! Because if the additional period is in the dock, prefects do not give up: for spring 2024, several dozen decrees have already been passed… But we will be there, whenever needed, to put a definitive end to these massacres.

Let’s not forget that after the additional period, digging out could restart from September in numerous departments. Badgers are targeted, but also foxes, as we have shown in our infiltrations. We are going to continue to increase initiatives – such as our complaint to the Bern Convention – and to give these animals a voice, alongside the public!

All of these victories lead the way to the end of this unbearable persecution that these reserved heroes who are true architects of our country’s underground spaces are subjected to. Behind their black and white coat, they provide major services for wildlife (for example, their setts shelter protected species such as bats, wild cats, or even otters). In Bas-Rhin, like in several European countries (the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Luxembourg…), hunting them is banned and damage is not increased: logical, since badgers feed mainly on berries. They can reproduce in peace here – and this happens slowly, which further justifies them being protected.

So that diggers stop spreading terror in the countryside – as more than four in five French people would like (IPSOS/One Voice survey, September 2022)- more than ever, support badgers and sign our petition for the abolition of underground badger hunting with hounds and for their protection!

The 29 victories in the spring and summer of 2023

  • Aisne: hearing of 16/06/2023 (Amiens Administrative Tribunal)
  • Aube: hearing of 06/06/2023 (Châlons-en-Champagne Administrative Tribunal)
  • Allier: hearing of 30/05/2023 and 18/07/2023 (Clermont-Ferrand Administrative Tribunal)
  • Aveyron: hearing of 27/07/2023 (Toulouse Administrative Tribunal)
  • Charente-Maritime: hearing of 09/05/2023 (Poitiers Administrative Tribunal)
  • Corrèze: hearing of 17/07/2023 (Limoges Administrative Tribunal)
  • Creuse: hearing of 01/08/2023 (Limoges Administrative Tribunal)
  • Essonne: hearing of 09/08/2023 (Versailles Administrative Tribunal)
  • Eure-et-Loir: hearing of 05/06/2023 (Orléans Administrative Tribunal)
  • Haute-Loire: hearing of 20/06/2023 (Clermont-Ferrand Administrative Tribunal)
  • Haute-Vienne: hearing of 01/08/2023 (Limoges Administrative Tribunal)
  • Ille-et-Vilaine: hearing of 08/06/2023 (Rennes Administrative Tribunal)
  • Indre: hearing of 01/08/2023 (Limoges Administrative Tribunal)
  • Indre-et-Loir: hearing of 10/08/2023 (Orléans Administrative Tribunal)
  • Loir-et-Cher: hearing of 03/07/2023 (Orléans Administrative Tribunal)
  • Loiret: hearing of 05/06/2023 (Orléans Administrative Tribunal)
  • Maine-et-Loire: hearing of 27/07/2023 (Nantes Administrative Tribunal)
  • Manche: hearing of 09/05/2023 (Caen Administrative Tribunal)
  • Meuse: hearing of 13/06/2023 (Nancy Administrative Tribunal)
  • Nièvre: hearing of 31/03/2023 (Dijon Administrative Tribunal)
  • Oise: hearing of 09/05/2023 (Amiens Administrative Tribunal)
  • Orne: hearing of 03/08/2023 (Caen Administrative Tribunal)
  • Puy-de-Dôme: hearing of 30/05/2023 and 01/08/2023 (Clermont-Ferrand Administrative Tribunal)
  • Savoie: hearing of 16/06/2023 (Grenoble Administrative Tribunal)
  • Seine-et-Marne: hearing of 25/07/2023 (Melun Administrative Tribunal)
  • Tarn-et-Garonne: hearing of 03/05/2023 (Toulouse Administrative Tribunal)
  • Vienne: hearing of 26/05/2023 (Poitiers Administrative Tribunal)

Translated from the French by Joely Justice