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One Voice is speaking at the Romanian Parliament for a fur-free Romania

One Voice is speaking at the Romanian Parliament for a fur-free Romania

One Voice is speaking at the Romanian Parliament for a fur-free Romania
05.06.2023
One Voice is speaking at the Romanian Parliament for a fur-free Romania
Fashion

One Voice is joining its international partners from the Fur Free Alliance (the coalition for which it is the French representative) to speak at the Romanian Parliament on 11 May 2023 in Bucharest. We are asking for a ban on mink and chinchilla farming in the country and, in support of the proposed law that is in the process of being examined by Romanian parliamentarians, have provided our contribution by explaining the One Voice campaign that was launched to pass the law that approved this reform in France less than two years ago.

Slider photo credit: Adrian Daniel Vasile/Humane Society International – Europe

Our fight, relentlessly led for more than twenty years to obtain the closure of mink breeding farms in France and a ban on all wild animal breeding for fashion, was presented on 11 May before Romanian press in Bucharest, thanks to an intervention by our partner HSI/Europe in Romania, and in the presence of around fifteen other friends and members of this international coalition that One Voice has been part of for more than two decades. The famous journalist and television presenter Simona Gherghe led discussions around Gheorghe Pecingina, the deputy supporting the law proposal. Ioana Ciolacu, one of the first Romanian fashion designers to publicly announce her refusal to use fur in her creations, was also present. We were in a prominent position, with France having numerous similarities with this Latin country in Eastern Europe that only has around ten fur farms to be closed down. Our investigation footage, as well as that from Svoboda Zvířat (in the Czech Republic), has also been shown in the biggest Parliament in Europe.

©Amy Veenboer/ Bont voor Dieren«France, considered as one of the jewels of luxury and fashion worldwide, knew to ban farms breeding animals for fur in 2021. They were already in decline. French law settled it: it is not acceptable to subject animals to so much suffering, the planet does not need the additional pollution caused by waste from these breeding farms, everyone’s health cannot be put in perpetual danger by such places. We believe in a ban on fur production in Romania. The population is expecting it; they will rejoice and celebrate those who vote for it, as we have done. This is the meaning of history.»Extract from a speech by Jessica Lefèvre-Grave, Director of External Public Relations and Investigations for One Voice at the Romanian Parliament on 11 May 2023

A law proposal that follows…

We urged the House of Representatives to approve the bill currently under review to ban fur farms in the country, putting an end to the barbaric practice involving the breeding and killing of animals such as mink and chinchillas. The Romanian Senate voted in favour of the bill in December last year, but the deciding vote is returned to the House of Representatives. If it is passed, Romania will become the twentieth European country to definitively close its breeding farms.

©Adrian Daniel Vasile/Humane Society International – Europe

…an investigation into Romanian fur farms

The ban was proposed last year following the publication of a shocking investigation led by HSI/Europe exposing the abominable living conditions of the animals in fur farms in Romania. The very first footage taken inside the chinchilla breeding farms showed the animals confined in dirty, minuscule cages, their paws often slipping on the mesh flooring, eventually being killed in the name of fashion in improvised gas chambers at only a few months of age. HSI/Europe has announced the launch of an advertising campaign and a petition to show public support for a ban on fur farms in the country.

Our European and International support: Romania Fara Blanuri!

After the discussion, the FFA submitted a letter addressed to the Prime Minister and to members of the House of Representatives asking for their quick agreement for a bill to ban breeding animals for fur in Romania. The letter cited animal protection and public health as the main reasons for such a ban and highlighted the decline in the popularity and economic value of the fur industry in recent years.

©Adrian Daniel Vasile/Humane Society International – Europe

Romania: one of the last countries in Europe to still allow fur farms

To date, breeding animals for fur is banned in nineteen European countries, including fourteen European Union (EU) member states: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Slovakia, and Slovenia. A bill aiming to banish this practice is currently being reviewed in Poland and Lithuania. Two countries — Switzerland and Germany — have set up regulations so strict with regard to welfare that breeding animals for fur has effectively stopped, and three other countries, Denmark, Sweden, and Hungary, have imposed measures that have put an end to breeding certain species. Only a small number of EU member states, such as Romania, still allow this practice.

Earlier this year, the Fur Free Europe European Citizens’ Initiative gained more than 1.7 million signatures from EU citizens. Addressed to the European Commission, the ECI asked for a ban on breeding animals for fur and the trade of products using fur within the EU.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Marineland is considering sending its orcas to a dolphinarium in Japan: One Voice is preparing an attack

Marineland is considering sending its orcas to a dolphinarium in Japan: One Voice is preparing an attack

Marineland is considering sending its orcas to a dolphinarium in Japan: One Voice is preparing an attack
24.05.2023
Marineland is considering sending its orcas to a dolphinarium in Japan: One Voice is preparing an attack
Dolphinariums

It is with anger that we learnt the news. Marineland in Antibes, who exploited Inouk, Moana, Wikie, and Keijo for their whole lives, has, from the end of 2023 or beginning of 2024 during the annual park closure, started to consider sending them to Japan. With us, demand that this cynical project be abandoned and that the four ‘French’ orcas be placed in a sanctuary where they can finally experience something other than captivity!

Already at the end of 2019, Marineland Antibes had considered sending Inouk, Moana, Wikie, and Keijo to China. Four years later, they have not given up on making one last bit of profit off the back of them. The four whales had even been measured to choose the size of the transport stretchers according to a whistle-blower who contacted us directly and another source in agreement who went through our partners from the Tilikum’s Spirit collective.

Parques Réunidos, who have dozens of parks, this time intend to send them to Japan (even if they deny it – Updated 24.05 at 4pm, Marineland stated in Nice-Matin that they cannot ‘confirm or deny’ this information. And added, in a legislative context strengthened by the law of 30 November 2021 on animal mistreatment, [that they are] “reviewing several possibilities for the relocation” of these animals”), where a water park – the Suma Aqualife Park eventually renamed as Kobe Suma Sea World in the Hyōgo Prefecture – is undergoing construction. And undoubtedly for a more lucrative transaction, they stopped Wikie’s contraception, which suggests a new forced reproduction for this whale who was already inseminated when she was barely 8 years old.

The State abandons orcas

Is this therefore how the government intends to keep their promise to put an end to orcas in captivity between now and 2030? By leaving French parks to get rid of them abroad, where they will continue to be exploited until their last breath, rather than looking to place them in sanctuaries like they promised?

It is unacceptable that Marineland Antibes, who received public help from both the State and communities, are allowed to dispose of French whales as they please, without being accountable to anyone.

Sanctuaries rather than more exploitation!

In partnership with the Whale Sanctuary Project, One Voice has developed a protocol to prepare orcas in captivity for life in a sanctuary. In six months, the Marineland orcas could gain back their muscle mass lost due to inactivity and learn to eat as much as they want, without having to entertain a gallery to be entitled to food. With an in-depth veterinary examination and the necessary care, Inouk, Moana, Wikie, and Keijo could claim a place in a sanctuary, where they would get a taste of partial freedom for the first time. What a joy it would be to see them swimming together off the coast of Canada, in an environment similar to that which was hardly known by their parents, all while receiving the protection and medical care that they have needed their whole lives!

It is still possible to avoid them being imprisoned and relentlessly trained!

We are calling on the State to fund this type of sanctuary, as they should have done from the beginning, and to decide against sending them to other dolphinariums. Aside from our opposition to their relentless exploitation, we are concerned about Inouk, whose health is very poor. Will he even make it to Japan if Marineland insist on subjecting him to such a long commercial journey? We expect the water park to take into consideration the orcas that they are keeping and that they work with us to place them in a sanctuary, respecting their needs. If they were to be sold to Japan, we would never forget this decision and would continue the fight for them, also in Antibes. As will be the case before the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal on 19 June to gain an independent expert assessment on Inouk and Moana.

Along with us, demand that Inouk, Moana, Wikie, and Keijo are cared for by a sanctuary rather than being sent to Japan by signing our petition!

Sign the petition

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Tuberculosis epidemic among monkeys in Mauritius: One Voice and its partners are calling for a ban on this international trade!

A joint statement from Abolición Vivisección, Action for Primates, One Voice, and PETA relating to a tuberculosis epidemic in a monkey farm in Mauritius, the second biggest country exporting monkeys destined for laboratories.