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In the United States, animal testing laboratories will finance alternative methods

In the United States, animal testing laboratories will finance alternative methods

In the United States, animal testing laboratories will finance alternative methods
19.05.2023
In the United States, animal testing laboratories will finance alternative methods
Animal testing

On 8 May 2023, the State of Maryland in the United States passed a law to create a fund for the development of substitute methods for animal testing. And the State will not be the only one to fund it, since laboratories carrying out experiments on animals will themselves also participate by means of an obligatory annual contribution. One Voice is encouraging the European Union and France to follow this example.

In December 2022, a modification to American law already allowed the sale of medications without them having to be tested on animals.

This time, Maryland is showing the way to a future without animal testing by choosing to finance alternatives and by involving a contribution from laboratories. Based on the number of animals used each year, each laboratory in this small Eastern State of the United States must give an annual contribution which can range from 5000 to 75,000 dollars. And if one of them refuses to pay for their participation in the development of more ethical research methods, they must pay a fine that can be up to 1000 dollars for every day it goes unpaid.

Unfortunately, the effects of this initiative are weakened by the calculation method used by the American Ministry of Agriculture, who has conveniently chosen not to count mice, rats, birds, and fish as victims of animal testing… so the vast majority of individuals concerned.

Insufficient investments in France

In France, where 600 laboratories use 3000 animals per year each on average according to statistics, the creation of such a fund would allow 30 million euros per year to be given to research into substitute methods for animal testing. This amount could supply the FC3R, which would need supplementary financing: created in 2021 and active since 2023, this centre serving to finance ‘replacing’ projects can currently only invest 784,467 euros shared between 19 projects. A very small amount in relation to the 81% of French people in favour of developing alternative methods for experiments inflicted upon animals.

While we have just asked the European Commission to commit in favour of a plan aiming to progressively eliminate all tests on animals, One Voice is encouraging the European Union and France to more seriously finance alternative methods.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Manche, Orne, Haute-Vienne: a succession of victories by One Voice for badgers!

Manche, Orne, Haute-Vienne: a succession of victories by One Voice for badgers!

Manche, Orne, Haute-Vienne: a succession of victories by One Voice for badgers!
10.05.2023
Manche, Orne, Haute-Vienne: a succession of victories by One Voice for badgers!
Hunting

After the Dijon tribunal, it is the turn of the courts in Limoges and Caen to suspend decrees being carried out authorising badger digging in the Haute-Vienne, Manche, and Orne departments in the spring. The administrative judges recognise that there is indeed a serious doubt on the legality of these decisions. Initial victories for badgers, who will therefore have their lives saved this spring.

*This spring and summer 2023, badgers and their young will have peace in the Haute-Vienne, Orne, and Manche departments.

Under the framework of our large-scale attack against decrees authorising digging out badgers this spring, we are winning the first key victories.

On Friday 5 May, the Limoges Administrative Tribunal suspended the Haute-Vienne Prefect’s decree from being carried out. For the court, there was indeed a serious doubt on the legality of this decision, passed following botched proceedings.

In Caen, the Administrative Tribunal agreed with us and ruled, beyond the procedural flaws, that additional periods of digging out were likely to harm the young, still present in the setts at this time of year. The judge went further and, for the first time, admitted that the very possibility of digging in the spring is illegal.

At least 800 badgers spared. We will not stop there

Badgers are not animals that reproduce quickly. They only have one litter per year, and generally one or two cubs, rarely more. Their development is slow and it can take more than a year for them to gain independence!

In total, in Haute-Vienne, almost 500 of them will be saved by our actions. In Orne, more than 300 badgers and badger cubs will have their lives saved. The Manche Prefecture did not bother to tell the court how many badgers were killed each year by digging to respond to our arguments and those of AVES France (who took the same position as we did at the hearing for this department).

Year after year, One Voice and its partners obtain significant victories against illegal decrees passed by State representatives. In the weeks to come, we will continue to defend badgers in dozens of departments from Ardennes to Lot-et-Garonne and right up to the Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

More than ever, we need your help to give these animals, martyrs of our woodlands, a voice. Sign the petition to demand an abolition, pure and simple, on digging, and for us to stop using the word badger in a derogatory manner! You can also find us in thirteen towns in France for our coordinated national action to defend them as well as foxes, who are also victims of this cruel hunting method.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

After more than 40 years in the circus and of inaction from public powers, Dumba the elephant has died

After more than 40 years in the circus and of inaction from public powers, Dumba the elephant has died

After more than 40 years in the circus and of inaction from public powers, Dumba the elephant has died
09.05.2023
Germany
After more than 40 years in the circus and of inaction from public powers, Dumba the elephant has died
Circuses

It is with profound sadness and great anger that we have just learned of the death of Dumba from an intermediary from European Elephant Group. Exploited for her whole life, the elephant had been living in a small enclosure at a settled circus in Germany for a year when she died in March 2022. We had been to see her in October 2021. Subjected to harmful living conditions from the age of two, she had not yet reached her fiftieth birthday.

Her lengthy exploitation in circuses, travelling endlessly in a lorry, and the cowardice of public powers, not to mention the rest, got the better of Dumba, despite the relentless campaign that we led for her.

A life on the road, hired out to the highest bidder…

Alongside our Spanish partner, FAADA, we never stopped following her movements, sometimes in Spain, sometimes in France. On our side of the border, she had been “hired out” by her trainer at the Cirque de Paris for a long time. Under their big top, she had been forced to participate in appalling cynical shows.

At the very start of 2021, after several months of looking for her, we found her shut up in a trailer in Gard in freezing temperatures. Everything about her posture indicated that her legs were hurting her, as confirmed to us by an elephant expert. We immediately filed a complaint and requested Dumba be seized so that she could finally be placed in a sanctuary.

…until the point of exhaustion

Hoping to escape the lawsuits initiated by us, the trainer Kludsky abandoned Dumba in Germany. Placed in a settled circus, the elephant no longer had to participate in shows. But, cooped up in a small enclosure, she did not escape isolation and discontent. To free her, we sought the help of local associations and the German government.

The elephant had been dead for months when we were finally able to get our hands on the report from the veterinarian who had examined her at the end of January 2021. This document, which confirmed that she was suffering from muscle wastage in her legs and felt that it was “of interest and necessary” to carry out additional examinations, should have been given to us long before! We have known for a long time that Dumba was in danger. We alerted the authorities multiple times about the owners exploiting her. They washed their hands of her: the prefect, prosecutor, and even the Ministry. And Dumba has paid a heavy price.

A law complicit in mistreatment

By allowing these establishments to settle down in order to be able to continue to show animals to the public after 2028, the law against animal mistreatment is complicit in exploitation. And what about the inaction of the Ministry of the Ecological Transition, who still have not banned the reproduction of felines in circuses, which are already so numerous in France, one and a half years after the law being passed by the National Assembly? How many more animals will die, stressed out by training, boredom, and imprisonment, before finally being truly rescued?

In memory of Dumba and for all the others, the fight continues.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice