News Archive - Page 3 of 122

Indre prefect circumvents laws to kill wild boars en masse. We attack!

Indre prefect circumvents laws to kill wild boars en masse. We attack!
18.09.2024
Indre
Indre prefect circumvents laws to kill wild boars en masse. We attack!
Hunting

The prefect of the Indre region has taken a further step in the elimination of wild boar populations: he has just authorized “affinity” beats, a notion completely made up by him to enable lieutenants of louveterie and pests to kill as many as they please, for seven months throughout the region. We are bringing an urgent legal action against this decree before the Limoges administrative court. Hearing on September 19, 2024 at 9:30 am.

In the Indre region, wild boars are targeted everywhere, all the time. For them, there is no respite: they can be hunted from June 1, 2024 to May 31, 2025, and are classified as “ESOD”, which means that any landowner can ask to have them shot if they are on his land. What’s more, in certain “sensitive areas”, they can even be shot at night in April and May. In short, a life spent dodging hunters’ bullets.

But that wasn’t enough for the prefect, who has just decided that, for seven months, the lieutenants of louveterie and pests, hunters commissioned by the State, will be able to organize as many beats as they wish themselves. Yet the law is clear: each administrative beat hunt must be the subject of a specific prefectoral decree, which must be limited in time and geographically targeted.

“Affinity beats” to circumvent the laws

The prefect has entirely fabricated the concept of “affinity beats”, a notion that exists nowhere in the law. The aim of this strategy is to enable lieutenants of louveterie and pests to decide freely on the modalities and timing of the beats, without having to comply with regulatory constraints, and – above all? – without having to adopt a specific decree for each beat, which we could attack… A strategy which seems to be developing within the prefectures, in the image of the decree of the prefect of the Ain region authorizing the massacre of badgers, which we attacked.

By authorizing these operations for seven months without justification or limits, the prefect of the Indre region is paving the way for an organized massacre of wild boars. It’s yet another slide that could well become widespread if it isn’t quickly stopped. We are therefore taking the case to the Limoges administrative court!

Sign for a radical reform of hunting Sign for a radical reform of hunting Sign for a radical reform of hunting Sign for a radical reform of hunting Sign for a radical reform of hunting Sign for a radical reform of hunting Sign for a radical reform of hunting Sign for a radical reform of hunting Sign for a radical reform of hunting Sign for a radical reform of hunting

Victories by the bucketful against underground hunting, a practice that is slowly disappearing!

Victories by the bucketful against underground hunting, a practice that is slowly disappearing!
Victories by the bucketful against underground hunting, a practice that is slowly disappearing!

After five years of legal battle, the much-decried practice of badger digging has been significantly reduced in France. This positive development is due not only to the many successes achieved before the administrative courts, but also to the media coverage generated by the major awareness campaigns run by our three associations in recent years. Together, AVES France, ASPAS and One Voice are committed to fighting against the cruelty of underground hunting, until this medieval practice is completely abolished.

France is one of the last countries in Europe to authorize hunting by digging up, also called “vénerie sous terre”, a particularly cruel and indiscriminate practice that involves sending small dogs into badger burrows to corner them, digging into the earth sometimes for hours at a time, then removing the animals from their burrows with large pliers before killing them.

This hunt, open from September to January, is also possible from May 15, by simple decision of the prefecture: this is known as the “supplementary period” of underground hunting. In the absence of any political will to abolish underground hunting altogether, it is precisely these “supplementary periods” against which ASPAS, AVES and One Voice have filed dozens of legal pleas* in recent years, resulting in numerous victories. In 2024 alone, out of the 26 petitions for suspension filed, our associations obtained the suspension of underground hunting in 20 departments**.

Among the main arguments accepted by the judges: the absence of significant damage attributed to badgers (in crops, road embankments, etc.) and the presence of young badgers in the burrows in spring and summer. In fact, the French Environment Code prohibits the killing of the young of a species whose hunting is authorized, and badgers have a low reproduction rate, with their young only becoming truly independent in autumn.

As our legal precedents grow, victory after victory, prefects are increasingly reluctant to authorize supplementary periods, much to the chagrin of hunters. Some no longer authorize them at all, others propose shortened periods, while others, finally, persist in maintaining the opening of underground hunting from May 15 at all costs, even though a judge has already suspended and then annulled the contested decree…

In 2020, the number of departments authorizing this controversial hunt from May 15 was 72. By 2024, the number had fallen to 19!

An overwhelming majority of French people are opposed to digging up

A long-ignored animal in France, the badger has benefited from major awareness campaigns in recent years, and more and more citizens are sympathetic to their cause.

According to a 2023 Ipsos poll commissioned by One Voice, 84% of French people say they are in favor of banning digging up, whatever the species concerned, a percentage that has remained stable since 2018. This strong opposition is regularly expressed during public consultations each year, prior to the adoption by prefects of decrees authorizing or not supplementary periods of underground hunting. Every spring, ASPAS and AVES France are particularly active in publicizing the existence of these consultations and inviting as many citizens as possible to take part. Even if the opinions are only consultative, and very few prefects take them into account in their final decisions, the rejection of underground hunting is often irrevocable (this was the case this year in the Saône-et-Loire region, for example, with 84% of unfavorable opinions).

In 2020, the publication of One Voice‘s infiltration of an underground hunting crew enabled many people to discover in pictures the atrocity of underground hunting. In 2022, the large-scale citizens’ petition filed by ASPAS on the French Senate website was relayed by numerous associations and influencers, enabling the required 100,000 signatures to be reached and surpassed in less than 6 months.

That same year, ASPAS launched World Badger Day on May 15, a major awareness-raising campaign in the field, in the media and on the Internet, in which numerous partner associations across France took part and continue to do so every year.

On May 13, 2024, a letter co-signed by 10 NGOs was sent to the Ministry of Ecological Transition calling for a total ban on underground hunting. It’s inconceivable that such cruel and destructive hunting is still allowed in 2024: we won’t give up until it’s completely abolished!

* Other nature protection associations with a local scope of action have also contributed to the legal battle (FNE Aura, LPO Aura, Indre Nature, etc.).

** Allier, Ardennes, Aube, Calvados, Charente-Maritime, Corrèze, Creuse, Eure-et-Loir, Ille-et-Vilaine, Seine-et-Marne, Deux-Sèvres, Haute-Vienne. For the 6 other departments where the courts did not follow our request for suspension this year (Cantal, Gironde, Lot-et-Garonne, Loire-Atlantique, Puy-de-Dôme and Vendée), pleas for annulment will be heard after the fact. In addition, One Voice and AVES France have filed other pleas which have resulted in the suspension of the supplementary periods of underground hunting in 8 other departments: Aveyron, Cher, Côtes d’Armor, Eure, Finistère, Indre, Indre-et-Loire and Morbihan.

Neglected “hunting” dogs in the Ain region: One Voice files a complaint

Neglected “hunting” dogs in the Ain region: One Voice files a complaint
11.09.2024
Ain
Neglected “hunting” dogs in the Ain region: One Voice files a complaint

In a village in the north of the Ain region, two dogs used for hunting are relegated to an enclosure isolated from residential areas. Behind the fence, they survive with no attention or occupation other than waiting for a drop of water or a bit of food. We filed a complaint.

They were discovered by chance by a whistle-blower on August 25, while out for a walk. Locked away out of sight, with no one to hear them, as in the Lot-et-Garonne region, the two “hunting” dogs live in their own excrement. Among the dead leaves, car batteries litter the ground. Are they even fed and watered in this landfill-like prison? At the end of August, but also at the beginning of September, their bowls were empty and dry, always in the same place. With summer not yet over, they don’t even have a drop of water at their disposal. And they are forced, starving, to beg for food from the rare strangers who pass by.

“Hunting” dogs, forgotten by all

When alerted, the local police were already aware of the situation. How many other “hunting” dogs, bred for this deadly pastime, live in unworthy conditions, exposed to dangerous objects, without food or water, with no one to look after them, taken out only for the hunting parties of those who then store them like equipment?

After years of investigation and legal proceedings, we managed to save almost 90 of them in February 2020 and March 2024.

We’re not backing down for the two dogs in the Ain region either. We have filed a complaint for mistreatment and asked that they be seized and entrusted to us. Join us in calling for an end to hunters’ preferential treatment, and for the animals they keep to finally enjoy the same protection as other dogs: sign our petition.

The disgusting “goose neck” game must not resume: One Voice is once again calling for it to be banned!

The disgusting “goose neck” game must not resume: One Voice is once again calling for it to be banned! 09.09.2024
Puy-de-Dôme
The disgusting “goose neck” game must not resume: One Voice is once again calling for it to be banned!

Horrific, scandalous, contrary to elementary standards of hygiene, the Saint-Bonnet-près-Riom patron saint’s festival is sticking to its guns. After our investigation in September 2023, which revealed young people beating and decapitating lifeless animals and being applauded for their “acts of bravery” and praised by their elders for their lack of empathy, we protest against the cowardice of the town hall and the insistence of the town’s events committee on maintaining this sickening tradition as it is. And we reiterate our demand that geese, rabbits and hens should no longer be killed and their corpses martyred on the pretext of entertainment.

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The remains of geese, hens and rabbits hung by their legs to be successively kissed, beaten and then decapitated by 18-year-old men and women: taken in Saint-Bonnet-près-Riom on September 17, 2023, the images from our investigation have – quite rightly – offended many people and prompted two regional councilors to react.

Faced with the obstinacy of certain residents and the town’s mayor, who fiercely refuse to give up an interminable barbaric tradition they believe should be maintained, we have taken the matter to the Clermont-Ferrand court.

For the animals, fight until this “game” disappears

Once again this year, we won’t give in. We have nothing against festivities. But does a convivial event, such as the patron saint’s festival which will be held again from September 20 to 23, justify putting animals to death and mutilating their bodies? Does our society need to bring more young people into adulthood by inculcating violence in them and cultivating in them, as a virtue, a lack of empathy?

We demand that the festivities take place without any animals falling victim to the “goose neck” game, and we call for a ban on this practice throughout France, as we have also done in Beaux and Arfeuilles.

For the geese, rabbits and hens involved, sign our petition, and let the Puy-de-Dôme prefecture know of your concern for these youngsters and the future of our society if this unhealthy “game” continues.

“Don’t give a shit about getting caught”: wolf poisoned in the Drôme region, hearing on September 10 in Valence

“Don’t give a shit about getting caught”: wolf poisoned in the Drôme region, hearing on September 10 in Valence
09.09.2024
“Don’t give a shit about getting caught”: wolf poisoned in the Drôme region, hearing on September 10 in Valence

In March 2022, in the Drôme region, a wolf was deliberately poisoned, baited with the remains of a lamb full of pesticides. His corpse was then moved and buried to better conceal it. Ironically, the culprits include… a member of the local Wolf/Lynx network run by the prefecture and the French Biodiversity Agency! The investigations revealed the existence of a particularly organized family and friends network, with the stated ambition of killing wolves by poisoning. We have of course filed a civil case and will be present at the trial to obtain justice for this wolf.

The five defendants, who were initially due to appear before the Valence judicial court on December 12, 2023 for “unlawful destruction and transport of protected species” and “inappropriate use of phytopharmaceutical products”, will finally be tried tomorrow, September 10, 2024, almost two and a half years after the events. We expect the judges to severely punish the perpetrators, who used despicable and perfectly illegal means to kill the animals who bothered them.

“I’m going to clean that son of a bitch” (sic)

At the time, a meticulous collaboration was organized in Crupies, Drôme, to kill wolves. The defendants’ confessions and wiretaps leave no doubt as to their intentions. First, there was the man who knowingly infiltrated the Wolf/Lynx network in order to obtain information “to find the dens and kill the cubs in the spring”. He even admits to having stationed himself at night, on several occasions, with his rifle fitted with a silencer and thermal sight, completely illegally, to – speaking of wolves – “fuck the bastard” (sic). He adds in colorful language: “I’m going to clean that son of a bitch” (sic) or “I’m going to clean the mountain” (sic), not giving “a shit about getting caught” (sic). These attempts to kill the wolves only failed because the wolves didn’t show up where the trap was waiting for them.

Pesticides banned since 2008

There’s the man who supplied the poison, knowing full well how it would be used; those who organized themselves to prepare the bait, and those who transported and buried the poisoned wolf’s body in order to conceal the evidence.

All communicating in “coded messages”, lest their telephone conversations be intercepted. Their exchanges made it clear that they intended to continue poaching if they hadn’t been arrested…

Depending on the facts of the case, the accused who are the most blamed could face up to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros for “destruction of a protected species”. As some of them hold hunting licenses, we are also asking for these to be withdrawn. On September 10 at 3:30 p.m., in the Valence judicial court, we will be speaking out on behalf of this poisoned wolf, who died after a painful agony, as evidenced by the traces of “pedaling” found near his body, a sign that he suffered long spasms and convulsions before dying.

Sign to stop the persecution of wolves in France Sign to stop the persecution of wolves in France Sign to stop the persecution of wolves in France Sign to stop the persecution of wolves in France Sign to stop the persecution of wolves in France Sign to stop the persecution of wolves in France Sign to stop the persecution of wolves in France Sign to stop the persecution of wolves in France Sign to stop the persecution of wolves in France Sign to stop the persecution of wolves in France

Five associations help avoid wolf hunts planned for late August in the Aveyron region

Five associations help avoid wolf hunts planned for late August in the Aveyron region
03.09.2024
Five associations help avoid wolf hunts planned for late August in the Aveyron region
Wildlife

This Saturday, August 31, 2024, the Aveyron prefecture was preparing to organize several wolf hunts in two of the department’s villages, all in collaboration with the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB), lieutenants of louveterie and pests and local hunting associations. The aim was to kill one or more wolves in the villages of L’Hospitalet-du-Larzac and Sainte-Eulalie-de-Cernon.

Given that the Aveyron region has no wolf pack on its territory, and that two dispersing wolves have already been killed between October 2023 and July 2024, these shootings demonstrate a genuine desire to eradicate wolves from the region. In the spring, the prefect even published – and then repealed thanks to the efforts of animal rights activists – an order authorizing the slaughter of stray dogs in the same villages.

Once again, the State is knowingly multiplying its attacks on the natural return of wolves outside the Alpine arc, through deliberate regulation, weakening their population and preventing the re-establishment of a favorable conservation status. Despite the fact that these two villages are considered to be “difficult to protect” (a notion increasingly used by State departments to justify the systematic and spontaneous use of shooting, to the detriment of non-lethal means of scare tactics), no attacks have been recorded for several weeks, which raises the question of the reason for this derogatory slaughter authorization.

In response to this information, a letter co-signed by several wildlife protection NGOs, including One Voice, ASPAS, FERUS, Pôle Grands Prédateurs and Focale pour le Sauvage, was sent to the Aveyron Direction départementale des territoires (DDT), helping to abort the hunting project.

We, the environmental protection associations, fear that this policy of regulating the lupine population will worsen in the future. We are sounding the alarm at the escalation of the situation, which seems to be tending towards indisputable wolf hunting on national territory and possibly throughout the European Union.

Wounded wolf in the Saône-et-Loire region: no to his slaughter

Wounded wolf in the Saône-et-Loire region: no to his slaughter
03.09.2024
Wounded wolf in the Saône-et-Loire region: no to his slaughter
Wildlife

Morey, Saône-et-Loire, on the night of December 4, 2023: the department’s only remaining wolf has been wounded by a shot in his thigh after days of relentless pursuit. Since then, he has survived as best he could, on three legs. Unable as he is to jump, it would be enough to install fences, electrified nets or dogs to protect the herds. However, the farmers refuse to accept this solution, preferring to whine in the media, with the support of the prefecture, which has summoned the “wolf brigade” to shoot the wounded wolf. We ask that he not be killed and that he be entrusted to us for safekeeping in our sanctuary in Italy, where several rescued wolves already live.

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Prefecture encourages slaughter

Back in the department since 2019, the wolves were all shot one after the other in 2020, 2021 and 2023. The last surviving wolf was shot last December. He has since survived with a bullet in his posterior, which prevents him from moving properly, greatly limiting his movements and ability to feed. But today, his days are numbered. The “wolf brigade” has been on the spot with great fanfare since the beginning of August to kill an already crippled animal.

Farmers oppose protection

Crippled, this lame wolf is looking for an easy way to feed and survive: livestock left unattended. For their part, farmers make no secret of the fact: they want the wolf dead. Protect their herd? That’s out of the question. For Emilie Magnin, a breeder at the bergerie de la Saugerie in Villeneuve-en-Montagne, protecting her ewes is too unpleasant: “To request a simple defense shot, the animals have to be protected, either in protective nets, where there’s little room to move, or by an electrified fence. The latter is a restrictive solution, as maintenance requires a lot of work. It delays our breeding activity. Asking for simple defense shooting is just one constraint after another, to fit into boxes”. Even though farmers receive subsidies to protect their animals.

The solution? Leave the sheep unguarded and unprotected, cry to the press when it’s too late, and demand that wolves be exterminated in the department.

We urge the authorities in Saône-et-Loire to put an end to this stalking and impose protection for the flocks. We are ready to take this wolf into our care and transfer him to our sanctuary in Italy, where he can live in complete safety, along with other survivors.

Investigation: pigs under the scalpel at the CICE in Clermont-Ferrand

Investigation: pigs under the scalpel at the CICE in Clermont-Ferrand
29.08.2024
Investigation: pigs under the scalpel at the CICE in Clermont-Ferrand
Animal testing

Revelations by One Voice and Camp Beagle Gannat about the origin, transport and use of piglets raised in battery cages by the Clermont-Ferrand International Center for Endoscopic Surgery, adjacent to the hospital. One Voice is taking legal action.

The International Center for Endoscopic Surgery (CICE) in Clermont-Ferrand is world-renowned for its training courses for doctors. What is less well known are the experiments carried out on very young pigs there, when it is possible to do things differently.

Camp Beagle Gannat alerted us to the fate of these animals, and together we investigated further. After a year’s investigation, images from whistle-blowers and our own investigators expose the “production chain”, the brutal and substandard transport, and the total lack of consideration shown to the little pigs by the trainers and staff at CICE. All these atrocities for a training program that should employ the latest techniques, as laid down in animal experimentation legislation.

We are filing a complaint against Guy Farm, calling for it to be closed down, and initiating proceedings against the CICE to replace animal experimentation with other methods.

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For more than fifteen years, the CICE has been sourcing its “guinea pigs” from Guy Farm, located some thirty kilometers away, a squalid battery farm where mistreatment and irregularities are the norm.

A very “natural” farm

Guy Farm portrays a bucolic image: rental space for camping close to nature, photos of young cows outdoors, GMO-free family breeding…

Behind the walls, however, sows are parked in cages where they cannot move. Impossible for them to take the slightest step, if only to avoid crushing their young.

Factory farming is legal. What is less so is the astronomical neonatal mortality rate, the practice of veterinary medicine by the farmer himself, and the acts of violence perpetrated on both adult and newborn animals.

When sows worn out by repeated farrowings are injured, they are not treated properly. For example, after one sow has prolapsed, the farmer grabs her organs with his hands, shoves them inside her body and sews up her genitals. These acts are totally illegal and reserved for veterinarians. The added bonus of this “natural farm” is undoubtedly the “homemade” aspect.

In the days following the births, the corpses pile up. There are piglets born already dead, barely formed. Those crushed under their mother, trapped between metal bars and unable to avoid them. Those deemed too puny who end up with their skulls smashed against a fence, a wall or the ground, convulsing for a long time before dying.

Battery farming is a lucrative industry, and the farmer won’t be the one denying it.

I produced 5,000 pigs a year. In the years when I did the most pigs, I made more money. Those were perhaps the years when I lost the most money by the way. 5,000 pigs, you lost 10 euros per pig, you lost…”, ‘Right now 5,000 pigs, would that be worth it? 5,000 pigs’, ”oh yeah, right now, you’re making 250,000 euros. You earn 250,000 euros in a year, I work 4 years, you say ‘I quit’”. generics.video.play

Those who survive are quickly separated from their mother, crammed together in the dark to be fattened up and sent to the slaughterhouse… or to the CICE.

A means of transport as disrespectful of animals as it is of regulations

When it’s time for transport to the center, the little pigs are grabbed by their hind legs or ears and thrown into skips inside the CICE employee’s truck. Once in the parking lot, those who try to escape are quickly caught…

At the CICE, mutilation and death await them… before the garbage can

Once inside the building, they are anesthetized to serve as living tools for students and doctors, and undergo hysterectomies, nephrectomies, sutures… They won’t wake up. At the end of the day, piglets just a few weeks old end up the same way they arrived: in a skip.

Alternative methods do exist

Today, experimentation on animals for teaching purposes is no longer necessary. Other techniques exist: pelvi-trainers, cell cultures, tissue cultures, organoids on a chip, stem cell cultures, audio-visual aids, apprenticeships and observation with teaching doctors throughout the curriculum… It is no longer acceptable to breed and kill animals for “training”.

Doctor Jérôme Soubielle, who has already spoken publicly on the subject of medical training, confirms:

“There are other supports [that exist] for the certification of this training: the pelvi-trainer and the suture device. […] It’s completely appalling to see this nowadays. I’m not talking about a few years ago, but these days there’s no point. You can train theoretically on audio-video aids, you can train with people who know how to do it on real patients, you can go to the operating theatre, you can go to anatomy laboratories to study anatomy on cadavers. Operating on a pig doesn’t make you a surgeon… Doing a nerve block on a pig doesn’t make you an anesthetist. It’s really something that’s aberrant.”

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Animal experimentation regulations are clear: if alternative methods exist, they must be used instead of animal models.

“Performing surgery […] on a pig doesn’t guarantee the validity of the training, and it’s useless.”

Dr Jérôme Soubielle, anesthesiologist.

In the face of this institutionalized mistreatment, we have filed a complaint against the breeder and are taking legal action against the CICE.

Join our fight against animal experimentation. Write to the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MESR) to ask it to fund alternative methods, as our European neighbors are doing. Sign our petitions for an end to the use of animals by the CICE and the closure of Guy Farm.

To find out more about pigs and who they are, see our sentience fact sheet.

And for an overview of experiments on pigs recently validated by the MESR, read our article.

The Ariège prefecture persists: new decree to scare away bears on the Trapech summer pasture. Petition for protection of fundamental liberties filed

The Ariège prefecture persists: new decree to scare away bears on the Trapech summer pasture. Petition for protection of fundamental liberties filed
26.08.2024
The Ariège prefecture persists: new decree to scare away bears on the Trapech summer pasture. Petition for protection of fundamental liberties filed
Wildlife

The Ariège prefecture has issued a new decree authorizing scare shots on Trapech summer pasture. This time, the operations are to take place during the nights of August 27-29, with agents from the French Office for Biodiversity equipped with 12-gauge shotguns loaded with double-detonation cartridges. These measures have raised serious concerns about their impact on this protected and vulnerable species. As is often the case, the decree was unveiled at the last minute, limiting the scope for appeal. However, we reacted quickly and filed a petition for protection of fundamental liberties, for which a decision is expected within 48 hours. The hearing is scheduled for Tuesday August 27 at 2:00 pm at the Toulouse Administrative Court.

A new hard blow for bears in Ariège

Just a few days apart, the Ariège prefecture has published a second decree authorizing the scaring of bears on the same summer pasture : Trapech. We immediately challenged the first decree, published at the beginning of August. Even though the court rejected our arguments, we are not letting our guard down and are continuing the fight. As no details or tangible proof of supposed damage caused by the bears have again been provided, we have decided to attack!

These shooting operations take place in the middle of the breeding season and are therefore particularly dangerous for female bears and their offspring. The stress they cause can have disastrous consequences for their health and behavior. In the end, the French government decided to reintroduce bears into its mountains in order to tyrannize them, taking them away from their families and forests thousands of kilometers away.

The State must stop harassing bears

The measures taken by the authorities show a real relentlessness. These animals, which are supposed to be protected, are already facing multiple poaching threats: poisoning, trapping, shooting… Now they are also regularly subjected to scare shots.

The hearing against this new decree will be held tomorrow August 27 at 2:00 pm at the Toulouse Administrative Court. So that the bears can finally live in peace, join us in calling for an end to scare tactics: sign our petition.

Tens of thousands of animals are still used to train students and professionals.

Tens of thousands of animals are still used to train students and professionals. 26.08.2024
Tens of thousands of animals are still used to train students and professionals. Animal testing

Every year, the authorities allow thousands of animals to be experimented on by staff members for training purposes. Training “tools” for students and professionals, dogs, monkeys, pigs, mice, rats and fish are subjected to numerous painful procedures. Join us in demanding a halt to these projects – write to the Ministry !

In 2021, 34,460 animals were used in these learning projects. The aims are manifold: to train doctors and veterinary surgeons in surgery, to train laboratory employees to maintain and acquire technical skills, or “to raise staff awareness in order to minimize the constraints imposed on animals during experimental procedures”. When looking at the projects involved, this last point comes into question:

“At the end of the procedures, the animals will either be reused if no damage has been observed, or put to death if the limit points have been reached.” These are the words of a project summary dated May 28, under which 1,930 small herbivores will be subjected to restraint, multiple sampling, injections, vaginal smears and anesthesia.

This chillingly bureaucratic sentence masks a revolting reality: animals are regarded as mere teaching aids, and their lives are discarded at the slightest sign of suffering or injury. Clearly, if mistakes are made, no matter what the consequences, they are killed.

It is crucial to note that these practices are not only terrible for the animals; they also have a psychological impact on those who carry them out. The law requires the use of alternative methods whenever possible, so it’s essential to demand not training on living beings, but on the alternatives that exist.

A call to action

We therefore call on laboratories to systematically favor alternative methods, and on professionals to be trained in testing without living beings. We also urge our political representatives to finally vote in favor of much greater funding for research into alternative methods.

If you are a student or professional shocked by these practices, we invite you to contact us (we guarantee you total confidentiality) and/or to call on the Ministry of Higher Education and Research to end animal experimentation and adopt alternative methods: download the standard letter.