News Archive - Page 39 of 133

2500 badgers saved… the fight continues!

2500 badgers saved… the fight continues!
08.06.2023
2500 badgers saved… the fight continues!
Wildlife

Each year in the spring and summer, between 12 and 15,000 badgers are hunted down into their setts by diggers, before having their throats slit or being killed at point-blank range. These are in addition to all of the badgers already slaughtered during the hunting season from September to February. To date, our legal actions have allowed almost 2500 of them to be saved from an atrocious death between May and September this year. Faced with persecution by hunters and State representatives, we are continuing our relentless fight to defend these animals who just want peace.

This year, in almost fifty departments, prefects have authorised an additional period of underground hunting with hounds. But this was without counting our action, which has allowed thousands of them to be saved.

This ‘hobby’ is practiced as follows: hunters block up the exits, sending their dogs into the setts for hours to corner the badger cubs and their parents at the bottom, then they dig. The hunt lasts hours, the dogs here are considered as tools, exploited at will, sent down into the earth again and again, and sometimes seriously injured. By the end, trenches leave the forest ripped open, tunnels end up entirely destroyed, badgers (or any living animal that is potentially in the sett, possibly belonging to protected species which are illegal to hunt) are then dragged out and slaughtered.

All of this for the hobby of a handful of individuals who only have this to do outside of the so-called ‘hunting season’ being open and when digging the earth is much harder when the earth is icy.

Badgers: victims of unbearable persecution

With one or two young per year per couple and a long time before the young are self-sufficient, the species reproduces very slowly. This does not stop hunters from decimating entire families and destroying their habitat, only leaving rubbish strewn behind them on the ground, trees with severed roots, and also, the majority of the time, bodies abandoned on the premises. All of this, trying to put on an air of good standing by wrapping themselves in so-called principles such as ‘hunting ethics’… Where are they when they methodically organise these “blind hunts” (as an urgent applications judge rightly described them) to kill the young?

Prefects, via farmers and with the support of hunters, talk about crop damage but do not provide any data. They are fantasists, even. So, in Haute-Vienne, the Prefecture has accused these animals weighing barely ten kilos that are partial to berries of attacking… cows!

These excuses are worthless. It is time to put a stop to underground hunting with hounds as we have called for, as well as to permanent exemptions. Eight in ten French people are in favour of banning this cruel practice, a stable rate since 2018.

Almost 2500 badgers spared thanks to our proceedings

We have obtained a suspension on digging out from May in nine departments before seven administrative tribunals. Thanks to our action, this is almost 2500 lives that have been saved. Only the Lyon Administrative Tribunal, for the Rhône Department, thought that the number of individuals concerned did not warrant an urgent decision. Despite these suspensions, prefectures do not hesitate in passing a new decree just after the suspension that we obtained, like in Allier for example. Naturally, we will attack this new decree with our partners.

Beyond the emergency interim proceedings, we also just obtained two cancellations of older decrees, with the Orléans Administrative Tribunal having cancelled the decrees of 2021 in Indre-et-Loire and Loir-et-Cher.

In the weeks to come, two hearings have been set: in Ille-et-Vilaine on 8 June at 11am at the Rennes Administrative Tribunal, and in Meuse on 13 June at 10am at the Nancy Administrative Tribunal.

A few days ago, we filed an international complaint with our partners. Along with us, more than ever, you too can call for a ban on underground hunting with hounds and for badgers to be protected!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Animal testing: One Voice is against electric fishing to take a census of fish

Animal testing: One Voice is against electric fishing to take a census of fish
06.06.2023
Animal testing: One Voice is against electric fishing to take a census of fish
Animal testing

Since April, several prefectures have taken out decrees that authorise catching fish for animal testing purposes. Individuals from all species and of all sizes, with no limit on number, are therefore going to be victims of electric fishing, a method known to be very harmful. One Voice is asking for this operating procedure and the decrees allowing it to be cancelled.

In the Lozère, Corrèze, Loire, and Rhône Departments, they are preparing to snatch fish from their waters and their natural habitats to take a census of them. While the majority of them should then be released alive, all of them will suffer from this experience long after it is over. The fault lies with the electric current which will be used to attract them and stun them on the spot in order to collect them more easily. Electric fishing, despite being widely used, is very dangerous, just as much for the animals as it is for their ecosystems. In 2022, the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) reminded us that this method can “cause damage to fish”, such as injuries to the spine, physiological and behavioural changes… To the point where the weakest might die instantly, while others may succumb to their injuries after having been released.

The risk of anomalies…

It is already unbearable to make fish suffer to obtain data on their populations. But it would seem that in addition to organising such projects, the decrees issued entrust them to anyone, anyhow. Independent firms have notably received authorisation to act at dam level in Corrèze and at a water course in Rhône, while the OFB reports having noted ‘significant anomalies’ among subcontractors who do not regulate all of the apparatus in the same way and also risk causing additional injuries to the fish.

…and happy fishers

We are not even talking about the authorisations that have been given to associations dedicated to fishing, such as the Maison de l’eau et de la pêche [House of freshwater and fishing] and the Departmental Federation of Fishing in Corrèze. How can we hope that associations whose main interest is practising fishing would undertake serious and impartial inventory work? In terms of captures for which the aims are very vaguely described and which are not subject to any limit on the number of fish, participation from fishing associations can only be a concern to us.

One Voice is asking prefectures to renounce the passing of these decrees that are harmful for fish and, at the very least, to return to methods that cause less pain to the animals captured.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

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 Jessica Lefèvre-Grave Director of External Public Relations and Investigations for One Voice

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

Once again, we are rushing to the aid of the Bargy ibex

Once again, we are rushing to the aid of the Bargy ibex
05.06.2023
Once again, we are rushing to the aid of the Bargy ibex
Wildlife

On 17 March 2022, the Haute-Savoie Prefect passed a decree in which article 4 permits 20 ibex to be slaughtered each year without any preliminary tests. Along with its partners, One Voice is asking for an urgent suspension of this measure that condemns protected animals and puts their population in danger. We will defend them during an emergency interim hearing on 6 June at 11am before the Grenoble Administrative Tribunal.

Alongside Animal Cross, the French Association for the Protection of Wild Animals, AVES France, France Nature Environnement Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France Nature Environnement Haute-Savoie, the French League for the Protection of Birds [LPO], One Voice is coming to the aid of the Bargy ibex.

Once again, the Haute-Savoie Prefecture has called for the indiscriminate slaughter of 20 of them. Its excuse is always the same: to protect humans from brucellosis, a disease that can be carried by agile animals. Evidently, it matters very little to them that blind shooting, without preliminary tests, is ineffective. We must remind ourselves that out of the 61 individuals slaughtered in 2022, only three of them were carriers… It also matters little to them that their obsession leads to a concerning reduction in the number of ibex in the area, even though they are protected by the Bern Convention.

A long-standing persecution

This policy is not new. Reintroduced into the Alps in the 1970s after having almost disappeared, the Bargy ibex have not stopped being victims of regular slaughtering since 2013, primarily to benefit cheese production in the region. Lives sacrificed in the name of commercial interests… Despite it being possible to capture and test them, the Haute-Savoie Prefecture regularly authorises indiscriminate shots on them. Confronted with the indiscriminate violence of these decisions, we are still fighting to protect these Alpine animals, as we were in 2018 and 2019. Last February, the legal system proved us right, declaring a decree published four years earlier as illegal.

On Tuesday 6 June at 11am, we are hoping that the Grenoble Administrative Tribunal will return a decision in favour of the Bargy ibex. We will continue to rally for them!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Vienne… Badgers spared by the courts

Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Vienne… Badgers spared by the courts
31.05.2023
Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Vienne… Badgers spared by the courts
Wildlife

Now 9! Victories are coming one after the other for badgers: referred to by One Voice, the Clermont-Ferrand Administrative Tribunal has just urgently suspended the additional period for underground badger hunting with hounds in these departments. The Poitiers Administrative Tribunal has done the same in Vienne.

Decision after decision, the legal system is confirming that the decrees authorising badger digging in the spring must be suspended. In these three departments, badger cubs and their families will therefore have their lives saved in the weeks and months to come.

In Allier and Puy-de-Dôme, where One Voice were fighting along with FNE Allier and FNE Puy-de-Dôme, the prefectural decrees had authorised digging out from 15 May to 30 June. Even though departmental federations of hunters intervene with support for the prefecture to defend this ‘hobby’ that, each year, leads to thousands of badgers dying in unbearable suffering, the urgent applications judge swept away their arguments. Not only that the decrees had been passed following improper procedures, but the rulings confirm that this type of hunting puts the badger cubs present in the setts in the spring and summer in danger.

In Poitiers, referred to by One Voice, the LPO, and Vienne Nature, the tribunal followed the same reasoning and suspended digging out from 1 June to 30 June in the Vienne Department. In particular, they took into consideration, as we asked them to, that the badger cubs would be seen as ‘young’ as long as they had not reached sexual maturity, so at around one year old.

In the weeks to come, we will continue to lead the fight against the persecution that badgers are victims of. We will renew our appeal in these three departments to obtain a suspension on digging out until September.

Throughout France, other tribunals will be asked to decide in the coming weeks:

on 5 June at 2pm, we will be in Orléans to defend the Eure-et-Loir and Loiret badgers;
on 6 June, we will take action at 11am at the Châlons-en-Champagne Administrative Tribunal to obtain a suspension of the Aube Prefect’s decree, and at 2pm at the one in Bordeaux against the Lot-et-Garonne Prefect’s decree;
on 8 June at 11am, we will be at the Rennes Administrative Tribunal to put a stop to badger digging in Ille-et-Villaine this summer;
and on 13 June at 10am, at the Nancy Administrative Tribunal regarding Meuse.

The Nantes Administrative Tribunal’s decision (hearing on 26 May for a prefectural decree regarding Vendée) is set for around 5 June, and the one for the Lyon Administrative Tribunal (hearing on 31 May regarding Rhône) at the end of the week or the start of the following week.

While One Voice and other associations have recently filed a complaint before the Bern Committee to denounce the treatment given to badgers in France, it is now time more than ever to insist on a pure and simple abolition of underground hunting with hounds!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Animal testing lobby Gircor does not like our report on primates

Animal testing lobby Gircor does not like our report on primates
26.05.2023
Animal testing lobby Gircor does not like our report on primates
Animal testing

On Monday 22 May 2023, One Voice protested outside the University of Strasbourg, where the Silabe primatology centre responsible for a large part of primate trade for animal testing in Europe is based, and presented our recent report on the subject to the public. The next day, Gircor, communication and lobbying body for the animal testing industry, attempted a very flimsy “fact-check” that distorted our words and tried to both discredit us and scare the public.

“Selected excerpts!”: this summarises the perspective on One Voice’s report of those who champion animal testing. Why talk about capturing, cages measuring two square metres in which the macaques spend their lives in laboratories, the disastrous position of France in Europe, or the fundamental problems linked with ‘ethical committees’? They are not even capable of naming One Voice. We should not advertise ourselves…

Forgotten strategies and misrepresentation

Our claims range from an obligation for transparency to helping countries who have met difficulties in cohabiting with macaques. We are also requesting, among other things, a reform on the norms for keeping primates and obligatory research into non-animal methods by laboratories. But amongst all of this, the animal testing lobby only mentions that which scares them the most: the request for a timeline for a complete exit from animal testing.

According to them, our report will encourage “dangerous theories, such as resorting to in humano methods as an alternative to animals”. In reality, the report states that it would be interesting, in addition to alternative routes, to develop clinical research “with the clear consent of supported human subjects… respecting an already well-framed bioethical consideration”. So not much to see. But fear is always a good motivation to justify the suffering that we inflict on others.

Even science is not their forte

In fact, even science does not seem to be these propagandists’ strong point: for them, “the development of ‘humans on a chip’ is more science fiction than science these days”. This is clearly not what the United States National Institute thinks since it has financed the Hesperos business since 2015, which has been proposing various versions of these ‘humans on a chip’ for years, which consist of connecting cell cultures using ‘microfluidic’ systems that reproduce the functions of the different organs in a human body.

But then, our adversaries ask, “should we not consider these ‘humans on a chip’ as sentient beings and therefore ask to ban all research on them?” — No. Incidentally, the French National Academy of Medicine [Académie nationale de médecine] has recently recalled that brain organoids are not mini-brains capable of thinking, but a variety of models that allow us to study different aspects of the brain. Perhaps by dint of advocating for animal testing, those responsible for propaganda in favour of animal testing have lost all capacity for imagination and for epistemological thinking. Or perhaps it is simply a matter of bad faith.

Who can still trust them?

As a matter of fact, the origins of Gircor as an “Interprofessional Group for Thinking and Communication on Research” does not quite fit with the impartial image that they want to give themselves nowadays. Its initial goal, much clearer than the public image it now displays, was to defend and promote “the interests of its members” – meaning laboratories and institutions that use animals.

We therefore understand why it strives to discourage the necessary and inevitable end of primates being used by these laboratories, and avoids spreading our claims, which no one could rationally find abusive.

You can help us

To help us to work towards an end to animal testing, you can sign our petition to demand that we stop using long-tailed macaques in France and Europe as well as the closure of the Silabe Centre at the University of Strasbourg.

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

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

A hearing against scaring brown bears in the Pyrenees at the State Council on 24 May

A hearing against scaring brown bears in the Pyrenees at the State Council on 24 May
23.05.2023
A hearing against scaring brown bears in the Pyrenees at the State Council on 24 May
Wildlife

To protect brown bears in the Pyrenees, we will be at the emergency suspension hearing at the State Council on 24 May at 10:30am. We are asking for the urgent suspension of the 4 May 2023 Ministerial decree that allows prefects to authorise scaring shots aimed at animals in their departments.

Photo: Collectif Hope

There are scarcely 70 individuals living in the Pyrenees. Despite being classified as critically in danger of extinction by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and protected on an international, European, and national level, brown bears are harassed relentlessly in France, at the risk of causing miscarriages for the female bears who are already having so much trouble surviving and getting their young to survive.

Each year, they are subjected to scaring shots authorised by prefectures with the blessing of the Ministries for the Ecological Transition and of Agriculture. To move them away from herds and achieve social peace among farmers, authorities allow bears to be victims of sound-effect shots, causing them stress and the possible separation of the female bears from their young. All of this even though the French National Council for the Protection of Nature [Conseil national de la protection de la nature (CNPN)] has estimated that these violent measures against these animals are much less effective than ensuring effective and proportionate protection of herds…

Measures that we are attacking at the source

In 2022, we were successful in getting all of the prefectural decrees allowing the harassment of brown bears in Ariège cancelled. After this sizeable victory, we are rallying to get the Ministerial decree of 4 May 2023 aiming to allow the scaring of these individuals in the Pyrenees suspended and then cancelled. Because without this Ministerial decree, no prefect would be able to authorise these shots on a local level.

With the decree that we are attacking, the government has confirmed its desire to use drastic measures against bears, even though the viability of their population is not guaranteed, and it is this Ministry that insists on capturing female bears in Eastern Europe to transport them to France! From our side, we are reaffirming our opposition to this cynical policy that pretends to want to revive the population of these threatened animals in our country, to then pursue them with dispersal grenades for up to eight months of the year.

To stop the government from allowing prefectures to authorise bear scaring in our mountain ranges, we will face the Ministry at the State Council on Wednesday 24 May at 10:30am.

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!

Tuberculosis epidemic among monkeys in Mauritius: One Voice and its partners are calling for a ban on this international trade!
22.05.2023
Tuberculosis epidemic among monkeys in Mauritius: One Voice and its partners are calling for a ban on this international trade!
Animal testing

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.

The tuberculosis (TB) epidemic that is striking currently in a monkey breeding farm in Mauritius is the latest fire started by the global research industry and poisoning tests (sorry: ‘toxicity’ tests). This is added to the numerous other previous ones relating to the capturing and exportation of monkeys destined for laboratories. Any monkey testing positive for tuberculosis in this industrial monkey farm is a sign that there are probably many more, some of which have already been sent to clients, such as the Charles River laboratories in the United States or others in France, Spain, or even the United Kingdom; in other words, all countries that regularly import long-tailed macaques from Mauritius. We, animals rights activists, have been sounding the alarm for years: not only is confining hundreds of monkeys in these overpopulated conditions and contrary to their natural living conditions inhumane, but this inevitably spreads diseases (and thus disrupts research too).

Tuberculosis is a highly contagious disease that can be transmitted between monkeys and humans. Worse, tests are not completely reliable, complicated by false negatives. Due to the severity of the disease and lack of an effective treatment, it is likely that other monkeys, in good health, and those who are kept in the same establishment will be killed along with those whose screening test for tuberculosis is positive. If monkeys are moved between facilities, this would aggravate the problem. We are asking the Mauritian government to stop exporting macaques and our respective governmental agencies to immediately ban the importation of monkeys from Mauritius.

In the last six months alone:

hundreds of monkeys have been seized by Mauritian authorities after having been captured illegally;
several American primate importers have been the subject of a Federal American investigation into the origins of imported monkeys,
long-tailed macaques have been declared to be in danger of extinction,
and Cambodian responsible parties and nationals have been accused of suspected monkey trafficking.

There is only one solution for this situation: in the interest of public safety and compassion towards monkeys, the international trade of primates for laboratories must stop.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

One Voice comes to the rescue for the Doubs birds

One Voice comes to the rescue for the Doubs birds
21.05.2023
One Voice comes to the rescue for the Doubs birds
Wildlife

One Voice is filing a complaint to maintain peace for protected birds in Doubs.

In Doubs, many activities that are toxic for biodiversity have been carried out in recent years on sites protected by a prefetural decree, putting birds belonging to species that are themselves protected in danger. One Voice is filing a complaint.

On 16 March, a helicopter flew over the cliffs of Mount Souvance in Doubs, under the scope of working on a railway below. These round trips bringing crates from the railway to a depot came with the helicopter hovering in front of the cliffs, where peregrine falcons and common ravens in particular nest.

For several hours, these vulnerable animals that desperately need calm in the middle of their nesting period were subjected to the deafening racket of the motor and the gusts of air from the propellers. How can they reproduce and bring up their young successfully in such conditions? And that is without counting the other birds potentially affected, such as European robins, common blackbirds, great tits…

Birds threatened relentlessly

From 15 February to 15 June, it is expressly forbidden by prefectural decree to hover over this protected environment that represents a complete sanctuary for the animals who live there. And the reason that a wildlife association wanted to alert us to this situation is because this is not the first time that these destructive practices have threatened the environment and endangered birds in Doubs. In March 2022, tree, bush, and shrub pruning and cutting had already happened without authorisation.

Although necessary for safety, the operations carried out around the railways should not be done to the detriment of animals. And certainly not in the middle of the reproduction and nesting period, which their survival depends on. Especially as the birds, tested greatly by the massive use of pesticides in the countryside and by climate change, are already hugely threatened. Are we going to lead all species to a point of no return and continue to harass individuals even when they are endangered?

This case is reminiscent of the repeated slaughtering of ibex, themselves protected, in Bargy that we were successful in having recognised as illegal for some of them. Or even the trapping and massacre of field larks, classified on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. And it proves to us, if there is still a need to, that no animal, however threatened or protected they may be, is safe in France.

One Voice is filing a complaint for these birds and their environment to finally be taken into account and to stop being put in danger. In Doubs, as throughout France, we will keep rallying for birds.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice