News Archive - Page 40 of 146

Once again, a tribunal has noted that hunting Galliformes is illegal

Once again, a tribunal has noted that hunting Galliformes is illegal
25.12.2023
Ariège
Once again, a tribunal has noted that hunting Galliformes is illegal
Wildlife

It was about time! The ruling was expected in this old case file that we have been opposing at the Ariège Prefecture since 2020. Every year, for three years, we have attacked the decisions that turn capercaillies, rock ptarmigans, and grey partridges in the Pyrenees into living targets in this department (and in many others). The Toulouse Administrative Tribunal ruled on December 19: the prefectural decree was illegal, as were the massacres of mountain birds who this ruling will unfortunately not bring back to life.

Galliformes killed illegally in Ariège

In our plea, we reported a large number of irregularities. Firstly because, as is often the case, the State has not taken the trouble to objectively show the public the impacts of these hunts on an already heavily threatened species – global warming, mountain development, tourism, logging, etc. But also because the use of guns is never acceptable, especially when the animals concerned are in a vulnerable situation. The Toulouse judges confirmed this.

This case file is the starting point for our fight for mountain Galliformes. A difficult fight due to persecution by a small minority supported by the State, wanting to maintain their morbid “hobby ». But this fight has borne fruit: this year, our actions have allowed more than 1000 birds to be saved who prefects had authorised to be killed. From the Hautes-Alpes to the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence via Savoie and Isère, all of these lives saved belong to so many individuals who will be able to peacefully enjoy the snow-capped peaks.

For a ban, pure and simple, on hunting Galliformes!

For all of these species, we are dangerously approaching the point of no return, such as with capercaillies. At the time, hunters swore with their hands on their hearts that there was nothing to worry about, that as “France’s first ecologists”, we had to trust them to protect these birds… During this time, they continued to go back and forth in the mountain ranges looking for their targets. Nowadays, capercaillies have almost disappeared, to the point where the State Council had banned hunting them for five years. But, ready for anything when it comes to killing animals, hunters have chosen to attack this decision. Not giving in to their deceptive arguments, the State Council has fortunately rejected their request.

This tactic is what they are currently using for all other Galliformes. If we do not act, France will follow and the last survivors will become a relic of a distant past when harmful human activities had not yet decimated entire populations.

Let’s refuse these massacres together! Sign our petition to demand a radical reform on hunting.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Killing in pounds: the SACPA group tries to divert attention

Killing in pounds: the SACPA group tries to divert attention
18.12.2023
France
Killing in pounds: the SACPA group tries to divert attention
Domestic animals

Following our investigation denouncing the policy for managing stray animals in France, the SACPA group has decided to refer to itself by publishing a press release in response to what it interprets our intentions to be – we are also touched to note that its Facebook and Instagram pages were created especially for the occasion – while at no point did we ever point the finger in their direction. On the contrary, we were even careful to point out that what was happening in the organisation that our images came from was compliant with legislation.

The aim of this investigation is to raise awareness among the entire population, both in the public arena and among our leaders. They need to understand that the situation will not change until real measures are taken: an urgent national plan for neutering cats; a ban on rehoming online by individuals; the strict application of the existing requirement for animal identification; the end of puppy parlours and other events promoting impulsive sales; severe criminal penalties for abandonment and acts of abuse.

“[…] ethical animal pounds” (sic)… Oh really?

Trying to justify killings by highlighting the animals who got out of this prison alive, all while implying that those who were slaughtered were “lucky” to still be alive after the legal deadline of eight days, does not in any way resolve that which we are condemning.

Is it really possible to be happy knowing that Cayenne, the Malinois whose killing we filmed, entered the pound on April 12 2023 and was killed on August 21 2023? Should we revel in knowing that he spent 133 days suffering mental and physical torture, locked within four walls without ever seeing outside, without any human warmth, without even a toy or a blanket, before being killed in cold blood, pressed against a wall, handled with no qualms until being lethally injected in the heart, spending his last moments of life alone and afraid?

Yes, we are relieved to learn that some were lucky enough to have been saved by associations after days of being locked up. But this will not make us forget the deaths; and it should not make us forget what these innocent animals experience when they go into pounds. Not everyone is lucky enough to survive and some end their days in conditions even worse than those we have revealed. On May 22 2024, a hearing will be held at the Perpignan legal tribunal against a manager at the SACPA pound in Perpignan for acts of cruelty. He is suspected of having carried out “savage euthanasias” and of having killed animals himself, which constitutes an illegal use of veterinary medicine, in addition to lack of care and abuse. We will of course be present at the hearing to give animals a voice.

We have also not forgotten the fate of the animals at the Passerelles Vers l’Emploi Pound and at SIVU 47.

Underneath all the smooth talking, thousands of animals suffer

In its press release, SACPA explained that several euthanasias happened following canine distemper. Does this diagnosis justify a living being being executed, without any consideration or dignity, in its own excrement? What does this say about the health measures implemented? With this virus being particularly contagious and dangerous for dogs, were strict isolation and quarantine measures carried out? Were the premises properly disinfected to put an end to the epidemic? We doubt it, given the number of contaminations within the pound itself and when, according to their own statement, the dogs develop the disease in the organisation, this is the reaction: “Regarding the Border Collie cross, female. Accidental arrival from the town of Peyremale. She was the source of the distemper virus […]. She was resistant to treatment. Date of entry 14/07/2023. Date of medical euthanasia: 23/08/2023.” (sic)

Transparency is a facade

We are accused of not having made enquiries, of not having contacted management for a “guided tour” of the premises. However, at the end of August, we sent letters by recorded mail to 35 SACPA organisations in the country asking them for copies of their animal records for 2022. All were left without a reply. However, a call from management informed us of their intention to publish certain data online in 2024. While waiting, we have not obtained the requested documents. Can we believe for a single moment that we would have been let in and shown the true reality by filming this series of slaughters in these conditions?

As long as the law does not change to reduce the number of abandonments and slaughters in pounds, we will continue to condemn what is happening there. Should the private SACPA group not be supporting our fight and aligning with our requests to fight against these tragedies? But why would they? With the “management” of stray animals being their business, they have no interest in seeing abandonments decrease.

Help us to change the fate of thousands of animals each year: sign our petition for the end of killing in pounds.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

One Voice’s investigation into a 5-star pound: the industrial slaughter of cats and dogs

One Voice’s investigation into a 5-star pound: the industrial slaughter of cats and dogs
11.12.2023
France
One Voice’s investigation into a 5-star pound: the industrial slaughter of cats and dogs
Domestic animals

The third part of One Voice’s investigation into pounds in France. After having condemned some peoples’ abuse, we have wanted to understand how those who are regulated work, “good in all respects” in the eyes of local councils who give them the task of “cleaning” public streets of animals that are wondering around or are strays. It was horrific there. This time legally.

Within pounds, they get the very best. Our investigators infiltrated one of the best rated “animal centres” in France to confirm what is referred to as the “management” of cats and dogs that are lost, abandoned, or born on the streets. Following our investigations at SIVU 47 and Passerelles, two establishments that are merrily circumventing regulations, it was important to have an idea of “best practices” within this sector.

Public “service”

The organisation where we led the investigation prides itself on its website as being exemplary and as doing everything possible for the happiness of its “residents”. You had to make yourself very small and film with a hidden camera to get a clear picture.

Around once a week, a packed truck drops off its load: rams, wallabies… you can find all kinds of animals inside. But mainly it is many cats and dogs, rescued from the roadside with no “owner” in sight, who end up there.

Delegated by the local council to ensure a public service remit, this private company is funded, as in most cities in France, by local taxes. Its role: to rid the local territory of stray animals, the responsibility for which lies with the mayor. The law in fact states that the town councillor can, by decree, place them in a “drop-off place suitable for taking them in and keeping them”, with the caretaker bearing the cost in cases where the “owner” does not come forward.

“Suitable drop-off place”

What actually is this? Rows of tiny concrete kennels, dogs abandoned in their own excrement, cats stored in transport crates at the back of dark rooms, an upside down infirmary… This was the spectacle witnessed by our investigators when they entered the “standard” premises where the animals are shut up.

In this world full of anxious barks and plaintive meows, new arrivals are quickly brought up to speed. No staff to reassure them, lavish them with an affectionate gesture, or even just some attention. Only their peers are there to tell them about the less than warm environment.

At least the bowls are full here, of course, but under what conditions? Incomprehension, stress, and cries for help are everywhere. Tearful and terrified looks are behind each wire fence. Only a few still express a little bit of joy when they hear the sound of footsteps. No doubt they still believe in human friendship and in a bright future. Not for long…

Death row

Because their days are numbered. After the eight-day time period, if no one has come to reclaim them, most of them are killed. At an industrial rate, even. We have to make way for the next lot and above all do the maths: it is a very profitable activity.

Our investigators filmed everything: the terror of those condemned, the capturing of dogs with a lasso allowing them to them bite themselves, the administration of lethal doses by a robotic and violent veterinarian. Abandoned by everyone except their traumatised cell neighbours, dozens of perfectly healthy animals die every day on this death row before being eliminated.

Into a skip

During this investigation, our investigators crossed paths with many of them, each more endearing than the last. However, they found them in the form of corpses, killed mercilessly, guilty of not having been loved.

Regularly, the pound employees pile the frozen or still warm bodies into a huge container to send them to the slaughterhouse. The curtain then falls for the final time on these trampled, massacred, and completely invisible lives. A way that is as efficient as it is discreet for the State to erase the tragedy of abandonment, mistreatment, and straying with public money rather than funding a proper policy to fix the problem.

Stop the code of silence!

Rally with us to break the deafening silence surrounding these cover-up mass killings. Our investigation is there to shed light on them and call them out. We demand transparency about what is happening right now, every day, in our country’s pounds where thousands of animals are killed legally on the assembly line. As long as our leaders put up with it or prefer to turn a blind eye, they remain complicit in scandalous practices even though solutions exist. Elsewhere in Europe, they take care of their animals. France must take inspiration from them!

One Voice will not stop campaigning for our country to commit to a large-scale neutering programme to resolve the issue of feline straying and ban the online sale of animals, one of the main sources of abandonments and slaughters in pounds.

It is high time to call on our leaders to take action. What is the project? Taking in animals or getting rid of them? Faced with inhumanity, what do politicians do? Are they even aware that thousands of cats and dogs are killed every year? To ensure that they are, share our videos with your elected representatives: mayors, MPs, regional presidents, and the Minister of Agriculture. And sign the petition below to demand an end to the code of silence and euthanasia in pounds.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Sign the petition against culling in pounds! Sign the petition against culling in pounds! Sign the petition against culling in pounds! Sign the petition against culling in pounds! Sign the petition against culling in pounds! Sign the petition against culling in pounds! Sign the petition against culling in pounds! Sign the petition against culling in pounds! Sign the petition against culling in pounds! Sign the petition against culling in pounds!

Stray animals: France opts for massacring at pounds

Stray animals: France opts for massacring at pounds
11.12.2023
France
Stray animals: France opts for massacring at pounds
Domestic animals

To “clean” their streets, France has chosen a “strategy” of large-scale slaughtering. When an animal is seen wandering, town councils are in charge of involving the services of a pound. Once captured, they are kept for eight days in a cold kennel, as shown in our latest investigation. After this time, if they have not been claimed, they can be taken in by an association. But there are too many stray or abandoned animals for them to have any hope of finding a family. When the time period has passed, being slaughtered at a pound is what awaits them. Deaths by the thousands, in the greatest secrecy, even though solutions exist, as proven by our European neighbours.

For years, we have been fighting to raise awareness about the plight of stray cats and so that our leaders will finally take measures to stem this tragedy. Faced with a lack of action by the government, we are obliged to initiate legal proceedings to make things happen, while our neighbours are acting in concrete terms to stop abandonments.

Countering mass slaughter: neutering…

In September 2022, Greece implemented the “Argos Programme”, allocating a budget of 2.9 million euros to help town councils to improve stray animal welfare.

In Luxembourg, to reduce the number of abandoned cats, some towns offer individuals financial aid to get their animals neutered.

On the other side of the border, Belgium made neutering cats obligatory in 2018. An initiative that also applies to pet cats as well as street cats and which has borne fruit in just a few months: ‘euthanasias’ in pounds due to a lack of space have reduced by half, going from 37% to 13%. The Belgian government has gone further by offering grants to towns for neutering stray cats, but also by providing help for vulnerable people for the care of their animals.

… because killing an animal is indeed a criminal act

In Italy, since a law passed in 1991, stray cats and dogs’ lives have been protected. It is strictly forbidden to kill them for population control purposes. Only genuine euthanasias that are for medical reasons, in the case of incurable suffering, are authorised and must be carried out by a veterinarian. In 2018, the Italian court of cassation even confirmed the conviction of those responsible for illegal killings, who had executed dozens of animals without medical necessity and out of pure convenience.

This is a long way from what happens in our pounds, where animals can be slaughtered after eight days in freezing conditions… Solutions exist, and we are asking the authorities to finally take the necessary measures. Sign our petition for an end to massacres and demand the implementation of an urgent plan to put an end to the suffering of millions of stray cats with us.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

A farm in Béziers is breeding dogs to torture wild boars

A farm in Béziers is breeding dogs to torture wild boars
07.12.2023
Hérault
A farm in Béziers is breeding dogs to torture wild boars
Domestic animals

We are condemning this unbelievably cruel practice. On social media, a breeding farm set up in Hérault regularly publishes videos showing ‘hunting’ dogs being released on frightened wild boars, and more widely, footage showing the little consideration that hunters have for animals. The light tone, intended to amuse an audience, drastically contrasts with the violence of the killing in action.

Béziers is once again in the news. After rescuing the animals from Arche de Noël, thanks to our investigation, this time it was dogs intended to be used for hunting. From an early age, they are trained to attack wild boars; in other words, they are initiated into cruel farm hunting, a practice that we have already condemned and which we have demanded a ban on. Taking pleasure in watching dogs that are overexcited beforehand, who have undoubtedly been shut up for days before finally being able to get out of their cages or hutches, observing them terrorising wild boars and attacking dying individuals. All of a sudden, big red stains and gobbling up pieces of barbecued animals. What a wonderful ‘passion’!

Breeding and penned hunting: far from the renowned ‘regulations’, it is used to cause suffering for pleasure here

This organisation also seems to breed wild boars, since videos show an animal trapped in an enclosure, cornered and frightened, accompanied by this comment: “as it’s her first outing and given her age it should be promising” (sic).

On the Internet, the horror is paired with dismay as acts are unbearable and the comments are filled with frivolity and mockery. A bloody head thrown to a puppy? “First contact, not even afraid ” (sic). Several dogs attacking the body of a still warm animal? “It’s a pleasing message” (sic).

For those who were still in doubt, these recordings confirm that hunting is nothing but cruel entertainment, consisting of enjoying animals’ agony.

Accused of all evils, wild boars are hunted, trapped, and killed throughout the year in the name of so-called regulation. And yet hunters themselves breed thousands of them every year in order to release them… so that they can slaughter them. The absurdity of this situation would be almost laughable if the consequences were not so dramatic.

No equality for ‘hunting’ dogs

For years, we have been condemning the living conditions of dogs exploited for hunting. This activity, used as a special favour, justifies all of the abuse that hunters subject them to: shock collars, enclosing them in kennels with extreme temperatures, and chaining them up or abandoning them in barns where they wade through their own excrement. Their living conditions reveal a total lack of respect, all in the name of a bloodthirsty “hobby”.

Sign our petition so that dogs intended to be used for hunting will finally be protected as they should be. Call for a radical reform on hunting with us.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

The ‘Cyno Breeders Association’ has responded to our investigation into monkey breeding farms with more propaganda

The ‘Cyno Breeders Association’ has responded to our investigation into monkey breeding farms with more propaganda
04.12.2023
Mauritius island
The ‘Cyno Breeders Association’ has responded to our investigation into monkey breeding farms with more propaganda
Animal testing

In its publication on 3 December, Le Mauricien dedicated a whole page to our investigation into six long-tailed macaque breeding farms on the island. But three pages before our presentation of our work on the monkeys abused by employees, the newspaper management sold an advertisement space to the Cyno Breeders Association (CBA). Never hesitating to present animals as simple tools whose suffering does not matter, animal testing lobbyists have added another layer.

We are delighted that Mauritians are informed of our shocking findings at the breeding farms on the island. The journalists responsible for this article have not omitted anything, even printing four of our images obtained with a hidden camera on page 20. But what were we surprised to find on page 17, a few pages before, on an odd numbered page and therefore more likely to be read? Nothing less than an advert paid for by the main breeders on the island defending their activities, the very ones that we visited.

Animal suffering is always justified by lobbies

Macaques captured in the wild, enclosed in their dozens, abused, and, for the youngest ones, separated from their mothers… As soon as we show what gets hidden and concealed in animal testing, lobbies hurry to stun the public with huge influxes of propaganda.

In the advertorial published last Sunday, breeders presented monkeys as undesirable beings that threaten agricultural crops and overrun residential areas. The only use for these animals is to suffer until they die, without anyone being able to question this as long as it serves “global health” and the “Mauritian economy”. This is the height of cynicism; while our investigation leaves no doubt about the pain suffered by macaques captured in the country, members of the CBA dare to state that they “guarantee the highest standards of welfare”.

The industry is quaking in its boots… with good reason

If we in no way question the ethics of journalists, how is it possible not to find the deliberate choices made by the management of the Mauricien, who inevitably shape readers’ opinions, regrettable, even though citizens are increasingly opposed to animal experimentation. According to our One Voice/Ipsos survey from April 2023, no less than 74% of French people are against it and 81% think that tests on primates should be banned in France. Yet the majority of them come from Mauritius…

Along with us, say no to the use of long-tailed macaques in laboratories by signing our petition.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

One Voice is rallying in December for International Animal Rights Day

One Voice is rallying in December for International Animal Rights Day
01.12.2023
France
One Voice is rallying in December for International Animal Rights Day
Other campaign or multi-campaigns of One Voice

From 9 to 30 December, One Voice is inviting animal rights activists, associations in particular, to come together for International Animal Rights Day, the exact date for which is 10 December. Marches, but also information stands involving distributing documentation and signing petitions, will be happening in around twenty towns in France to raise awareness among citizens of the fights that are happening and to lead the way for wildlife and its inhabitants. More than thirty-two partner organisations are joining in with the various activities being organised by One Voice. And specifically with the Parisian march, where elected representatives and numerous association representatives will be present.

In each of the twenty towns involved, we will protest as a unit for all animals’ rights, who are so violently trampled over in absolutely all areas of human society.

Performances, food and drink, hobbies, fashion, habitat… we will make a stand to represent them!

We are bringing the voices of all victims of hunting to the streets, whether it be red foxes or carrion crows condemned to death by the State, who has put them on the list of ‘species likely to cause damage’, badgers and their young hunted down into their setts, bears and wolves demonised and wiped out, or even birds having to flee from bullets, cages, nets, and stone traps.

Shaken by the recent death of orca Moana, we will hammer home our opposition to circuses and dolphinariums who still exploit so many individuals that are trained to submit by being hit to entertain a few people. For them, we are still and will always ask for a transfer to sanctuaries for a decent life.

We will also stand alongside all animals captured in the wild and subjected to reproduction which only ends inside the walls of laboratories, where they are subjected to ever more numerous and painful experiments. But also with bulls, who are victims of bloody bullfighting performances, horses being hit at equestrian centres, animals exploited and killed for their flesh, fur, or skin, stray cats neglected by the State, and all of those that are the subject of shameful commercialisation in puppy parlours or illegal trafficking on the Internet.

For the rights of all those who One Voice and its partners have been giving a voice to for years, our activists will be among the public in Amiens, Aix-en-Provence, Brive-la-Gaillarde, Chambéry, Metz, Limoges, Troyes, Paris, Port-de-Bouc, Commercy, Strasbourg, Nantes, and Falaise on 9 December, then in Hortes and Objat on 9 and 10 December, in Marseille, Nice, Gap, Bordeaux, and Montpellier on 10 December, and finally in Lille on 16 December. Together, we are once again coming to their defence.

Town/Department	Date(s)	Type of action	One Voice’s participating partners
Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône)	Saturday 9 December	Audience participation event and information stand Focus: HUNTING
Amiens (Somme)	Saturday 9 December	March	LPO Somme
Brive-la-Gaillarde (Corrèze)	Saturday 9 December	Leafleting Focus: FELINE STRAYING	Écocorrèze
Chambéry (Savoie)	Saturday 9 December	Audience participation event and information stand Focus: WOLVES	AJAS
Falaise (Calvados)	Saturday 9 December	Leafleting
Hortes (Haute-Marne)	Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 December
Limoges (Haute-Vienne)	Saturday 9 December	Audience participation event and information stand	Parti Animaliste
Metz (Moselle)	Saturday 9 December	March	AVF Europe Égalité Écologie
Nantes (Loire-Atlantique)	Saturday 9 December	Audience participation event and information stand	L214 AVF
Objat (Corrèze)	Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 December	Focus: FELINE STRAYING on Saturday
Paris	Saturday 9 December	March	*see below
Port-de-Bouc (Bouches-du-Rhône)	Saturday 9 December	Screening and educational workshop
Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin)	Saturday 9 December	Audience participation event and information stand	Parti Animaliste
Troyes (Aube)	Saturday 9 December

Bordeaux (Gironde)	Sunday 10 December	Audience participation event and information stand	CRAC Sud-Ouest, Collectif Landes Anti-Corrida Parc Animalier Sud – Gironde
Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône)	Sunday 10 December	Leafleting
Nice (Alpes-Maritimes)	Sunday 10 December	March	Collectif animalier 06 SPACA L214 The Earthlings Experience – Alpes-Maritimes
Montpellier (Hérault)	Sunday 10 December	March	Parti Animaliste Anonymous for the Voiceless
Gap (Hautes-Alpes)	Sunday 10 December

Lille (Nord)	Saturday 16 December	Audience participation event and information stand
Commercy (Meuse)	Saturday 9 December	Leafleting Focus: FELINE STRAYING

In Paris:

The presence of elected representatives from various political parties and numerous organisations participating alongside One Voice:

Alliance Éthique
Animal Testing
Anonymous for the Voiceless
Antidote Europe
AOC
ASPAS
Association Stéphane Lamart
AVF
Brigade Animale
Brigade de Protection Animale
CAP
CIWF France
Code Animal
COLBAC
Collectif Renards et Blaireaux
Collectif SIPE
CRAC Europe
Futur Asso
L214
OABA
PACCT
PAZ
Quatre Pattes
Règne Animal
Sea Shepherd
Welfarm

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

New wolf captivity areas? It’s a no!

New wolf captivity areas? It’s a no!
01.12.2023
France
New wolf captivity areas? It’s a no!
Wildlife

What a funny idea to always want to confine wild animals! Although we support the creation of sanctuaries where the residents welcomed live peacefully in large spaces away from the public, we fiercely oppose the exploitation of animals by commercial establishments. Whether it be in Cerdon (45) or Chaux-Neuve (25), we are therefore going against two new projects of this kind. These majestic and intelligent animals should be associated with a life of freedom and peace in the wild and certainly not with commercial enterprises. And yet…

Here, 0020where they are naturally present, it is more about survival for the wolves given that ever-increasing lethal shots are agreed with farmers by the State and the direction that the future “national action plan on the species” is going in. When it comes to captive individuals, we wonder what the point of creating new fenced parks is when there are already almost a thousand of them locked up in France for the sole purpose of human hobbies.

Permanent exhibition and business seminars: the business surrounding wolves

Two public enquiries are under way, in particular with a view to authorising the captivity of Arctic wolves. The purpose of these projects raises particular questions.

In Cerdon, in the Loiret department, 6 wolves were kept captive in an enclosure the size of a small football pitch. Their observation will be used in coaching sessions. Because yes, their presence will provide support for business training courses and seminars organised for profit. They are far from living a life of freedom… Especially given that, if the project is successful, wolves will not even be able to escape being watched by clients. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that the town has shown that they are not in favour of this and that the prefecture has refused for the first time for such exploitation to be able to open its doors…

In the Doubs department, the project is more ‘traditional’ but just as intolerable as it involves exhibiting animals who are trapped in a restricted space. In any case, either way, this is an intolerable commercialisation of living sentient beings with no aim to save them and which cannot even claim to hide behind the usual – and questionable – argument of conservation.

Free wolves to be urgently protected

Those who say they are passionate about wolves to the point of wanting to keep them captive would do better to commit to protecting free individuals who are not given a break by the government. On this subject, let’s remember that the ministry is trying to facilitate lethal shootings and that the plan being implemented is lacking so much protection that it almost seems like a terrible joke.

Take part in the consultations by the Ministry of the Ecological Transition and Ministry for Territorial Cohesion before 7 December and sign our petition so that wolves can finally live in peace.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Arche de Noël: the animals finally rescued from hell!

Arche de Noël: the animals finally rescued from hell!
30.11.2023
Hérault
Arche de Noël: the animals finally rescued from hell!
Domestic animals

Since our investigation within Arche de Noël was released and a report on it was broadcast on TF1, witnesses were coming forward at a frantic pace, confirming what we already knew. Azzopardi’s terrible reputation precedes him, whether it be an individual, animal welfare professionals, or even departmental authorities. What happens in his illegal breeding farm was known about or anticipated by everyone for years. However, the man was able to stay here for more than forty years and continue his business off the back of abused animals. It is over. The animals were rescued on 30 November.

Four decades of trafficking. Dozens of complaints and classified reports. A rescue that was aborted five years ago. Eventually, our investigation and its broadcast on TF1 proved us right about the lack of action by public powers in Béziers. After slacking on this file for years, pushed by media pressure and our petition that gathered more than 17,000 signatures, they had no other choice than to acknowledge their own failings and to finally take responsibility.

The animals are saved

After several days of uncertainty, the animals’ rescue was finally ordered. Azzopardi, who yesterday was still parading around proudly on Facebook, announcing that he had filed a complaint for defamation and ranting about continuing his business without batting an eyelid, was caught off guard this morning with the arrival of law enforcement agencies and associations.

So much so that he took refuge in his house with a weapon. It is absolutely horrific at the site. Although we are relieved that all of the animals have finally been freed, for now, it is not certain that all of them will survive given their state of heath after years in this place of death. The first in situ findings are obviously appalling.

Our on-site partner, SOS Reptiles, recovered some snakes in a disastrous state. A royal python that was already deceased, a boa constrictor in a vivarium full of cockroaches, and also an American grass snake suffering from a huge swelling and whose future is unfortunately not guaranteed.

We are waiting to find out the exact and official number of animals that have been saved, but we are hoping that at least one hundred individuals will have been taken out of that hell: dogs, cats, birds, snakes, tortoises, rabbits…

Lie after lie, Azzopardi tried to save face by announcing that he was putting an end to his activities on his own initiative… helped a little by the authorities, themselves pressured by our action.

A serious failure of the legal system in Béziers

Our complaint, filed in February 2023, was sent by recorded mail to the prosecutor and also handed over to the police by our lawyer. Radio silence for three months. The agent who dealt with us, who was qualified and very motivated at the start, did not follow-up on any of our calls, until one day he ‘disappeared’: his telephone had been assigned to another police officer.

An additional complaint was filed in June with novel elements. But in July, we learnt that the USB sticks containing all of the video evidence and the attachments that had been provided for the first complaint had been “lost”. We then sent them copies. Then history repeated itself: total silence – our calls and messages were ignored.

And other organisations experienced the same thing before we did. Dozens of complaints and report forms were carried out over forty years by multiple local or national associations. From institutions’ side, nothing or very little has changed during this time and Azzopardi has been able to crack on for four decades, making dogs reproduce for money, killing off those who cause any problems for him, all while leaving the youngest in the throes of death and collecting animals for his personal pleasure. Activities that have nothing to do with those of actual rescue centres. How many innocent animals have died at the hands of this executioner?

Now that they have been saved, we will stop at nothing to finally get the person responsible ruled on and sentenced and, above all, for his breeding farm to be definitively closed without him ever again being able to keep animals.

If you have adopted/bought an animal from there, you can help us by filling in this form and by sending a witness statement to info@one-voice.fr.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Purchasing ammunition in tobacconist’s: smoking is bad, killing is (surely) better?!

Purchasing ammunition in tobacconist’s: smoking is bad, killing is (surely) better?!
28.11.2023
France
Purchasing ammunition in tobacconist’s: smoking is bad, killing is (surely) better?!
Wildlife

This government is definitely under hunters’ thumbs like none before, as One Voice has been saying repeatedly. After lowering the cost of the national licence and giving repeated gifts, and even though this hobby kills millions of animals every year and causes several deaths and hundreds of accidents among humans, the Ministry of the Interior certainly has nothing better to do than to authorise the sale of bullets and other cartridges by newsagents. After having bought a scratch card to “protect biodiversity”, you can then take a packet of expanding bullets to go on a massacre.

The very words of Willy Schraen, FNC President: Emmanuel Macron “has done more for French hunting than any of his predecessors”. And it is an understatement to say that between those protecting animals and those who want to kill them, the French President and his ministers have clearlyx chosen their side.

Tobacconist’s: the government’s secret weapon to protect biodiversity

In its “strategy” to protect nature, the State seems to have found a new essential participant: newsagents. A few weeks ago, we found out about the launch, with much fanfare, of a scratch card for biodiversity. Asking French people themselves to pay for protecting the environment and to also compensate for the lack of investment by authorities – what a great discovery!

These are undoubtedly the same enlightened minds who developed the latest proposal by the Ministry of the Interior: allowing shooters to buy their ammunition directly from tobacco shops. These are torture instruments: bullets formerly reserved for the army that are now legal, they are expanding projectiles that open up inside the animal, causing it unimaginable suffering… All of this will now be at the disposition at the corner shop where anyone can buy rolling papers, drink a small glass of red, and kill at the same time. But we have been reassured: according to the Ministry of the Interior, “from 1 January, tobacconist’s will be able to learn about the regulations on the sale of hunting cartridges in a few hours”…

Consequently, we have already launched a legal plea to obtain a ban on certain types of weapons and better safety for this practice; the government seems determined to persist in supporting the hunting world.

The FNC: an influential group pampered by authorities

Today, it is clear that fake propositions from the minister in charge of hunting safety, each more ridiculous than the next, were just an illusion to continue to support hunters at any cost.

They are firing on all cylinders and do not hesitate in rehashing their usual arguments to present themselves as the only ones to have something reasonable to say. The minutes from the FNC general meeting, published by a whistle-blower, are a telling illustration of this: allegations against “new right-thinking society” who are “afraid of their origins”, and a scientific analysis that would make palaeontologists hopping mad, when W. Schraen stated that it is “human beings who, with a desire to dominate the animal kingdom, at one time made us come down from the trees to chase after others quite simply to eat them”… A funny interpretation of existing knowledge.

Through coshing their arguments and whinging about compensation for damage caused by wild boars that will cost them too much – all while raising these same wild boars in their masses to kill them – they received their umpteenth favour: several million euros per year, at the taxpayer’s expense, to promote hunting… no, sorry – to protect the environment. On the menu: teaching children how to use a knife in schools, installing plastic nest boxes that are dangerous for birds… All with a complete lack of transparency, and we understand that the media has recently revealed the calamitous management of these funds and the more than dubious use of public money.

While 89% of French people believe that this deadly hobby poses safety issues (IPSOS/One Voice survey, October 2023), it is about time that the government finally listens to the majority’s voices! To help, sign our petition to demand a radical reform on hunting!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice