News Archive - Page 40 of 146

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

Animal testing: investigation from One Voice in Mauritius into long-tailed macaque breeding farms

Animal testing: investigation from One Voice in Mauritius into long-tailed macaque breeding farms
28.11.2023
Mauritius island
Animal testing: investigation from One Voice in Mauritius into long-tailed macaque breeding farms
Animal testing

The island of Mauritius is one of the main countries dealing in monkeys for animal testing. By infiltrating this secret environment, our investigators are able to bring back exclusive footage and witness statements on the scandalous practices.

There are seven breeding ‘farms’ set up on the island of Mauritius, as close as possible to the natural habitat of the primates that they sell for the global animal testing industry. Each year, Bio Culture, Noveprim, Biodia, Biosphere, Les Campeches Ltd, Cynologics, and Le Tamarinier send more than 10,000 long-tailed macaques to laboratories in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Spain, and… France. Within the European Union, our country is in fact one of the main importers of these primates that are actually classified as in danger of extinction on the IUCN’s red list of endangered species.

A risky infiltration

Officially, these monkey factories can be ‘visited’ if we rely, of course, on their management services that are used to presenting them in their best light. We preferred to go behind the scenes to observe the way they function as closely as possible and to unveil the daily reality for the animals that are held prisoner here. At the cost of an enormous risk, our investigators managed to infiltrate six of them. What they discovered confirms what we suspected, along with our partner Action for Primates who put their information together to prepare for this investigation: many monkeys are regularly caught in traps in the forest in order to feed the breeding farms with ‘fresh meat’ and maintain genetic diversity.

Captured in the wild

The information provided to our investigators by whistle-blowers who wish to remain anonymous is clear… Curled up behind the mesh of the nets, long-tailed macaques have often been imprisoned for several days before the trappers come to collect their traps from the depths of the jungle. Famished and thirsty, the adults and babies only have the strength to grasp hold of each other in a desperate gesture… And it is without the slightest resistance, terrorised, that they let themselves be violently caged in transport carriers. Humans mock their distress.

Put into quarantine

When they arrive at the breeding farms, the little monkeys are brutally taken out of the carriers. Grabbed by the tail and neck, their arms pinned against their backs, all of them are isolated in turn in cages that are just as minuscule as they are bleak. Their whining or resolute silence is met with laughter or indifference from the staff. Then quarantine begins… And this is just a taste of what is to come.

Killed unless they are good for breeding

Before long, the prisoners are tattooed with an identification number. They are also subjected to an array of tests to check their state of health. Those injured during the capture, or those who are infertile, sick, or have been affected by a simple skin condition are killed without batting an eyelid: they are just a piece of rubbish. As for the others, they are sent to the ‘enclosures’, where there are already dozens of other monkeys enclosed, to be used for breeding. We are showing their miserable living conditions where stress is palpable everywhere. Due to overcrowding in the cages, epidemics are rife, particularly of bovine tuberculosis. The employees then start the mass slaughters: up to 200 monkeys per day!

Babies for laboratories

Theoretically, the first generation babies escape testing in the European Union: subjecting F1 macaques to tests has been banned in the EU since November 2022. But in practice… hardly anyone worries about it and the labs even less so. In all cases, primates are condemned to being kept captive and suffering for their whole lives.

We already know – thanks to the documents we had access to and then to the evidence we have gathered regarding the Silabe platform, linked with the University of Strasbourg – that the little monkeys were exported in batches of a hundred in France at the young age of one and a half years, and this investigation has told us that they are torn from their mother’s arms from the age of 6-8 months to get them used to contact with humans early on and to be docile.

Impregnated as intended, they are then ‘ready’, whenever requested, to fulfil orders to be subjected to painful procedures in our country, in Europe, and across the Atlantic.

Finishing with this scandal!

This investigation follows our constant action to put an end to the use of macaques in laboratories. We have already made Air France put a stop to transporting them. We need to go further. Strengthened by our latest revelations, we are counting on public policy-makers to take responsibility and change the situation.

For years, MPs have expressed their concerns to the European Commission on the subject of trapping wild macaques in Mauritius. Others must follow their example and our leaders must not retreat from animal testing lobbies. They often hide behind a mask when they come forward to better impose their laws. For example, they often say they are ‘CNRS researchers’ rather than clearly stating that they are Gircor* representatives… Help us to call on the authorities to put an end to the importation, trade, and use of long-tailed macaques in France and in the European Union, sign our petition!

*Groupe Interprofessionnel de Réflexion et de Communication sur la Recherche [Interprofessional Focus and Communication Group for Research]

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

‘Monkeys Labs’: from condoned mistreatment, proven trafficking, and health risks

‘Monkeys Labs’: from condoned mistreatment, proven trafficking, and health risks
27.11.2023
Île Maurice
‘Monkeys Labs’: from condoned mistreatment, proven trafficking, and health risks
Animal testing

Violence, concrete enclosures, and minuscule cages. When hearing that everything is going well for laboratory suppliers, the footage from our investigation within one of the most significant ones seems surreal. However, they echo the recent arrest of a member of the Cambodian government involved in illegal trafficking – not to mention the permanent health risks linked with captivity. One Voice is asking for an end to these practices.

In Mauritius, beyond the restrictions linked to the evaluation of the environmental impact of the set-ups, a law passed in 2013 and reinforced in 2022 is supposed to protect animals against acts of cruelty. It specifically bans “tortur[ing] or otherwise treat[ing] an animal in such a manner as to subject it to distress, pain or suffering” and “keep[ing] or confin[ing] an animal in a cage or other similar structure which is too small to provide the animal with a reasonable opportunity for its natural movement”.

Some situations filmed by our investigators in 2023 at Noveprim directly contradict this legislative text.

Carte blanche and collusion

If truth be told, no legal obligations are imposed on the companies set up in Mauritius to respect regulations from importing countries. And they clearly do not mind. Even the most obvious cases of cruelty (such as the illegal breeding of 250 macaques in squalid conditions, discovered last spring) do not seem to result in any convictions.

As for exporting a primate to a French laboratory, they simply have to prove that they and their parents were bred in a cage. It is still necessary for this to be attested to – instead of only relying on sellers’ statements.

But motivating public powers to follow the law leaves much to be desired. So, last year, the director of the department of wildlife and biodiversity at the Cambodian government arrived in New York. For several years, he facilitated the illegal trafficking of captured long-tailed macaques – a species that is very popular with research teams, to the point that it is classified as ‘endangered’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Tuberculosis and mass massacres

And it is not over. While wild primates rarely suffer from serious infectious diseases, risk factors are increased in captivity. This concerns animals themselves, but also the human population via zoonotic diseases. This is how, recently, dangerous bacteria was found in the United States during a health check on monkeys coming (again) from Cambodia.

This very real danger explains why breeding farms often carry out diagnostics that involve injecting tuberculininto the eyelid and observing the potential swelling. According to an employee of the company, in the case of a positive result, Noveprim kills all of the individuals in the section concerned.

Let’s end this

It makes you wonder what Member States of the European Union are supposed to do to protect against this mistreatment and these massacres. Are the Mauritian and Vietnamese establishments that supply Francedoing as much as their Cambodian counterparts? Clearly, according to the One Voice investigation with contribution from Action for Primates, the answer is no.

This is why we are inviting you to sign our petition asking for a ban on capturing, the closure of breeding farms, and an end to testing on macaques.

Going further, you can consult our special report and consult the data given year after year and species by species on our dedicated website.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Because it is not only France: macaques from the island of Mauritius in the hands of European and American research

Because it is not only France: macaques from the island of Mauritius in the hands of European and American research
27.11.2023
Île Maurice
Because it is not only France: macaques from the island of Mauritius in the hands of European and American research
Animal testing

The trade of Mauritian macaques is not limited to France. All throughout the globe, laboratories import these animals, whether captured or bred in captivity, with the aim of subjecting them to painful and stressful tests. We have found traces of the shocking fate reserved for some of them among our neighbours and across the pond. We are asking for the closure of these primate breeding farms and an end to their use in testing.

The global establishment of these macaque sellers leaves no doubt. In the United States, the BioCulture group has its own importer, ‘BC US LLC’. In Europe, the point of contact for its counterpart, Noveprim, is the Spanish centre, Camarney… Trafficking that is facilitated by airline companies such as Hainan Airlines and EgyptAir, despite the commendable decision by Air France to stop taking part in this from June 2023.

Tests serving the market

Here like elsewhere, the individuals imported from the hold are regularly exploited for toxicology tests. With results rarely needing to be published (they mainly interest the bodies in charge of approving new products being put on the market), few scientific articles can be found that report the suffering that they are involved in.

A few traces of these experiments can still be found that generally involve administering a substance to monkeys, whether by making them drink it(1) or injecting them with it(2). Most often, repeated administrations are given for months(3) in order to measure the secondary painful and stressful effects, predicted or not, ‘at a repeated dose’. Be that as it may, the issue is still the same: slaughtering in the more or less short term, then organ sampling and analysis.

Contractual research organisations

The promoters of a product can appoint these regulatory procedures to ‘contractual research organisations’ (CROs) such as Covance in England, Aptuit in Italy, or Charles River in France and North America.

If these names do not mean anything to you, you might, however, know of, on the other side of the Rhine, the Laboratoire de Pharmacologie et de Toxicologie (LPT [Pharmacology and Toxicology Laboratory], which has now become ‘Provivo Biosciences’). Shocking footage was revealed in 2019 by Cruelty Free International, our British partner within the Cruelty Free Europe European Coalition for which One Voice is the French representative. Or even Vivotecnia, a Spanish CRO authorised to carry out operations despite evident mistreatment brought to light in 2020 by this same partner.

They are not goods

In aid of these types of clients, Noveprim can even test on site, in Mauritius, in order to produce macaques already equipped with biological parameter implants(4). Suffering that is contributed to by the deplorable conditions they are kept in and their treatment – and an additional product in the company’s catalogue.

Animals’ lives do not belong to us. We have to put an end to laboratories exploiting monkeys and for this, develop innovative and ethical research methods. You can sign the petition by One Voice to ask for the closure of these Mauritian breeding farms and a ban on testing on primates along with us.

Going further, you can consult our special report and consult the data given year after year and species by species on our dedicated website.

Accelera (Italy) 2023.
Novo Nordisk (Denmark) 2019.
Novo Nordisk (Denmark) 2022, Labcorp (United States) & Charles River (Canada) 2023.
Noveprim (Maurice) 2018.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice