News Archive - Page 42 of 146

Arche de Noël: a factory-breeding farm camouflaged by deceptively being called a ‘rescue centre’

Arche de Noël: a factory-breeding farm camouflaged by deceptively being called a ‘rescue centre’
18.11.2023
Hérault
Arche de Noël: a factory-breeding farm camouflaged by deceptively being called a ‘rescue centre’
Domestic animals

From October 2022 to February 2023, One Voice investigated at Arche de Noël in Béziers. There we discovered absolute horrors. This place is a ‘rescue centre’, created in 1982 by Noël Azzopardi. Although a rescue centre normally has the aim of welcoming animals coming from pounds or abandoned by their human owners so that they can find them a new family, this one has a completely different mission: mass breeding in order to sell them on at high prices, supposedly to keep the establishment going. We have filed a complaint and are asking that these animals be rescued. For this, we need your help.

Overpopulated animals who are enclosed and very rarely or never go out, who flounder in the mud all day long, appalling hygiene, but above all, living beings exploited for mass reproduction: this is the fate reserved for those unfortunate to find themselves here.

Breeding activity practised illegally and knowingly

Azzopardi is perfectly aware that he does not have breeder status given that he explained it himself: “I am not a registered breeder. I would have to pay licensing fees, taxes, and so on”. The breeding activity is hidden for the sole purpose of not having to declare income to administrative services.

The volunteers are also aware, and one of them easily recognises that the dogs are kept in poor conditions: “I know it’s to meet the needs of the rescue, but for me these are not good conditions for breeding dogs.” She even adds that in reality, the majority of those put up for adoption are not there due to being abandoned, but because of the intense reproduction of female dogs kept on site.

The female dogs are smacked, the “champions” are “wanked”

As well as being exploited, the dogs are kept in a dirty environment. The Belgian shepherds in particular are constantly splashing around in the muddy kennels. Their only way of getting dry: a broken kennel and a pathetic basket.

The females – if they have the chance to get dry – are shut up all day long in cramped cages in the dark. The newborn puppies, particularly susceptible to illnesses, are handled with no precautions and exposed to cigarette smoke. One poor female dog, who was benefiting from her daily six minutes of being let out, curious, had the misfortune to approach the puppies. The immediate reaction: a smack, rewarded with a “Clear off!”.

To continue this misery, the boss has no shame in explaining that he “wanks” his dogs to be able to perform artificial inseminations himself, because “this idiot doesn’t know how to fuck“. Time is money, so we are not going to wait for dogs to reproduce naturally! And there is no limit to this cynicism: we also learnt that all of the breeding dogs are named “Champion”, “this way, we don’t get it wrong”.

One Voice is filing a complaint against the owner in order to put an end to these animals’ ordeals.

To find out more about Arche de Noël

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Arche de Noël: children subjected to the spectacle of animal abuse

At Arche de Noël, rats are tortured, and children participate in the abuse.

Arche de Noël: puppies sacrificed so as to not spend money

Arche de Noël: puppies sacrificed so as to not spend money
18.11.2023
Hérault
Arche de Noël: puppies sacrificed so as to not spend money
Domestic animals

During our infiltration investigation at Arche de Noël from October 2022 to February 2023, we discovered that an epidemic of parvovirus had struck over several months within the organisation and had already killed several puppies. Worse still, instead of closing the establishment temporarily to eradicate the disease, adoptions continued and some dogs even died at their adopters’ homes. Our complaint to get this breeding farm closed obviously deals with this unexpected angle. We need your help to evacuate the animals.

Undeclared breeding, illegal commercial practices, and also appalling health conditions: nothing frightens the boss of this factory.

A deadly and extremely contagious canine disease

Parvovirus is a serious viral illness that affects dogs, leading to vomiting and bloody diarrhoea. As this disease is extremely contagious, animals must be isolated, their spaces must be meticulously disinfected, and strict quarantine measures must be put in place. However, the recurrent presence of rats within the organisation clearly shows its unsanitary environmental state.

Death confirmed within and outside the breeding farm

Since our first visit in October 2022, we learnt that an epidemic of parvovirus had broken out and had already killed 6 Australian shepherd puppies. The presence of the disease was again confirmed to us a few days later, in November, by another volunteer. However, within this fake rescue centre, our investigation revealed that no hygiene measures had been implemented. Unsurprising when we know that some of the care, such as removing stitches, is practised directly on site by the person in charge, with no regard for the most basic standards: disinfecting wounds with sterile material, done by a veterinarian.

At the beginning of January 2023, we were able to speak with a couple of adopters. What an (awful) surprise to learn that they were coming to get a little dog, after the one they had from here just two months before died at their home from parvovirus scarcely forty-eight hours after getting it. As a good trader, Azzopardi therefore obviously offered for them to come and get another puppy to replace the first one.

At the start of February 2023, a sibling placed with a foster family had to be euthanised because it was dying from parvovirus. The irony? According to the boss, the aim of placing it outside of the breeding farm was to protect the puppies from the epidemic. Which means that it was already carrying it when they left the premises and that the disease broke at the family’s home, who had to have it euthanised to put an end to its ordeal. Instead of then closing the establishment to proceed with disinfection and putting an end to this epizootic disease once and for all, the person in charge preferred to spread the animals out away from his premises, posing a serious health risk to the community!

Not wishing to spend money on living beings he considers as goods, he chooses to let them suffer for days until they die, rather than taking them to a veterinarian to provide them with care or to cut their suffering short.

One Voice has filed a complaint against the owner in order to put an end to this massacre.

To find out more about Arche de Noël

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Arche de Noël: Aria killed because the boss didn’t want to help her

Arche de Noël: Aria killed because the boss didn’t want to help her
18.11.2023
Hérault
Arche de Noël: Aria killed because the boss didn’t want to help her
Domestic animals

During our investigation between October 2022 and February 2023, amongst the many dogs being kept at Arche de Noël, our investigators were struck by Aria. This female American Staffordshire Terrier was not getting along with the other dogs. However, she was enclosed with them, putting all of them in danger. Refusing to contact a behaviourist or trainer – he could not spend money on helping an animal! – the boss finally got rid of her. We have filed a complaint so that the animals can be rescued and this organisation will be closed definitively.

Our investigators met Aria as soon as they arrived at Arche de Noël at the end of October 2022. At the moment that they got them out of the kennel to take them for a walk – the only moment of freedom that some of the animals here experience, less than ten minutes per day, when they are lucky enough to be chosen – they immediately showed their hand. “She is stupid around other dogs”.

Shut up as they are all the time with no enrichment or toys, no affection, piled up on top of each other, is it surprising that the dogs end up developing behavioural issues? This ‘rescue centre’ is usually limited to 49 adult dogs, yet we counted up to 78 of them!

Dangerous overpopulation for the animals

Everyone knew that Aria did not get along with the other dogs and yet nothing was implemented to help her. They continued to enclose her with the others, and she continued to fight. As if this situation was not dramatic enough, she was also a victim of violence from the boss. When she was finally isolated from her companions, in reality she was shut up in a storage kennel, among crates and all kinds of other objects.

On several occasions and without those responsible reacting to the seriousness of the situation, Aria attacked other dogs and she was placed in solitary confinement as a punishment – even though this is what she needed for her well-being, and what was necessary to ensure the safety of the other dogs.

Slaughtered because no one wanted to help her

Then one morning, when arriving at the site, Aria was unaccounted for. She was no longer in her kennel. We learnt that she has been ‘euthanised’ out of pure convenience, after having been beaten and isolated for weeks. A behaviourist or trainer had never been contacted to come and help her and alleviate her unease. For the manager, she was nothing but a financial money pit, a dog you could not do anything for. What good would it do to spend money on helping her? Aria did not present a danger to humans and even sought out their affection. Her only ‘wrongdoing’: being apprehensive of her canine companions. But how can she be blamed for having expressed her distress in the only way that she had been taught to – violence?

In a situation of generalised abuse, where dogs are exploited for breeding and birds are enclosed for the personal pleasure of the boss in catastrophic health conditions, there is no time to lose or money to be wasted for those who need help.

One Voice is filing a complaint against the owner in order to put an end to these animals’ ordeals. Sign our petition to ask for the closure of this breeding farm.

To find out more about Arche de Noël

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Arche de Noël: a museum of horrors for ‘exotic’ birds

Arche de Noël: a museum of horrors for ‘exotic’ birds
18.11.2023
Hérault
Arche de Noël: a museum of horrors for ‘exotic’ birds
Domestic animals

Within Arche de Noël, as well as the dogs, a few reptiles and many birds are kept in deplorable conditions. These animals, who are in fact a wild species, are unfortunately sold to those who are often incapable of attending to their most basic needs. We have filed a complaint against this organisation, but we need your help.

According to the manager himself, Arche de Noël keeps more than one hundred birds. For an organisation functioning solely with volunteers, who are untrained and do not hold qualifications, it is impossible to correctly care for all of these residents. If the dogs are mistreated and exploited for breeding, the birds and reptiles do not get left out.

Exotic birds kept in abominable conditions

During the investigation carried out between October 2022 and February 2023, we were able to observe a horrifying number of birds – more than 60! – piled up in minuscule cages, who in the wild would travel several kilometres per day. They hop around on the miserable and only perch in their cage and grip desperately to the bars, but they are not able to spread their wings or fly.

Although some of them are ‘lucky’ enough to be sheltered from the bad weather inside the house, the majority of them are outside, exhibited by the side of the swimming pool. The daily routine is simple: they are fed a handful of grain and that is the only interaction with the outside world that these birds have any right to. A hand that enters the cage and then closes it again, before replacing the plastic cover that serves as a windbreak over the mesh, even depriving them of simply being able to see the outside world. They are condemned to perpetually stare at the bars of their cage. As we were able to see with each visit, the cages are never cleaned and are full of droppings.

These animals are not offered up for adoption by this so-called association. They only serve to boost the dishonest boss’ personal collection and he makes no secret of selling them on without following legislation.

Trafficking parrots, budgies, zebra finches, boa constrictors…

Azzopardi’s birds are not here as a result of being abandoned but from exchanges with his friends. He even admits to selling them completely illegally without even flinching! When asked how he does it, he responds bluntly: “Well, off the books! You have to do it off the books”.

In his dining room, a boa constrictor is kept in a vivarium that is hardly any bigger than she is… a female that he wants to get rid of but he cannot since he knows that she is unofficial: “The shit thing is that I don’t have the papers”.

After a life of imprisonment, when death comes to finally free these prisoners who are guilty of nothing, they are disgracefully stored in a freezer containing food, in violation of the most basic hygiene rules… Unsurprising when we know that deaths due to disease are the norm in this organisation, that dogs are kept in surplus to breed with the sole aim of making a profit, and that there are so many rats that the manager traps them to torture them.

Following our investigation, we have obviously filed a complaint against the owner to put an end to these animals’ ordeals.

To find out more about Arche de Noël

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Arche de Noël: an adoption process that is unbelievable… and totally illegal

Arche de Noël: an adoption process that is unbelievable… and totally illegal
18.11.2023
Hérault
Arche de Noël: an adoption process that is unbelievable… and totally illegal
Domestic animals

During our infiltration of Arche de Noël between October 2022 and February 2023, we were able to observe that the manager did not hesitate in committing multiple offences to fuel his puppy farming business. We have filed a complaint and are asking for this breeding farm to be closed and the animals rescued. For this, we also need your help.

Illegal and barbaric use of veterinary medicine

To indulge buyers, the boss doesn’t hesitate in resorting to barbaric mutilations: docking puppies’ tails. Despite being legal, this practice is highly criticised and particularly well regulated: it absolutely must be carried out by a veterinarian. However, he told us without batting an eyelid that he does it himself, at the request of potential buyers. When we learnt of the deplorable hygiene conditions that the animals at the Arche were living in, there was good reason for us to be quaking in our boots… Incidentally, the manager is angry because potential clients were eventually retracting after he had carried out the procedure.

Shocking (and illegal) commercial practices!

Always pleasing buyers – Azzopardi is a ‘good’ trader! – he also doesn’t hesitate in selling the young animals before the legal age of 2 months. At the start of 2023, he explained to a client: “Normally, they have to be two months old, here they are six weeks“, therefore fully aware of the facts. However, he proposed that they come back to get the puppy the next week, without waiting for the minimum age required by law.

Sale prices that have nothing to do with non-profit rates

And not to mention the prices, comparable to those of purely commercial breeding farms: “Oh no no no, 500, 600 euros for all of the dogs that I breed, and the chihuahuas are 1000 euros.” For a so-called non-profit association, this is far from the usual fees, which are generally between the 200 and 300 euro mark, and realistically correspond to the cost of the veterinary care involved for microchipping and vaccinating the animal.

A post-investigation visit that confirmed our beliefs

After our infiltration investigation ended, we went back there again in May 2023 with a very specific goal: to document the adoption of a puppy in order to reveal new offences and to get them out of that hell. Barely a few minutes after we arrived, we had confirmation of what we already knew: the boss made reference to the puppies that were born at his place, once again showing that he did in fact resort to breeding animals, and that this organisation is not the rescue centre it pretends to be.

Puppies sold without ever having seen a veterinarian

It was only once we were sorting out the last administrative details and proceeding with payment that we learnt that the puppy had never seen a veterinarian. The small female was not microchipped or vaccinated. The manager then gave us a ‘vaccination voucher’, explaining to us that we would have to go back to his veterinarian who would carry out the basic care. This is therefore the only document that links us to the Arche. We were not given any sale or adoption contract to attest to where this puppy came from. If there are any problems (being sold a sick animal, for example), it is impossible to go back against the breeder.

In a few minutes, we therefore came across at least four legislation breaches:

handing over an un-microchipped puppy;
the lack of a sale certification;
the lack of the necessary veterinarian certificate before handing over;
the lack of a signed commitment and knowledge certificate.

In less than fifteen minutes, several infractions later, and with 200 euros more cash in the manger’s pocket – the card machine wasn’t working that day! – for a puppy that is not compliant with regulations and has not received any care, we therefore left with our little one in our arms, relieved to have got her out of there but with a heavy heart thinking about all the others that were still there.

We have filed a complaint for all of the law violations revealed during our investigation: the undeclared breeding, dirty conditions, trafficking of exotic animals, acts of cruelty towards rats and dogs, misleading commercial practices, and many more besides.

To find out more about Arche de Noël

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

The State’s lack of action to stop feline straying: One Voice is going to court

The State’s lack of action to stop feline straying: One Voice is going to court
15.11.2023
France
The State’s lack of action to stop feline straying: One Voice is going to court
Domestic animals

On 30 November 2021, a new law was created to fight against animal mistreatment in France. However, almost two years later, its aims are clearly not being met. Pet animals, among others, are not to be outdone: the sale of cats and dogs in pet shops will be banned from 1 January 2024, but puppy shows are still allowed, and commitment certificates continue to go nowhere. When it comes to stray cats… they can be left dying for even longer, while the Ministry of Agriculture couldn’t care less.

While the requirement to neuter stray cats that have been taken in by communities was initially planned for, it has been quashed under pressure from local councillors. Instead of this, there are campaigns led on an experimental basis by the State in cooperation with mayors and presidents of local volunteer communities. An initial step all the same… yes, but…!

Even writing a report seems to prove too complicated for the State…

To begin this experiment, the government must hand a report providing a detailed assessment on the issue of feline straying to Parliament, estimating the cost of capturing and neutering as well as financial methods, all while presenting recommendations to respond to this problem. All of this is to be done no later than six months after the enactment of the law… so by 1 June at the latest. We have written to the Ministry of Agriculture several times, who have not deigned to respond to us, thus showing their disdain for the suffering of stray cats. One year later, last June, the government announced that the work was underway. If the Ministry does not want to face up to their responsibilities, we will force them to before the courts. Now that the deadline has passed by a year and a half, we have today filed a plea before the Paris Administrative Tribunal so that it can order the government to hand over this document.

A life of misery

While waiting, stray cats continue to breed and to suffer. When they are not under the protection of a volunteer, they fight daily to find something to eat and lay dying for days when they are ill or injured. Instead of helping them, many towns do all they can to get them to disappear in a heartless way: they ban feeding them, they destroy their shelters, but above all they will not pay a penny to get them neutered and take this weight off their shoulders. When they are finally captured, it is not to be cared for and loved: they are sent to a pound, where they are left to die. After the legal limit for keeping them there has passed, they are quite simply slaughtered. The arrival of the Olympic Games this summer does not bode well, since sporting events often generate large-scale eradication campaigns.

To put an end to this infuriating cycle of suffering and mass slaughter, there is one solution: obligatory neutering, as is already the case in neighbouring Belgium and Spain. Ask for an urgent national plan for stray cats with us: sign our petition.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Against all odds for Samba, the last ‘circus’ elephant, whose suffering has broken the State’s indifference

Against all odds for Samba, the last ‘circus’ elephant, whose suffering has broken the State’s indifference
14.11.2023
France
Against all odds for Samba, the last ‘circus’ elephant, whose suffering has broken the State’s indifference
Exploitation for shows

While the Cirque d’Europe circus reappeared for the second time in November 2023, after almost 6 months with no news of Samba, we are worried about the government’s shift regarding the law against mistreatment – already lacking – which has been confirmed again and again. According to a leaflet boasting of the merits of the show combining the exploitation and training of endangered wild animals, a note to towns requires them to accept circuses with animals despite the imminent implementation of the 2021 law (which should ban them from moving around) and implies that any checks would only aim to prove the absence of suffering… A practical exercise in Épinay-sur-Orge.

In July, the publication of our latest investigation footage, along with the announcement of our complaint to which testimonies from veterinarians specialising in elephants were attached, sparked things off… Or rather, Max Aucante, Samba’s trainer, had done a runner, before the planned performances had even started.

Since then, we feared that the last circus elephant in France would be sent abroad, like Dumba, then Kamala, and around the same time Bambi and Rosa as well as Nelly and Brigit, and finally Baby… with authorities helping or turning a blind eye. Samba’s ordeal would have continued, and we would then no longer have had any legal leverage to offer her a better life.

Authorities are waiting for a ‘thank you’ from Samba and those who defend her…

Also, when the Cirque d’Europe circus was brought to our attention in Morangis, a suburban town next to Orly Airport, we didn’t think twice: we went there to confirm their presence and filmed them… prey to stereotyping. Since then, we had a bit more hope, but there wasn’t enough time for a check of any kind to take place.

Capturée, battue, dressée, exploitée… Nous avons retrouvé Samba, entre piste et camion, à deux pas d’un aéroport… ce qui n’a rien de rassurant. Que va devenir la dernière éléphante de cirque que nous défendons depuis plus de 20 ans? #UnSanctuairePourSamba #CirquesSansAnimaux pic.twitter.com/24RsiI5p9B

— One Voice (@onevoiceanimal) November 2, 2023

Yesterday, a supporter let us know of their presence in Épinay-sur-Orge, still in the Paris region. And there, once again, the pitfalls are piling up. The town published a press release stating that a veterinarian would be there “so that the animals’ suffering would be reduced”. The initial reaction was to celebrate, but why would we still let ourselves be fooled like this?

…or a “tide”?

A memorandum from the Ministry of the Ecological Transition, which we knew about and dated back to mid-October 2023, “relating to the checking procedure for travelling establishments keeping animals from a non-domestic species with a view to showing them to the public” specifically aims to put pressure on communities who refuse the presence of a circus with animals in their town.

The wording of this document and the accompanying email are totally biased. There was already a previous one a few years ago, between the ministerial measures and the law against animal mistreatment being drawn up.

This update is harmful: it presumes that the checks that it plans to carry out “will guarantee the absence of animal mistreatment”! In travelling establishments, this is specifically targeted.

An overwhelming step back after the passing of the weak 2021 law

Nothing surprises us any more when this so-called ‘Ecological’ Ministry, who has still neither written nor published any kind of implementing decree, even though the implementation of the law was supposed to take place on its second anniversary at the end of the month. Neither for the animals kept in lorry-cages nor for the rest of them either (feline straying, dolphinariums, etc.). It is no longer about resistance: we went past this stage a long time ago.

The captive animal portfolio, from their exploitation to their disappearance in the wild

The rare progress made in 2020-2021 has been reduced to nothing. Circus performers’ proficiency certifications are now the same as those for zoos, and the regulations of those is about to be reviewed at a cut-rate. We are going to go to the State Council to fight against this dumbing down.

Worse, a leaflet glorifying the circus, written, created, and published by them, is being distributed by prefectures.

We will never stop calling out State ministers and junior ministers who follow each other’s lead: there has only been a guilty silence in response to our letters… But for Samba and all the others, after more than twenty years of persistent fighting, nothing will stop us.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Cage hens: during the hearing before the State Council, the public reporter proves NGOs right

Cage hens: during the hearing before the State Council, the public reporter proves NGOs right
14.11.2023
France
Cage hens: during the hearing before the State Council, the public reporter proves NGOs right
Other campaign or multi-campaigns of One Voice

Nine animal protection organisations asked the State Council for the partial cancellation of the decree of 15 December 2021 relating to the redevelopment of breeding buildings for caged laying hens. On Friday afternoon during the public session, the reporter appealed to the supreme administrative court to follow NGOs’ requests by cancelling this decree that “amounts to making cage breeding viable”. She added that “retaining a restrictive interpretation of redevelopment would not necessarily serve the economic interests of the sector” while “eliminating cages seems inevitable”.

An awkward commitment for the government…

In 2017, during his presidential campaign, Emmanuel Macron made “a commitment to banning the sale of eggs laid by battery hens before 2022”. In Rungis, during his speech as President, he reiterated his commitment and promise that “eggs sold to consumers will only come from free-range farms by 2022”.

In 2018, the Egalim law meant that almost all of the amendments aiming to ban this farming system were wiped out. The only one that remains is the ban on new or redeveloped buildings for caged hens. This minor step forward is still pending since the Ministry of Agriculture, who initially delayed in issuing an implementing decree and only complied after having been forced to do so by the State Council, published a law in December 2021 that reduced the scope of the ban and which NGOs have therefore decided to attack.

And as a result: we have discovered that the government was working with the industry to limit the idea of redeveloping only to redeveloped buildings that would increase their production capacity, showing contempt for and twisting the terms of the law in a scandalous way. The Minister of Agriculture at the time, Stéphane Travert, effectively made this promise to lobbies in the industry, in a letter that the CIWF was able to present to the administrative tribunal… after two years of proceedings!

The 9 NGOs fighting it out

The contentious decree shows what “constitutes a building redevelopment:

1° Works or improvements to an existing building to make it suitable for farming using laying hens in cages;
2° Works or improvements to an existing building leading to an increase in the number of laying hens who can be kept there in cages. ”

On 10 February 2022, 9 French NGOs, from the coalition that led to the historic success of the European Citizens’ Initiative “for an era without cages”, filed a joint request before the State Council and asked for the cancellation of these paragraphs.

For the NGOs making the request, it was about the illegal restriction of the notion of redevelopment, given that the manager for a building that was already used for breeding caged laying hens could undertake all work and construction, whatever the consequences might be, and escape the ban on redevelopment of article L. 214-11 of the rural and maritime fishing code, on the simple condition that they continue to keep the same number of laying hens.

They believe that the Egalim legal text is very clear: a redevelopment is not an extension. If not, an existing building for breeding in cages could be entirely renovated to be identical and the cages would go back into production for 20 years!

Hope in the decree to come from the State Council

Today, on 10 November 2023, during the hearing, the public reporter defended the partial cancellation of the decree before the State Council as asked for by the NGOs. She believed that “the decree is ignorant to the objective intended by the law”. Citing parliamentary debates and the views expressed by the Minister and the French President, she considered that “the law aimed at putting an end to breeding in cages to respond to society’s expectations while leaving breeders time to adapt to these changes”. For the public reporter, “the cap is clearly set by the law, and the decree contravenes this by allowing reinvestment” while “article L214-11 specifically aims to allow a progressive transition in order to avoid a full-force brutal banning measure.” She decided on the cancellation of the decree which “goes back to making cage breeding viable”. Moreover, she stated that “retaining a restrictive interpretation of redevelopment would not necessarily serve the economic interests of the sector” while “eliminating cages seems unavoidable”.

The State Council must decide. They will deliver their ruling within a few weeks.

Agathe Gignoux, legal affairs manager at CIWF France stated: “NGOs have all their hopes on the decree that will be ruled on by the State Council after today’s hearing, so that the ways in which the government attempted to obstruct the progress expected by citizens and obtained in parliament will be sanctioned. We would expect the government to support transitions rather than perpetuate systems that lead French breeding to an impasse”.

For Frédéric Freund, Director at the OABA [a French organisation for the protection of farm animals]: « the public reporter’s opinion is a significant setback for the Ministry of Agriculture who persists, and has done for several years, in ignoring animal protection NGOs’ constructive comments regarding regulatory laws that are presented to them for their opinions, during meetings at the CNOPSAV (French national guidance council for animal and plant health policies). »

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Too many local victories? Bern rejects complaint against badger digging

Too many local victories? Bern rejects complaint against badger digging
14.11.2023
France
Too many local victories? Bern rejects complaint against badger digging
Wildlife

To condemn additional hunting periods for underground badger hunting in France, One Voice and its nine partners, animal and wildlife welfare associations, filed a complaint before the Bern Convention Committee on 15 May 2023 for the second World Badger Day. After five months of waiting, under the pretext of periods for underground hunting with hounds being in decline due to the numerous local victories obtained since 2020 before administrative tribunals, the Committee’s Bureau has decided to reject our complaint without consulting the studies that were mentioned.

We regret this (lack of) decision that is unambitious and purely diplomatic. As a consequence, we will now be going back to the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, in order to obtain strong political action from his side against the cruelty inherent to this practice of underground hunting with hounds and in line with the positive case law gathered in recent years in favour of badgers.

By ratifying the Bern Convention in 1982, France committed to taking “appropriate and necessary legislative and regulatory measures to protect the species of wild fauna listed in Appendix III,” which includes badgers. This convention provides for exemptions for the “exploitation” of these species, but only on condition that they “do not harm the survival of the species concerned,” that they are selective, and that there is no satisfactory alternative solution.

During hunting season, badgers can be shot until the end of February and dug up until January 15. The prefect may then authorize an additional period of underground hunting between May 15 and the opening of the general hunting season in September, a time of year when young, unemancipated badgers are likely to be present in their burrows… Underground hunting, rejected by 84% of French people according to a recent Ipsos/One Voice poll in October 2023 (a trend confirmed since 2018), is particularly violent and destructive, not only to badgers but also to their habitat, which is a refuge for many other species, including protected ones.

However, as the associations demonstrated in the expert report submitted on May 15 to the Bern Committee, France does not comply with any of these conditions. Indeed, while it authorizes hunting for eight months of the year without quotas (badgers are not subject to hunting plans), it has no idea how many badgers are present on its territory… Furthermore, hunting by digging out is a non-selective, indiscriminate hunting method, in which many badger cubs are killed each year (often directly by dogs introduced into the burrows), as admitted by the hunters themselves who submit their data to the prefectures.

Despite these facts, the Bern Convention Committee decided to dismiss our request « on the grounds that it was largely the same as the one dismissed the previous year (Uncontrolled badger cull in France – 2020/7) and that there had been recent positive developments, namely that several court decisions had canceled additional hunting periods »…

Instead of reminding France of its commitments and urging it to take the political measures necessary for the proper conservation of badgers, which would be genuine “positive developments” for the preservation of this species, the Bern Convention Committee welcomes the “positive developments” generated by the legal action taken by our associations—nearly thirty decrees suspended in the summer of 2023 on this subject—precisely to denounce the French state’s failures!

Since the Bern Convention refuses to condemn France’s actions in any way, and encouraged by the recent decision of the Council of State recognizing the importance of protecting “small” badgers, we are now turning to the Minister for Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, to ask him to take strong political action in line with the positive case law accumulated in recent years in favor of badgers. Underground hunting, in addition to causing the illegal death of baby badgers, is a particularly cruel hunting technique, incompatible with the animal welfare considerations to which the government claims to be committed.

Signatories to this press release (8):
ASPAS, AVES France, the Renard Blaireau collective, FNE Aura, Humanité & Biodiversité, LFDA, One Voice, and Sauvetage des Blaireaux.