News Archive - Page 46 of 140

Fur: more than 1,500,000 signatures to put an end to this industry in Europe!

Fur: more than 1,500,000 signatures to put an end to this industry in Europe!
14.06.2023
Fur: more than 1,500,000 signatures to put an end to this industry in Europe!
Fashion

The fight against fur has taken a decisive turn. The Fur Free Europe European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) has been undertaken to ban the production, importation, and marketing of fur in the European Union. The signatures of 1,502,319 citizens have been validated. This is a movement that seems to be being echoed on a global level, since a bill has just been presented in the United States to put an end to breeding mink on American soil due to health risks.

Fur farms: places of misery

Minks are territorial animals. In breeding farms, they are enclosed with several in each minuscule mesh cage with no access to water and they show their discontent by developing self-mutilation and often cannibalistic behaviours.

Whether its the horror that the animals are subjected to or the soil pollution and the health hazards that these breeding farms cause, they must be banned throughout the European Union.

A victorious fight which will have taken years in France

Thanks to our repeated investigations into mink breeding farms in France published in 2017, 2019, and 2020 and presented to European parliamentarians, we have repeatedly alerted the public to the conditions in fur farms.
We have also written to the prefects concerned and to the Ministry for the Ecological Transition. This work, led relentlessly, has ultimately allowed a ban on all farms breeding wild animals for their fur in our country.

Fur farms: hotbeds for contamination

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, we had confirmation that breeding farms were dangerous reservoirs for variants
because of potential vectors of mutations of the virus transmissible to humans due to a lack of hygiene, cramped conditions, and the proximity of the cages. This has led to the slaughter of millions of mink, particularly in Denmark and the Netherlands, and even in France. We have launched a petition addressed to G20 members to ask for the urgent closure of all European breeding farms and warned the AgriPêche [Agriculture-Fishing] Council on this subject, who have not moved one bit on this issue.

Others take their responsibilities much more seriously: this is exactly what was proposed today by an American democrat after the confirmation of the outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) in 18 breeding farms in the United States. Its bill was just filed scarcely a few days ago and intends to ban fur farms within a year by leaning on the issues of public health that they represent.

Prevent production from being relocated

The whole point of this European Initiative is to extend the ban obtained in France at the end of 2021 to all member countries, as remains to be done in Finland, Lithuania, and Romania. But it is also to avoid production being moved abroad, for example to China. We must therefore fight to obtain a ban on importations and marketing of fur in any member State.

With the validation of the signature stage having finished, it goes to the European Commission!

The Fur Free Europe ECI, led by Eurogroup for Animals and supported by One Voice and its partners from the Fur Free Alliance, has just had more than one and a half million European Citizens’ signatures validated, who are thus supporting this request. They are therefore part of a process of participating in democracy in favour of animals, which really gives hope!

To get the production, importation, and marketing of fur banned in the European Union, we must meet with members of the European Commission before the start of the summer. And thus, we can be heard by the European Parliament from next October and obtain a definitive response from the Commission before 2024.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Before the courts and closer to the public, we are rallying for Inouk, Moana, Wikie, and Keijo the orcas

Before the courts and closer to the public, we are rallying for Inouk, Moana, Wikie, and Keijo the orcas
13.06.2023
Before the courts and closer to the public, we are rallying for Inouk, Moana, Wikie, and Keijo the orcas
Exploitation for shows

To prevent the transfer of Inouk, Moana, Wikie, and Keijo from Marineland Antibes to a water park in Japan where they would be exploited until their last breath, we are coming together in Antibes on 17 June. On 19 June at 10am, we will ask once again for an independent expert on the state of the pools and the health of Inouk and Moana. A gathering will be organised before the hearing, in front of the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal.

Since the cancellation of the ‘dolphinarium’ decree in January 2018, which planned for the inevitable closure of these establishments, we have been fighting relentlessly for a new law to be published to put an end to the exploitation of these cetaceans. Far from listening to our requests, the State preferred to turn a blind eye to the hell inflicted on them. The law against animal mistreatment passed in November 2021 failed to make any real commitment to grant them a dignified retirement.

At the end of 2019, we stood against Marineland’s intention to send French orcas to China
where there is no law to protect animals. Three years later, the park has not given up on condemning them to endless exploitation… this time in Japan. We are asking for this decision to be thrown out (obviously facilitated by the Ministry of Ecology) and we will once again go before the courts to demand an independent expert for Moana and Inouk in particular, as well as for the establishments.

Mayors, MPs and MEPs: we are calling on elected representatives at all levels

To come to the rescue of ‘our’ orcas, we have been calling on elected representatives for a long time. Contacted by Christian Estrosi via our mediator, the dolphinarium assured him that they did not intend to make a transfer to China “in 2020”. This clarification says it all… the MEP Caroline Roose, who has been present at a number of our actions in Antibes over the years, is herself clearly committed along with us for Inouk, Moana, Wikie, and Keijo. And that is not all! Having met several times, the President of the animal rights group at the National Assembly, Carinne Vignon, gave her full support for our sanctuary project and our campaign for the four captive orcas by taking the initiative to write to the Secretary of State in charge of Ecology, Bérangère Couillard. We are also keeping in touch with the services for the Ministry for the Ecological Condition on the (non) implementation of the implementing decrees for the law voted in in November 2021.

We are demanding retirement for the French orcas!

Thanks to our work in Nova Scotia with our friends from Whale Sanctuary Project who are international specialists in cetaceans, we are proposing an alternative that would allow orcas to experience something other than obedience in exchange for a few dead fish or a life spent fretting in a pool.

From this perspective, our door is open to discussion with Marineland (or Parques Reunidos) and also with the Ministry for the Ecological Transition.

For Inouk, Moana, Wikie, and Keijo, we will never give up on this matter. On 17 June at 2:30pm, we are gathering in front of the dolphinarium and on 19 June before the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal to stop them from being sent to Japan. The hearing that will take place there to demand an independent expert will start at 10am. Join us there and sign our petition !

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Wolf defence associations respond to the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté farmers’ lobby

Wolf defence associations respond to the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté farmers’ lobby
08.06.2023
Wolf defence associations respond to the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté farmers’ lobby
Wildlife

On 26 May 2023, the Regional Chamber of Agriculture of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, three of the main agricultural syndicates in the region (FRSEA, JA, CR), and around ten other organisations published a press release entitled “Farmers or wolves: the Government must choose”. Through this, the authors intend to convince the French State to authorise a more systematic appeal for shooting wolves, under the pretext that cohabitation with the large predator would be impossible, all while touting the alleged benefits of a production-driven agricultural model that is partly responsible for the current ecological and climatic crisis. Such statements clearly have no scientific foundation and, through this document, we intend to re-establish a few facts.

No, defence shots are not “the most effective way to ensure the protection of herds”

On the contrary, studies have shown that defence shots, risking de-structuring the packs, often lead to more attacks, the opposite effect of what was intended. Numerous alternative measures to these shots could be implemented and have proven themselves in many countries, such as in Switzerland with the surveillance of herds proposed by Oppal. On the French side of the Jura mountains, its counterparts FERUS and Vigie Jura have just launched their programme which has received a very favourable reception from the general public. On FERUS’ side, more than 70 eco-volunteers have come forward and, after a training course, are ready to work with willing farmers.

Other means to consider naturally include fences (of sufficient height and voltage), and herd protection dogs, but also assistant shepherds trained in agricultural schools (a proposition recently submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture), anti-wolf collars, etc. Rather than claiming the right to be able to kill wolves more easily, shouldn’t the authors of this press release ask the State to deign to subsidise some of these measures in a more preventative and systematic way for all types of farmers (sheep, goats, and obviously cattle)? It is indeed incomprehensible, and profoundly unfair for farmers, for it to be any other way.

No, unlike large predators such as wolves and lynxes, true “forest doctors” responsible for the health of ecosystems, extensive farming is not in fact “noteworthy for the biodiversity that it generates”

While organic farming, sustainable and based on agroecology promoted by the Farmers Confederation, is effectively able to benefit from ecosystems, unfortunately, it is far from being mainstream in France. It is clear that our region is no exception to that rule unfortunately.

According to a 2020 study from the University of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, local livestock is primarily responsible for the eutrophication of water courses, themselves being the cause of piscicultural deaths. Partly linked to waste from cheese-making and the excessive spreading of fertilisers, this phenomenon is not the only one to cause a problem. The destruction of hedges, erosion of forests, excessive and premature cutting of pastures harmful to birds and pollinating insects, the destruction of rocky outcrops by rock-breakers, etc., are also sadly commonplace in the region.

Ultimately, farming as it is mainly practised in the region, however extensive it may be, fundamentally remains to be production-driven farming. Far from being a vector for biodiversity, it is undoubtedly among those responsible for the extensive erosion of living nature, not sparing our country. In light of these phenomena and at a time when a WWF study shows global farming itself to be responsible for a 60% loss in land-based biodiversity, to say otherwise would be to show remarkable cynicism.

No, production-driven farming, once again a large majority in the region, is by definition incapable of “harmoniously and respectfully shaping and developing our country”

Furthermore, it is absolutely unnecessary for the maintenance of open spaces. These, like the animal and plant species that live there, existed long before the arrival of cattle. They could be perfectly maintained by sustainable farming, as well as by wild ungulates which we could, in the presence of their natural predators, decide to hunt less. This would also allow wolves to have more prey, and therefore be less tempted to resort to livestock.

Why not assume that the agricultural model that dominates the region, driven by the race for profit, in reality only aims to respond to the insatiable appetite of the global population for farmed products (meat, cheese, etc.), of which scientists recommend reducing our consumption? Moreover, did the Court of Audit not just recommend that France reduce the size of cattle herds to respect its climate commitments? Finally, how can one claim that regional farming is intended to “guarantee food sovereignty” when a significant part of its production continues to be exported to the United States?

No, cohabitation between wolves and livestock, rid of its productivist tendencies, is not “genuinely impossible”

Although far from always being obvious, here it is not a question of denying that the loss of animals can indeed be traumatic for their owners and this is a reality in a number of countries where wolves have never disappeared (Spain, Italy, etc.). This is also the case in France, including in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, where men and women are committed to working on this by implementing the required protection methods.

The problems that farmers in our region face (international competition, droughts, erosion of biodiversity, etc.) are more profound than the necessity to cohabit with wolves. Is it not time to tackle this rather than pointing the finger at an animal that often serves as the perfect scapegoat?

Be that as it may, the canine has continued to develop since its return to France at the start of the 1990s. It will continue to do so as long as it has the necessary habitats and resources at its disposition. No offence to some, this is excellent news for the preservation of ecosystems endangered by human activities. The sooner we admit this and stop maintaining the untruths brought into question here, the sooner we can act and move forward towards cohabitation that benefits wolves, farmers, and everyone.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Hearing for the organisers of the Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics ECI at the European Parliament

Hearing for the organisers of the Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics ECI at the European Parliament
08.06.2023
Hearing for the organisers of the Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics ECI at the European Parliament
Animal testing

On Thursday 25 May 2023, One Voice was at the European Parliament where the Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics ECI was presented to parliamentarians from member states on the follow-up to be given to this Initiative, which gathered together more than one million European citizens for laboratory animals. With our partners, we continue to rally so that the directive on cosmetic products will not be trampled and to obtain the implementation of an exit plan for animal testing.

After our hearing by the European commissioners to whom we submitted the official signatures for the Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics ECI last March, the Initiative, driven in particular by the two specialised coalitions that we are part of, the ECEAE and Cruelty Free Europe, continues to progress in European political institutions.

The subsequent step was the parliamentarian hearing, planned by the competent committees of the European Parliament. This was divided into three parts corresponding to the three objectives of the ECI:

To protect and reinforce the ban on testing on animals in cosmetics: to initiate a legislative change in order to ensure the protection of consumers, employees, and the environment relating to all cosmetic ingredients, without resorting to animal testing in any way.

To transform European regulations on chemical products: to guarantee the protection of human and environmental health by managing chemical products without adding new requirements in relation to animal testing.

To modernise science within the EU: to engage in coming up with a bill and to establish a road map in order to progressively eliminate all tests on animals in the EU before the end of the current legislation.

The organisers of the ECI, Cruelty Free Europe, Eurogroup for Animals, the Coalition européenne pour mettre fin à l’expérimentation animale (ECEAE) [European Coalition to put an end to animal testing], Humane Society International/Europe, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), have proposed actions for a profitable scenario for all parties (science, society, and animals) by supporting a transitional plan towards non-animal science once again.

Emily McIvor (ECEAE, left photo) and Emma Grange (Cruelty Free Europe, right photo) with Jessica Lefèvre-Grave (One Voice)

During the debates, some members of the European parliament were able to express their fears or objections, gladly caricaturing our positions and playing on fear as the animal testing lobby tries so hard to do to discourage any progress. Their arguments are easy to outwit because they are irrelevant.

The members of parliament who support us

But the radical voices were thankfully drowned out by the many supportive voices. For example, we received valued support from two French Members of the European Parliament: Caroline Roose, from the Verts-ALE group, who stepped in to mention our long-standing fights against dog breeding farms in Gannat and Mézilles and the capture of primates in Mauritius destined for laboratories, and Aurélia Beigneux, from the Identité et démocratie [Identity and Democracy] Group, who herself also supported the ECI during this discussion.

The Luxembourg Member of the European Parliament Tilly Metz, on the next table and a member of the same group as Caroline Roose, expressed her strong favour of a Green Pact for Europe, which would not make animals pay for REACH and CLP regulations to be reinforced on chemical pollutants. This point should not even be negotiable, with the reduction in testing on animals being supported supposedly being a requirement of the European Directive.

Leaders for the animal cause, European institutions are nonetheless looking for compromise…

The Directorate-General for the Interior Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship, and SMEs has committed to “trying to be as ambitious as possible”
in order to reach its “ultimate goal of progressively eliminating tests on animals in the long term”. We are counting on a strong commitment from elected representatives, with the European Parliament having unanimously stated this in its 2021 resolution for the principle of an exit from animal testing.

The risk, however, is that in the absence of alternative usable methods everywhere and for everyone, our representatives remain in status quo. However, it will be possible to relax the regulations to allow a solution for other methods before medications being put on the market, to decide to attribute a much more significant budget for alternative research, or even for the obligation to use them where they already exist.

It is likely that the Commission will want to respect the requests of its people without going as far as we are asking. For this, institutions know how to highlight the progress already made, or to compare the European situation with other continents that are less careful in this area.

Following their huge support for the ECI, citizens expect European institutions to live up to their rallying for the 10 million animals that pass via laboratory cages and benches every year in European laboratories. We will remain committed and vigilant before the final and detailed response which the European Commission must deliver between now and 25 July 2023.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

A second day against bullfighting: around thirty towns are rallying

A second day against bullfighting: around thirty towns are rallying
08.06.2023
A second day against bullfighting: around thirty towns are rallying
Exploitation for shows

For the second year in a row, we are organising coordinated and combined activist action in around thirty French towns (see below for the list and dates) to call for an end to bullfighting. This event, which will be held on 10 and 11 June, led by Alliance Éthique and One Voice as “Let’s Stop Bullfighting”, gathers together several partner associations. We will be raising public awareness there and will bring our demands to spare bulls and horses that are victims of this bloody practice.

In 2012 then in 2019, One Voice led an investigation into bullfighting schools. Full of footage of children encouraged to kill young bulls just as scared as them, we asked for a ban on these ‘training centres’ for minors, and a ban on children being admitted to these spectacles.

In recent months, voices against bullfighting have continued to make themselves heard. The French population is almost unanimously calling for it to be banned. Last November, with around one hundred partners, we supported the bill to carry out this reform. Bringing this subject before the National Assembly represents a big step forward.

And last May, the Montpellier Administrative Tribunal, referred to by CRAC Europe and the Alliance Anticorrida, suspended an attempt by the Pérols Mayor to resume bullfighting there.

We therefore remain ready to rally more than ever for this morbid ‘spectacle’ to stop benefiting from local exemptions for the torture of bulls by using horses as tools and by training young people to kill them or forcing them to attend. No tradition can justify such treatment.

Together, as we did last year and as months have gone by, in the investigation into the Grape Harvest Festival or with the priest in Arles, let’s call for an end to bullfighting!

You can find all of the events up-to-date online.
The majority of the action is happening on Saturday 10 June.
Last minute changes can happen; consult the page for each event before going there.

Department	Town	Facebook Event	Organising Association(s)
04	Digne-les-Bains	https://www.facebook.com/events/511286667735786/	One Voice
06	Nice	https://www.facebook.com/events/208154118638089/	One Voice
10	Troyes	https://www.facebook.com/events/262839522801877/	One Voice
11	Carcassonne	https://www.facebook.com/events/1660440241049043/	Agir pour les Animaux [Act for Animals] and CRAC Europe
13	Aix-en-Provence	https://www.facebook.com/events/990416338989108	One Voice
13	Marseille	https://www.facebook.com/events/626756616032403/	One Voice and CRAC Europe
14	Falaise	https://www.facebook.com/events/526122492886973/	One Voice
17	La Rochelle	https://www.facebook.com/events/229990376408851/	One Voice
21	Dijon	https://www.facebook.com/events/772495247837081/	One Voice and CRAC Europe
22	Guingamp (17/06)	https://www.facebook.com/events/802110884642498/	One Voice
24	Périgueux	https://www.facebook.com/events/286241653755533/	Parti Animaliste
30	Nîmes	https://www.facebook.com/events/111071585338808	CRAC Europe and Alliance Éthique
33	Captieux (4/06)	https://www.facebook.com/events/263119476059518/	One Voice
34	Lunel (11/06)	https://www.facebook.com/events/2224846817721990/	Alliance Éthique and CRAC Europe
34	Montpellier	https://www.facebook.com/events/918498155961898	One Voice, Alliance Éthique, and CRAC Europe
34	Béziers	https://www.facebook.com/events/557411946468857/	Colbac
42	Saint-Étienne	https://www.facebook.com/events/686687226595856/	CRAC Europe
44	Nantes (24/06)	https://www.facebook.com/events/1431244034279433	One Voice
45	Orléans	https://www.facebook.com/events/551187997174045/	One Voice
47	Agen	https://www.facebook.com/events/859512182290357/	One Voice
49	Angers (24/06)	https://www.facebook.com/events/985594275945422/	One Voice
52	Langres (24/06)	https://www.facebook.com/events/228954099774040/	One Voice
56	Lorient	https://www.facebook.com/events/5963332333794183	Collectif local and L214
57	Metz	https://www.facebook.com/events/226795783393680	One Voice
58	Nevers	https://www.facebook.com/events/186748687130705	CRAC Europe
59	Lille	https://www.facebook.com/events/4701079566682608/	One Voice
63	Clermont-Ferrand	https://www.facebook.com/events/156816910493478/	One Voice
64	Bayonne	https://www.facebook.com/events/243648304934000/	One Voice
66	Perpignan	https://www.facebook.com/events/789109279517801	Animalibre
67	Strasbourg	https://www.facebook.com/events/186011550662576/	One Voice
69	Lyon	https://www.facebook.com/events/1037791137193488/	One Voice
75	Paris	https://www.facebook.com/events/990935952270430/	One Voice
76	Rouen	https://www.facebook.com/events/2161784820698689/	One Voice
80	Amiens	https://www.facebook.com/events/818112499668102/	One Voice
83	Fréjus	https://www.facebook.com/events/266676769115764/	One Voice
83	Toulon	https://www.facebook.com/events/952531016074124/	One Voice
87	Limoges	https://www.facebook.com/events/266051969146170/	One Voice

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

2500 badgers saved… the fight continues!

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

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

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

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

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

Badgers: victims of unbearable persecution

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

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

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

Almost 2500 badgers spared thanks to our proceedings

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

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

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

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

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

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

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

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

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

The risk of anomalies…

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

…and happy fishers

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

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

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

One Voice is speaking at the Romanian Parliament for a fur-free Romania

One Voice is speaking at the Romanian Parliament for a fur-free Romania
05.06.2023
One Voice is speaking at the Romanian Parliament for a fur-free Romania
Fashion

One Voice is joining its international partners from the Fur Free Alliance (the coalition for which it is the French representative) to speak at the Romanian Parliament on 11 May 2023 in Bucharest. We are asking for a ban on mink and chinchilla farming in the country and, in support of the proposed law that is in the process of being examined by Romanian parliamentarians, have provided our contribution by explaining the One Voice campaign that was launched to pass the law that approved this reform in France less than two years ago.

Slider photo credit: Adrian Daniel Vasile/Humane Society International – Europe

Our fight, relentlessly led for more than twenty years to obtain the closure of mink breeding farms in France and a ban on all wild animal breeding for fashion, was presented on 11 May before Romanian press in Bucharest, thanks to an intervention by our partner HSI/Europe in Romania, and in the presence of around fifteen other friends and members of this international coalition that One Voice has been part of for more than two decades. The famous journalist and television presenter Simona Gherghe led discussions around Gheorghe Pecingina, the deputy supporting the law proposal. Ioana Ciolacu, one of the first Romanian fashion designers to publicly announce her refusal to use fur in her creations, was also present. We were in a prominent position, with France having numerous similarities with this Latin country in Eastern Europe that only has around ten fur farms to be closed down. Our investigation footage, as well as that from Svoboda Zvířat (in the Czech Republic), has also been shown in the biggest Parliament in Europe.

France, considered as one of the jewels of luxury and fashion worldwide, knew to ban farms breeding animals for fur in 2021. They were already in decline. French law settled it: it is not acceptable to subject animals to so much suffering, the planet does not need the additional pollution caused by waste from these breeding farms, everyone’s health cannot be put in perpetual danger by such places. We believe in a ban on fur production in Romania. The population is expecting it; they will rejoice and celebrate those who vote for it, as we have done. This is the meaning of history Jessica Lefèvre-Grave Director of External Public Relations and Investigations for One Voice

A law proposal that follows…

We urged the House of Representatives to approve the bill currently under review to ban fur farms in the country, putting an end to the barbaric practice involving the breeding and killing of animals such as mink and chinchillas. The Romanian Senate voted in favour of the bill in December last year, but the deciding vote is returned to the House of Representatives. If it is passed, Romania will become the twentieth European country to definitively close its breeding farms.

…an investigation into Romanian fur farms

The ban was proposed last year following the publication of a shocking investigation led by HSI/Europe exposing the abominable living conditions of the animals in fur farms in Romania. The very first footage taken inside the chinchilla breeding farms showed the animals confined in dirty, minuscule cages, their paws often slipping on the mesh flooring, eventually being killed in the name of fashion in improvised gas chambers at only a few months of age. HSI/Europe has announced the launch of an advertising campaign and a petition to show public support for a ban on fur farms in the country.

Our European and International support: Romania Fara Blanuri!

After the discussion, the FFA submitted a letter addressed to the Prime Minister and to members of the House of Representatives asking for their quick agreement for a bill to ban breeding animals for fur in Romania. The letter cited animal protection and public health as the main reasons for such a ban and highlighted the decline in the popularity and economic value of the fur industry in recent years.

Romania: one of the last countries in Europe to still allow fur farms

To date, breeding animals for fur is banned in nineteen European countries, including fourteen European Union (EU) member states: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Slovakia, and Slovenia. A bill aiming to banish this practice is currently being reviewed in Poland and Lithuania. Two countries — Switzerland and Germany — have set up regulations so strict with regard to welfare that breeding animals for fur has effectively stopped, and three other countries, Denmark, Sweden, and Hungary, have imposed measures that have put an end to breeding certain species. Only a small number of EU member states, such as Romania, still allow this practice.

Earlier this year, the Fur Free Europe European Citizens’ Initiative gained more than 1.7 million signatures from EU citizens. Addressed to the European Commission, the ECI asked for a ban on breeding animals for fur and the trade of products using fur within the EU.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

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

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

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

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

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

A long-standing persecution

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

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

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Translated from the French by Joely Justice