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Animal defenders threatened with knives, insulted, and hit by the Muller Circus

Animal defenders threatened with knives, insulted, and hit by the Muller Circus

Animal defenders threatened with knives, insulted, and hit by the Muller Circus
11.09.2023
Hérault
Animal defenders threatened with knives, insulted, and hit by the Muller Circus
Exploitation for shows

Living life as an animal kept in a circus… What would a celebratory weekend in Pérols near the Muller-Zavatta Circus be without hitting, insults, and threats? This is what the non-violent activists wishing to raise public awareness of the suffering of these animals at the hands of the Muller family’s patriarch were subjected to. A glimpse into the range of circus performers’ ‘methods’ to establish their dominance over others.

Death threats and threats to burn their cars, homophobic insults, misogyny, hitting, kicking…

The protest authorised by the Prefecture covering Pérols, organised by Alliance Éthique, One Voice, and supported by Sète Animal Save and Sèt’Animaliste in Thau, was the scene of a surge of violence by circus performers against people. As per tradition, the trainers, clowns, and Mr Loyal from the Muller-Zavatta Circus once again showed their true colours. Stripped of their makeup and glitter, they were nothing more than threatening and insulting thugs. Edmond Muller was there to hit people and intimidate the activists who were trying to raise public awareness near the circus and had only their beliefs to defend themselves. The rest of the family were standing a short distance away.

We have said this over and over again: this circus, that specifically kept Jumbo, tigers, and monkeys, spends its time standing up to local authorities and committing crimes (defacing, theft, and others).

A circus of thugs, the worst there is in France

Having become, within a few years, a symbol of the worst of what circuses with animals are criticised for, trainers have nonetheless been protected by the government since 2021, and still in recent days with the publication of a ministerial document trampling on the spirit of the law of 2021 on animal mistreatment, and the publication of a decree stating the equivalence of competency certifications for zoos and circuses.

If only the irregularities and non-compliance with regulations were the least of our criticisms against them… but the boss, the family, and the employees of the Muller Circus stand out a little more each day for their contempt for their neighbours, whether humans or animals, elected representatives, or simple citizens.

What must the animals be subjected to when no one can see them or film them, while circus performers do not hesitate to pick up their pitchforks to resist police, driving trucks towards them at high speed, or threatening the Ministry of Ecology or tribunals with killing and slaughtering animals if they take Jumbo, the tigers, and the monkeys? This circus of thugs has been cracking the whip with the support of the State for far too long.

Activists have filed a complaint in particular for the hitting, injuries, and armed violence. The video was sent also to an association fighting homophobia. We condemn these acts of violence and call on the authorities to be extremely inflexible towards these outlaw intimidating individuals. To support us in the fight for Jumbo, sign our petition!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

The extermination of wolves planned in France and Europe?

The extermination of wolves planned in France and Europe?

The extermination of wolves planned in France and Europe?
11.09.2023
Europe
The extermination of wolves planned in France and Europe?
Wildlife

Authorities have just announced a new estimate of the number of wolves in France after discontent throughout the summer by those opposing these magnificent animals, unsatisfied by the result of the first count. After the initial report from the announcement of the Wolf Plan on a national level, the European Commission urges Member States including France to implement these exemptions – read: slaughtering permissions – to the great satisfaction of the Ministry of Agriculture… Even if this fight is hard, we will never stop fighting for them.

An intensive agricultural system on the mountainside

In recent weeks, wolf critics have had a great time: agricultural groups left a national group meeting to put pressure on. On their side, presidents of the Alps departmental councils were in tears about the ‘growth and threat’.

Their scheme worked so well that a new count was carried out to appease them. What a surprise: the figures revealed on 6 September were changed to a higher number, going from 906 wolves counted in June to 1104, which is almost 200 individuals.

These ‘poor shepherds’ who try to make us believe that they are participating in mountain biodiversity, when in reality they are grazing flocks of several hundred – if not thousands – of sheep in overgrazed meadows, for which the State provides financial aid and compensation on request even though many do not properly protect the animals that depend on them. These farmers who are simply crying over a potential financial loss that they will not be able to sell to the abattoir. And remember that the wolves only take a tiny amount of the herds: they are the cause of only 0.15% of the mortality of ewes and lambs from all causes (diseases, transport accidents, falls, etc.).

After France, wolves are in the EU’s sights

For years, we have been warning the public of the fact that the number of ‘targets’ to slaughtered is constantly increasing – even though their population was half that at the time. Are authorities looking to simply exterminate them again?

New proof of the “power” of the deadly breeder-hunter duo, the President of the European Commission declared at the start of the school year that the packs constitute a “true danger for livestock and, potentially, for humans”, adding to the hysteria that wolves have suffered since the Middle Ages.

Attacks on humans are a myth. The vast majority of those that happened in France in the distant past were carried out by rabid animals, a disease that has now been eradicated. Wolves do not attack humans, as Nicolas Rossignol, a point of contact for the Calanques National Park, explains. As a reminder, 10,000 dog bites are recorded in France each year.

After this string of announcements, the presentation of the new Wolf Plan, which was supposed to take place at the beginning of September, was postponed until the end of the month. By complaining, the agricultural lobby, supported by local elected representatives and even the French President, achieved its goals. The satisfaction of the Ministry of Agriculture does not bode well. Since the start of the year, at least 126 wolves have already been slaughtered: 120 legally and 6 poached.

We are obviously taking part in the consultation organised by the European Commission until 22 September. Nothing will stop us getting these lethal shots stopped. While waiting, sign our petition to call for the end of wolves’ persecution.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

This month, One Voice is rallying for a radical reform of hunting and the dogs used

This month, One Voice is rallying for a radical reform of hunting and the dogs used

This month, One Voice is rallying for a radical reform of hunting and the dogs used
08.09.2023
France
This month, One Voice is rallying for a radical reform of hunting and the dogs used
Domestic animals

This Sunday 10 September marks the opening of the 2023-2024 hunting season. For almost six months, no animal will be safe in forests and fields. Pursued without mercy, including the use of the cruellest practices like hunting with hounds, penned hunting, or badger and fox digging, they will be among the 45 million individuals (wild or coming from breeding farms) to succumb to this activity this year. We also have not forgotten about the ‘hunting’ dogs, used as tools at the risk of losing their lives. We will be protesting throughout France from 10 to 23 September for them. Join us in Sisteron (04), Nice (06), Troyes (08), Aix-en-Provence (13), Falaise (14), La Rochelle (17), Montpellier (34), Nantes (44), Angers (49), Langres (52), Metz (57), Lille (59), Bayonne (64), Strasbourg (67), Lyon (69), Paris (75), Rouen (76), Amiens (80), Avignon (84), and Limoges (87).

Once again, nature is about to change into a place of carnage for the pleasure of just a few people. While hunters all have the hobby of killing, more than 7 in 10 French people living near these sinister playing fields cannot benefit from the surrounding fields and forests without having a knot in their stomachs (IPSOS/One Voice survey, October 2022).

Exploited during hunting, forgotten the rest of the time, and beaten or even killed by ‘mistake’

Among the victims of this activity are also the ‘hunting’ dogs. Starved then unceremoniously stuffed into trailers, they are sent to make contact with animals that risk injuring them by trying to defend themselves. If one of them is affected, it potentially has to put up with the pain for several days before being examined by a veterinarian – if they even get this opportunity, because, as our investigators filmed, having your companion treated by a professional is just one of many options for hunters, with some improvising and acting as ‘war surgeons’ at times.

Then they have to return to their kennel, where the unfortunate ones are put back with no qualms and remain alone, far from prying eyes, for days, sometimes with no food or water and often wearing a shock collar to stop them from barking. Trampling through their own excrement and sometimes among bones or other types of waste, many of them suffer. Not much later than last January, we filed a complaint for mistreatment of dogs being left to their own devices in Lot-et-Garonne. Some of them had eye injuries, some were limping, none of them had fresh water… A surreal scene that is far from being an exception. In March 2020, we filed a complaint for twenty-two others, cooped up in pairs in outdoor enclosures in Jura.

Unacceptable privileges!

When we can, we are successful in getting the dogs rescued and putting them somewhere safe, as we did for sixteen of them in Dordogne. And when some hunters are filmed in the act of hitting them with a stick, there is no room for doubt about the fate that awaits them when no one is there to see. We are going to the courts for this case too.

But hunters’ privileges still protect them far too often from any sanctions. For having left his dogs alone and at the mercy of the bad weather, the owner of the Jura kennels only received a reprimand. It seems that these trigger-happy enthusiasts are above the law. During the lockdown in Autumn 2020, many of them obtained permission from prefects to indulge in their deadly hobby despite health restrictions, and their chief lobbyist even got the Minister of Ecology to resign, who was in fact very popular in the position.

Hunting requires this radical reform that we are asking for and that is taking so long to happen. Between the minimal ministerial measures in total opposition to attempts by the population and human deaths which are added to the animal victims every year, we are once again asking for the authorities to make decisions in line with their responsibilities, instead of attacking those who defend nature and its inhabitants, and for the common good.

From 10 to 23 September, we are rallying in twenty towns in France to defend ‘hunting’ dogs. So that they can benefit from the same protection as others and to stop the impunity in principal that hunters benefit from, join us in the streets, where our activists will be raising public awareness on this subject, and sign our petitions for hunting dogs and to obtain a radical reform on hunting.

Check before going that the event is still in the same place, on the same date and at the same time stated.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Hunting grey partridges: converting the try in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques!

Hunting grey partridges: converting the try in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques!

Hunting grey partridges: converting the try in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques!
06.09.2023
Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Hunting grey partridges: converting the try in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques!
Wildlife

While grey mountain partridges are considered as ‘near-threatened’ in France by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), prefects persist and continue to authorise them being hunted. In 2022, we filed an urgent plea so that no more killing could take place in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. After having won the case on this point, we are also asking for a definitive cancellation of the decree. The hearing will take place at the Pau Administrative Tribunal on 7 September 2023 at 10:30am. Many others are planned in the months to come.

Mountain Galliformes are threatened from all sides, and hunting is one of the main reasons for their decline. As the season of hearings for the 2023-2024 period begins, we remain completely ready to rally on last year’s cases. On 4 October 2022, a few days before the suspension on hunting black grouse, rock ptarmigan, and rock partridges in Savoie, the Pau Administrative Tribunal judge suspended the decree authorising the killing of grey mountain partridges in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Thanks to this success, none of them were slaughtered in the department in the previous season.

Strengthened by this victory, we are now counting on the Tribunal to definitively cancel this decree following the hearing that will take place on 7 September 2023 in Pau. And we are convinced that the judge will not deviate from the position held by the emergency suspension interim tribunal as the illegalities are so obvious.

While this species of Galliforme is endangered, the Prefect has authorised each shooter in the department to kill four birds: a planned massacre for this emblematic species in the Pyrenees mountain range, for whom European law has banned putting their good conservation status in danger.

And what can we say about the procedure for passing this decree that was botched by the Prefecture? It should have made specific information available to the public but it did nothing. In doing so, it proved that it did not have the slightest idea of the number of grey partridges it its area…

Currently, we are still waiting for the judge’s decision for the Pyrénées-Orientales department after the hearing on 30 August. And in the weeks to come, we will be at numerous tribunals, both to get definitive cancellations and urgent suspensions of the decrees for the 2022-2023 season. With a clear objective: to continue to give a voice to black grouse, rock partridges, hazel grouse, or even rock ptarmigans, until we put a stop to them being hunted once and for all!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

We are asking for justice for Happy, a pony violently beaten in front of children

We are asking for justice for Happy, a pony violently beaten in front of children

We are asking for justice for Happy, a pony violently beaten in front of children
04.09.2023
Var
We are asking for justice for Happy, a pony violently beaten in front of children
Domestic animals

The run of misfortune continues for horses being kept at equestrian centres. A few weeks ago, we filed a complaint for a mare who was brutally beaten with a stick in front of witnesses. Following this, we were alerted to the case of Happy in Var. What she has suffered is horrifying.We have filed a complaint for acts of cruelty and serious abuse and are asking that this pony be entrusted to us after her rescue.

This story is sadly similar to that of the mare beaten at the Levens festival. Firmly held by the reins by a woman who is none other than the director of the Lorgues pony club, Happy is hit violently with a leather strap. With no possibility of escape, she is forced to turn around to try to get away from this surge of violence. In vain.

Events committed in the presence of children

In addition to Happy being hit, what can we say about this spectacle committed by the director of the centre, a figure of authority for the children and young adolescents who witnessed this scene?

The legal system itself knows the impact that violence towards animals can have on children, since it is considered that acts of mistreatment committed in the presence of minors is an aggravating circumstance.

If these events took place in front of witnesses, what is happening out of sight?

Thin horses, dirty stables

The whistle-blower also notified us of the detrimental state of the other animals there. Some of them were shut up in dirty stables. Others, in the paddocks, were worryingly thin – visible ribs, spines, and protruding withers. How can they support the weight of the students on their backs every day?

A part of our complaint is dedicated to them: this mistreatment is unacceptable.

For Happy and her unfortunate companions, we have written to the State Prosecutor of the Republic of Draguignan to ask for the perpetrator of these acts to be convicted for acts of cruelty and serious abuse and mistreatment, with their professional status aggravating the situation.

We are also requesting a ban them practising, as well as the seizure of Happy in order to provide her with care and affection. We are also asking for an investigation to be carried out at this pony club so that this mistreatment of the horses there will stop.

Sign the petition for the horses and ponies to benefit from being given pet animal status

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Camarney: 30,000 macaques for animal testing laboratories

Camarney: 30,000 macaques for animal testing laboratories

Camarney: 30,000 macaques for animal testing laboratories
01.09.2023
Spain
Camarney: 30,000 macaques for animal testing laboratories
Animal testing

For more than twenty years, our partner Abolición Vivisección has been fighting against the Spanish centre Camarney, part of the Noveprim company, which captures and breeds macaques from Mauritius. According to a new report from the association, with more than 30,000 crab-eating macaques being sold since 2005, Camarney is the biggest importer of primates in Europe.

Our partner Abolición Vivisección’s fight in Spain is very similar to the one that we led in France against dog breeding farms and primate imports for years, and their report describes the problems that we know all too well.

Therefore, the creation of Camarney was widely debated between 1999 and 2005, the legality of the authorisation issued by the town mayor having been called into question. A situation that reminds us of our opposition to the opening of United States giant Marshall in Montbeugny at the same time. But unlike us, Spanish associations did not win their case.

Camarney, le plus grand centre de distribution et d’expérimentation de primates d’Europe

Download the report

A network with questionable practices

Until recently, the majority of animals sold by the Spanish centre were imported from Mauritius. But in recent years, it has diversified its sources by turning to Vietnam, where crab-eating macaques are threatened by extinction. They are supplied in particular by Nafovanny, suspected of illegal captures in direct connection with Vanny Bio-Research in Cambodia, who are under investigation for illegal trafficking.

The Cambodian company, that One Voice already reported on regarding the capture and exportation of animals in 2008, had falsified primates’ exportation documents with the aim of making people believe that the monkeys captured had been bred in captivity. A truly worrying possibility when we know that Camarney sold primates throughout Europe – and in particular in France.

Infractions that were never punished

The report from Abolición Vivisección also reported on the lack of inspections despite the presence of repeated non-conformities over the years. Among the stated problems, we found the great classics that we know well in France: the staff are not sufficiently trained and the ethical committee is full of conflicts of interests.

When it comes to macaques, the company is no better. Other than the fact that their tally is approximate, their veterinary follow-up is not tracked and the causes of their deaths are not noted anywhere. Worse: the cages are not well secured, the temperature and humidity of the rooms does not correspond to the regulatory standards, and primates sold as “free from specific pathogens” are in fact regularly exposed to these pathogens – which means that the results of the tests that they are used for are falsified…

You can help monkeys

To encourage the Catalan government and the town of Camarles to put an end to these shameful practices, we encourage you to write to them.

You can send a polite email to conselleria.accioclimatica@gencat.cat and ajuntament@camarles.cat using the following template:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I have heard about the activities of the Camarney company thanks to the One Voice and Abolición Vivisección Associations.

It has shocked me profoundly to learn that such an establishment, despite repeated infractions, is not inspected every year or sanctioned as European regulations require. I am also concerned about its links with Vietnamese and Cambodian companies suspected of the capture and illegal trafficking of macaques in danger of extinction, who can then be sold by Camarney to European laboratories, in particular in France.

Animal testing is destined to disappear thanks to the development of research methods without animals (which are just as reliable, or even more so), which have increased in recent years. It is the duty of public authorities to facilitate this transition. I am therefore joining the associations to ask you to close the Camarney centre.

I thank you in advance for your attention to this letter.

Yours Sincerely,

You can also share these messages on Twitter/X:

With @onevoiceanimal and @StopCamarles, I am calling on @gencat and @ajcamarles to put an end to the impunity at Camarney and to stop trading primates for #AnimalTesting. Let’s prioritise the development of animal-free alternatives! https://one-voice.fr/news/camarney-30-000-macaques-pour-les-laboratoires-dexperimentation-animale/

Camarney does not respect the law and works with businesses suspected of the illegal trafficking of macaques captured in the wild. @gencat, @ajcamarles, I am asking for the closure of Camarney. Stop #AnimalTesting! @onevoiceanimal @StopCamarles https://one-voice.fr/news/camarney-30-000-macaques-pour-les-laboratoires-dexperimentation-animale/

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Toro piscines: terrorising animals… to better entertain humans

Toro piscines: terrorising animals… to better entertain humans

Toro piscines: terrorising animals… to better entertain humans
31.08.2023
France
Toro piscines: terrorising animals… to better entertain humans
Exploitation for shows

‘Toro piscine’ is a practice that involves penning a young cow in an enclosure with no escape and harassing them to make them cross a swimming pool – all completely natural – and is very in fashion at certain festivals in the south of France.We have written to the mayors of different towns for them to share our indignation and to ask them to put an end to these ‘shows’ that have had their day.

Several whistle-blowers have shared their dismay following the organisation of these types of events in their town, as was the case last week in Vendres and in Monclar-de-Quercy. Although toro piscines can at first glance seem inoffensive, with the young cows having their lives saved on the contrary to the bulls tortured to death in bull-fighting, they nevertheless are still an ordeal for the animals.

In 2023, some still laugh at others’ distress

The principle is simple: humans in need of a ‘thrill’ throw themselves into the ‘arena’ (in reality, a small, meshed enclosure making it easy to escape – ‘keep going’, ‘let’s run away’!) to pursue and torment a young cow to make it cross a swimming pool.

Surrounded on all sides by several people, in an unknown environment, with no possibility of ending this ‘game’ that they have not chosen to play, the young, frightened cow has no other option than to pursue its assailants in order to protect itself. The music, laughter, and shrieks from the crowd add their dose of stress to this.

When the human festival ends, exhausted, she is taken back to the farm. Like the majority of cows in France, she will be exploited for the rest of her life.

Individual cases and formulae are just as significant as the rest to move societies forward

Although some deem these practices as ‘pointless’ or ‘insignificant’, this certainly is not the case for the animals forced to take part. We believe that they carry a heavy symbolic value in fact. Putting an end to it is the only way to raise awareness and stop animal mistreatment in all its forms.

This is why we are writing to the mayors concerned and are inviting you to do the same. While waiting for an end to toro piscines, do not hesitate to contact us to report such events to us.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Deaths, deaths, and more deaths: the dramatic track record of hunting in France

Deaths, deaths, and more deaths: the dramatic track record of hunting in France

Deaths, deaths, and more deaths: the dramatic track record of hunting in France
31.08.2023
France
Deaths, deaths, and more deaths: the dramatic track record of hunting in France
Wildlife

45 million animals killed, 78 accidents and 6 human deaths. These are the numbers from the 2022-2023 hunting season. Year after year, the report is the same: this hobby kills, and public powers have decided to do nothing. While biodiversity is disappearing before our eyes and wildlife is being privatised by a small group of armed individuals, it is no longer time for trivial measures but for a radical reform of hunting!

On 2 December 2020, Morgan Keane, 25 years old, was killed by a bullet while he was chopping wood on his own land. While this unintentional homicide could have remained confined to the pages of a newspaper, the tenacity of the young man’s loved ones allowed the shooter and the person leading the hunt to be convicted, in a proceeding which One Voice was part of and supported. But for this one conviction, how many cases were buried? Far from being anecdotal, this tragedy is symptomatic of a deadly activity for humans, animals, and wildlife, and reveals a total lack of will from public powers to oppose individuals who impose their rules on everyone else.

Hunting: a questionable hobby that leads to death

Every year, almost 45 million wild animals are killed in cold blood. More than ever, they are being attacked from all sides, from repeated administrative battles to exemptions to be able to dig out badgers outside of the hunting season, via classifying ‘species likely to cause damage’ allowing numerous species to be killed all year round and without any restrictions… And let’s not forget pet animals, victims of all of the traps that are strewn across the soil of our countryside, and sometimes killed in front of their owners for disturbing hunters in pursuit of their bloody hobby.

Animals are not the only victims: six people have lost their lives this year. As for representatives from the hunting world, they display a strange satisfaction and congratulate themselves on these six deaths, even though they were all hunters… These deaths add to the many that have hit the headlines in recent years, from the British cyclist killed in Haute-Savoie to this 25 year-old walker victim of a young 17 year-old woman, or even to Joël Viard, killed by a bullet while he was driving his car.

So many lives taken so that a handful of individuals can have fun killing!

Trivial measures and patch-up jobs: what are the government playing at?

Faced with this catastrophic situation, we had hoped for the beginnings of progress, after our hearing by the senatorial mission on securing hunting and the success of the petition launched by the Un Jour Un Chasseur [One Day One Hunter] Collective. But the government, once again, played for time and proposed trivial measures well below what is expected of them to cope with the scale of the disaster.

Today, hunters’ training is a true sham, as our investigation revealed regarding the licensing process, and hunters continue to do everything they can to fight against common sense proposals to limit or even eradicate risking human deaths, such as annual eye tests, or a ban on hunting at the weekends and during summer holidays. And the government dares to present blood alcohol limits as a step forward, which should have been put in place decades ago!

A hobby that shames ecology…

The refusal to tackle security deficiencies head-on is more proof, if it were needed, of the omnipotence of this lobby which is favoured by the Head of State, who proudly posed in front of a hunting painting in Chambord for his fortieth birthday. Hard to be shocked when Thierry Coste himself admits to practising
“frantic, assertive lobbying[…] without the slightest restraint”. And what can we say about these hunting representatives, oscillating between climate scepticism (for a long time and reiterating their dubious theories very recently through Willy Schraen, current President of the Fédération nationale des chasseurs [National Federation of Hunters]) and excitement at the idea of killing animals (for their predecessor)? They even have a permanent platform to carry out their deadly ideology…

While 87% of French people believe that hunting poses safety issues (IPSOS/One Voice survey, September 2022), as the countless deaths every year attest to, it is about time we tackle the cause of this mortal danger, and urgently demand a radical reform of hunting again and again!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

We are asking that the lions at Oran Zoo are put into a sanctuary

We are asking that the lions at Oran Zoo are put into a sanctuary

We are asking that the lions at Oran Zoo are put into a sanctuary
31.08.2023
Algeria
We are asking that the lions at Oran Zoo are put into a sanctuary
Wildlife

Warned by numerous people who are very worried about the living conditions of the lions at the Oran Zoological Park, we wrote to the French Ambassador in Algeria to ask that she get involved along with the Algerian government to get these animals rescued and placed into a sanctuary.

It was a young 21 year-old man who blew the whistle on social media a few days ago. Shocked by what he had discovered within this establishment, Ziyed published a video, thanks to which we found out about these animals’ alarming situation.

On the premises, several lions are forced to share minuscule cages that do not allow them to exert themselves, play, or even less to escape the watch of visitors and the surrounding racket. While they do not sit still, lethargic, they show heavy stereotypy behaviours, tirelessly repeating the same movements. Staring outside from behind the prison bars, a thin lioness roars.

According to our information, she and her unfortunate companions would only receive food once a day, and a visibly insufficient quantity of it.

Outraged by the distress and thinness of these animals, who remind us of that of Jon, Hannah, Céleste, Marli, and Patty when we saved them from the Cirque de Paris, or even the incessant comings and goings of the lionesses and tigers at Parc Saint Léger, we wrote to the French Ambassador in Algeria for her to intervene for these big cats along with the Algerian government.

We stand ready to find places in a sanctuary and to organise the transport fees for these lions to be taken from the Oran Zoo to a new life where cages, boredom, and hunger will be nothing but a distant memory.

Sign the petition launched by Ziyed

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

One Voice is back at the Administrative Tribunals to save mountain Galliformes

One Voice is back at the Administrative Tribunals to save mountain Galliformes

One Voice is back at the Administrative Tribunals to save mountain Galliformes
29.08.2023
France
One Voice is back at the Administrative Tribunals to save mountain Galliformes
Wildlife

Following our victories last year, in particular in the High Alps and Savoie, we decided to heighten our fight for mountain Galliformes. The hunting season is open, as are those from the hearings! The first one of this new 2023-2024 season will take place on 30 August at 2pm at the Montpellier Administrative Tribunal.

These wonderful birds truly have many threats weighing against them… for example, we are thinking about global warming that strongly affects mountain environments and the animals that live there, disruptions during sensitive periods due to tourist seasons, or even deforestation… And on top of this, they are still hunted despite common sense and their deplorable conservation status!

As an example, the grey mountain partridges are classified as ‘near-threatened’ on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list in France, which indicates that the species will be faced with a heightened risk of extinction in the wild in the near future.

Despite this sub-species of grey partridge only being present in the Pyrenean chain, the Pyrénées-Orientales Prefect has, within the decree opening the 2023-2024 hunting season, directly authorised killing two partridges per day and per head (with a maximum limit of 10 partridges per hunter) during the period from 17/09/2023 to 11/11/2023.

It is all the more unbearable that this morbid quota is perfectly arbitrary since the administration has not even waited for the results of the tally that took place in the summer to define a number of grey mountain partridges to be slaughtered. The Prefect has therefore not based this on any methodology.

Either way, continuing to authorise this massacre is quite simply absurd and unjustifiable. Slaughtering birds does not respond to any justifiable need to ‘regulate’ (impossible for hunters to hide behind this kind of argument) a species that is already threatened everywhere and whose representatives are just asking to live in peace. In other words, such a hunt has no other function than a hobby for those who practice it. An unhealthy and particularly debatable hobby on an ethical level, at a time when biodiversity and the living beings who comprise it are suffering a mass slump.

For all of these reasons, One Voice has entered a plea for a cancellation and an emergency interim suspension proceeding. The hearing, set for 30 August, will tell us if our sensible arguments have convinced the Tribunal. In any case, we will continue to fight for every grey partridge’s life and all the more so for all mountain Galliformes!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice