News Archive - Page 48 of 146

Animal testing: twenty rulings asking for transparency

Animal testing: twenty rulings asking for transparency
25.08.2023
France
Animal testing: twenty rulings asking for transparency
Animal testing

Case files come one after the other and are similar: since last summer, thirteen new tribunals have told prefectures in twenty departments to provide their inspection reports for animal testing laboratories. This is in addition to around thirty rulings already obtained since Autumn 2021.

These new rulings concern the Charente-Maritime, Landes, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Seine-Saint-Denis, Dordogne, Gironde, Yvelines, Essonne, Côte-d’Or, Guyane, Mayenne, Maine-et-Loire, Loire Atlantique, Vendée, Corrèze, Indre, Calvados, Haute-Garonne, Haute-Vienne, and Drôme Prefectures. The laboratories are in particular those at the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment [INRAE], several University Institutes of Technology [IUT] and Universities, Sanofi, and also the French Office for Biodiversity, Dordogne Breeders’ Association, Dijon Agro Institute, French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, and the Equitechnic company among others.

We find it difficult to understand how prefectures and their veterinary services (DDPP) still refuse to provide animal testing laboratory inspection reports after all of the rulings that oblige them to do so.

Transparency scares administrations

Prefectures’ justifications are always the same: (unfounded) fears for safety, criticism from animal associations, or the unbelievable idea that if the public have access to laboratory inspection reports, this would undermine investigations into violations and the enforcement of the law.

But tribunals are rarely fooled: while some rulings have authorised prefectures to hide very specific information, almost all of them only authorise names of laboratory staff and veterinary inspectors being redacted.

Such reluctance from the administration would be almost laughable if it were not so dramatic, when we know that sanctions are excessively rare and insignificant.

Transparency is substantive work

Not that these are the first lies issued by the administration to cover up their lack of transparency… It is therefore our responsibility to continue monitoring and carrying out substantive work, in order to gather information helping to report on the limits of the regulations and their application.

These documents allow us to finally note situations of animal mistreatment – always serious, sometimes illegal -in order to report on them and to attack those responsible through the justice system or to act against the inaction of the administration when this is possible.

Thus, even when the administration does not learn any lessons, each new ruling in favour of transparency is a victory.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Not Japan, nor Dubai, nor another park, but a sanctuary for the orcas and dolphins at Marineland Antibes!

Not Japan, nor Dubai, nor another park, but a sanctuary for the orcas and dolphins at Marineland Antibes!
24.08.2023
Alpes-Maritimes
Not Japan, nor Dubai, nor another park, but a sanctuary for the orcas and dolphins at Marineland Antibes!
Exploitation for shows

One Voice is getting the latest push ready to save the four orcas born and kept at Marineland Antibes as well as the dolphins who also go round and round in the worn and empty pools there. The finishing line, like a mirage, comes in waves — it seems close and then seems to elude us: we are doing everything we can for her to be put into a marine sanctuary and not into a dolphinarium on the other side of the world.

Risking everything for Inouk, Moana, Wikie, and Keijo

There is no longer a minute to lose. And yes, at no time have we skimped on the means used; more than ever we are increasing them tenfold. Following consistent information on the next departure of orcas and dolphins from the marine park from the Côte d’Azur to somewhere even worse than what they have already experienced, we are writing to the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, the Alpes-Maritime Prefecture, Marineland, and its owner, Parques Reunidos.

We are therefore committing in concrete terms to a dialogue with authorities and the park owners, at the same time as a power struggle, because it is not yet too late for the cetaceans being kept captive at Parques Reunidos in France.

A duty to set an example for animals and future generations

The orcas kept at Marineland are young; there is still time to repair all the harm done to them by the captivity industry in particular, which was fuelled, and continues to be, like a voracious monster that is never satisfied in seas across the world, or by humanity in general.

We must raise our expectations when it comes to ourselves and our peers. Let’s try to learn from our mistakes and do all we can to rectify them, instead of adding yet more to the long list of deaths of these individuals exploited since their birth and for decades.

A tightly woven network of specialised partners surrounding ‘French’ orcas

Our friends and cetacean experts throughout the world are committing to lending us a hand now. They are ready, when the moment comes, to prepare them to be welcomed into marine sanctuaries under construction.

Thus, everyone takes on their part of the work alongside animal defenders. Including among those converted away from the captivity world. And incidentally the ‘keepers’, who are as close as possible to the animals every day, will be those who we will need not only to surround them during a transfer to a marine sanctuary, but also in their daily life, later.

Let’s ensure that the only family of captive orcas living together are not separated and sent to Japan. Let’s ensure that the dolphins are not sent to Dubai, which our sources have agreed is their destination: here they would be victims of endless exploitation. Both will be, even more than in France, in contact with clients, and thus exposed to disease and stress in even smaller pools, with no protective legislation.

After twenty years of fierce fighting against the captivity industry, it is essential for us that the last four orcas born and trained in the chlorinated waters of France can finally enjoy a dignified life and have some respite, which they have never experienced to this day. Our team of lawyers, comprised of Caroline Lanty, Coline Robert, and Andréa Rigal-Casta, is by our side to finish this fight. As long it is possible to take action, we will do so.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Feline straying: one year later than the set deadline and still no government report in sight

Feline straying: one year later than the set deadline and still no government report in sight
23.08.2023
France
Feline straying: one year later than the set deadline and still no government report in sight
Domestic animals

The passing of the 30 November 2021 law aiming to fight against animal mistreatment has allowed a few rare steps forward when it comes to animal welfare. They are, however, largely insufficient, and those on feline straying are completely ignored. More than a year and a half after these new standards coming into force, nothing has been done about it.

This law effectively plans for neutering campaigns led on an experimental basis by the State in cooperation with mayors and presidents of volunteer local authorities.

To launch this process, a key element must be submitted by the Ministry of Agriculture: a report setting up a quantified diagnostic on the issue of stray cats in France, evaluating the cost of capturing, neutering, and formulating operational recommendations to respond to this issue, all while presenting the arrangements for financing the system by local authorities and the State.

This document must be put forward no later than six months after the enactment, which means that 1 June 2022 is the latest deadline.

August 2023, still no report…

In summer 2022, the government explained that they had already faced difficulties and did not know when the said report would finally be published.

In December of the same year, the MPs in charge of deciding on how this legislation is applied were concerned about the lack of publication, criticising “the inaction of communities and a lack of drive on the State’s part” on the situation of feline straying, all while recalling that “there is an obligation to neuter stray cats in the initial bill and that this had been taken out at the Senate under pressure from local representatives.”

In February 2023, we wrote to the Ministry of Agriculture to ask them for information, question them on a delivery date for the report, remind them of their obligations, but also to send them our research on the subject. A letter that has still not been answered.

And so, we are at the end of the summer and the case still has not progressed.

While waiting, cats continue to suffer

There is nothing very unusual about the government’s inaction on subjects regarding animals and the environment. But here, stray cats continue to reproduce, fight against cold, heat, hunger, bad weather, and human malice. Thousands of kittens born outside continue to die every year from disease or being run over by cars. Those who survive give birth to other individuals, themselves destined for a tragic fate, and so on…

When it comes to mayors, many of them refuse to take responsibility by carrying out neutering campaigns, and can find nothing better to do than ban feeding cats or destroy their shelters. We receive dozens of witness statements along these lines every week. The associations, who are weighed down by requests for support and continue to struggle, are on their side: those defending animals do the best they can to feed, treat, and even neuter stray cats at their own expense, despite inflation making their work more and more difficult.

The only solution to put an end to this misery can be found in obligatory neutering, as is the case in Spain or in Belgium, where this provision even made it possible to reduce the number of euthanisias.

Help us to move forward with this fight: share our report with your local council and sign our petition demanding an urgent national plan to put an end to feline straying and the suffering that it causes.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Killing at the cemetery: in Moselle, wild boars are slaughtered between gravestones

Killing at the cemetery: in Moselle, wild boars are slaughtered between gravestones
22.08.2023
Moselle
Killing at the cemetery: in Moselle, wild boars are slaughtered between gravestones
Wildlife

Killing animals in a cemetery; we should have thought of that. For a few months, we have been worried about opinions on the Moselle Prefecture’s methods, which clearly does not hesitate in disturbing the sleep of the dead by ‘cleaning’ a cemetery of animals who are not welcome. Nothing justifies these methods while alternatives exist.

In December 2022, the Moselle Prefect authorised the ‘testing’ of deer inside the Saint-Avold American cemetery. We therefore published an article, and the Prefecture guaranteed that these animals would be trapped and not killed. In the meantime, hunters were unleashed with the finesse that we know from them: “We would never kill animals in a cemetery!”, “these people know nothing”…

It is now clear that we were right to be concerned. On 17 August 2023, the Prefecture published a decree authorising ‘administrative shots’ on wild boars inside the cemetery. We are impatiently waiting for the reactions from those who oppose us. Perhaps we can explain to them that ‘administrative shots’ absolutely do not mean ‘killing’, but are simply about starting CERFA forms…

In any case, we are calling once again on the Prefecture: why kill animals while alternatives exist? Why not strengthen fences? Let’s understand: it is vital that the cemetery’s grass stays very green, and it is undoubtedly easier to clean up spots of blood than to put back a few clumps of earth dug up by wild boars.

No rational explanation, and more proof, if any is needed, that State services have definitively adopted hunters’ logic. No matter the situation, there is only one reaction: killing animals.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Fish are disappearing and the orcas living in the South Pacific are starving: let’s reopen the dams!

Fish are disappearing and the orcas living in the South Pacific are starving: let’s reopen the dams!
22.08.2023
International
Fish are disappearing and the orcas living in the South Pacific are starving: let’s reopen the dams!
Wildlife

Ten days. This is the time that we have left to question political representatives in the United States and convince them to save the orcas in the South Pacific. By opening the dams of the Snake River, salmon and rainbow trout who have seen a concerning decline could be protected, and it would finally allow residents of the Salish Sea to no longer suffer from starvation. Together, let’s rally for Lolita’s family.

In the past, orcas who swam in large numbers off the coast of Vancouver and Seattle could be seen playing and exploring the world around them for ages. Today, their daily life is an eternal search for silence, space, and food. Victims of pollution, fishing, heavy maritime traffic, and above all, imposing dams that decimate the fish populations that feed them, residents of the South Pacific die, among other things, from hunger.

Taking action on dams can wait no longer

Alongside our friends and partners from the Center for Whale Research, we are asking once again for the American government to guarantee the survival of orcas and fish who are evolving in the Snake River. For them to successfully spawn, four dams must be opened. An option considered by the Council on Environmental Quality, who is allowing citizens to give their views on this subject until 31 August. It is essential that measures are taken very quickly, otherwise orcas in the Salish Sea are at risk of disappearing.

Lolita’s family must outlive her

Captured in 1970 in a very violent way, the prisoner of Miami Seaquarium, also known as Tokitae or Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut, her Lummi name, passed away on 18 August without being able to see her mother again, who was still alive and the matriarch of pod L, or the vast expanses of water in which she had spent the first four years of her life. Those close to her were also captured to be sent to minuscule pools in four corners of the world; she was the last one surviving.

In her memory and for all of the members of her family, take action with us by calling on political representatives in the United States via social networks by combining #BidenBreachNow with your message and/or by commenting on the government project.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

2023: a record year for badgers!

2023: a record year for badgers!
18.08.2023
2023: a record year for badgers!

2023 was a milestone year. In ten new departments, judges have once again suspended additional periods for underground hunting with hounds. A grand finale that has closed an historic season where 80% of decrees contested by the association were suspended: in 29 areas out of the 36 where we have attacked, badger cubs and their parents will have their lives saved. More than 4000 of them will live and digging out is on the chopping block more than ever.

In March 2023, we launched a big legal push against additional periods for underground hunting with hounds. We have pulled out all the stops, along with our partners where it was possible, and rallied all of our energy to fight this type of unbearable hunting. Up until the middle of the summer, we attacked the prefectural decrees and continued to obtain bans on these planned massacres, often before the hunting season even started.

Ten new victories, and thousands of badgers saved

The ten suspensions obtained recently can be added to the 19 suspensions already obtained throughout the spring and summer.

In Aveyron, Corrèze, Creuse, Haute-Vienne, Indre, Indre-et-Loire, Seine-et-Marne, and Orne, with our partner AVES, we have convinced judges of the necessity of urgently suspending digging out. Faced with a total lack of any serious data and the risks for badger families that we have systematically shown, judges have heard us and have swept away the hunters’ untruthful arguments that they were whispering to the State.

We have even pushed the limits of the law on the ban on killing the young! In Essonne, in which we attacked alongside the LPO, the Tribunal did not let themselves be fooled by the Prefecture’s attempts, who had reported the opening of this type of hunting on 15 July supposedly to protect the young, and said ‘stop’ to this carnage despite the late date, since badger cubs are present in the setts for at least one year.

And in Puy-de-Dôme, the Clermont-Ferrand Administrative Tribunal confirmed its position: even though the Prefecture took out a second decree following our first victory – scheming that did not really surprise us much as the Prefectures are used to these practices – we once again achieved our aim with Animal Cross, AVES, FNE Aura, FNE Puy-de-Dôme, and LPO Aura.

In total, more than 4000 individuals were saved in total in 29 departments that went against the closure of this type of hunting that was already authorised for the rest of the year, and which we condemned the cruelty of thanks to a high-risk infiltration investigation within a team of diggers.

Additional period for underground hunting with hounds: the beginning of the end!

Thanks to all of this success, digging out in the spring and summer is jeopardised more than ever. The State Council itself confirmed without ambiguity the law banning killing badger cubs, and invited us to continue, department by department, to attack decrees. They are counting on us! Because if the additional period is in the dock, prefects do not give up: for spring 2024, several dozen decrees have already been passed… But we will be there, whenever needed, to put a definitive end to these massacres.

Let’s not forget that after the additional period, digging out could restart from September in numerous departments. Badgers are targeted, but also foxes, as we have shown in our infiltrations. We are going to continue to increase initiatives – such as our complaint to the Bern Convention – and to give these animals a voice, alongside the public!

All of these victories lead the way to the end of this unbearable persecution that these reserved heroes who are true architects of our country’s underground spaces are subjected to. Behind their black and white coat, they provide major services for wildlife (for example, their setts shelter protected species such as bats, wild cats, or even otters). In Bas-Rhin, like in several European countries (the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Luxembourg…), hunting them is banned and damage is not increased: logical, since badgers feed mainly on berries. They can reproduce in peace here – and this happens slowly, which further justifies them being protected.

So that diggers stop spreading terror in the countryside – as more than four in five French people would like (IPSOS/One Voice survey, September 2022)- more than ever, support badgers and sign our petition for the abolition of underground badger hunting with hounds and for their protection!

The 29 victories in the spring and summer of 2023

Aisne: hearing of 16/06/2023 (Amiens Administrative Tribunal)

Aube: hearing of 06/06/2023 (Châlons-en-Champagne Administrative Tribunal)

Allier: hearing of 30/05/2023 and 18/07/2023 (Clermont-Ferrand Administrative Tribunal)

Aveyron: hearing of 27/07/2023 (Toulouse Administrative Tribunal)

Charente-Maritime: hearing of 09/05/2023 (Poitiers Administrative Tribunal)

Corrèze: hearing of 17/07/2023 (Limoges Administrative Tribunal)

Creuse: hearing of 01/08/2023 (Limoges Administrative Tribunal)

Essonne: hearing of 09/08/2023 (Versailles Administrative Tribunal)

Eure-et-Loir: hearing of 05/06/2023 (Orléans Administrative Tribunal)

Haute-Loire: hearing of 20/06/2023 (Clermont-Ferrand Administrative Tribunal)

Haute-Vienne: hearing of 01/08/2023 (Limoges Administrative Tribunal)

Ille-et-Vilaine: hearing of 08/06/2023 (Rennes Administrative Tribunal)

Indre: hearing of 01/08/2023 (Limoges Administrative Tribunal)

Indre-et-Loir: hearing of 10/08/2023 (Orléans Administrative Tribunal)

Loir-et-Cher: hearing of 03/07/2023 (Orléans Administrative Tribunal)

Loiret: hearing of 05/06/2023 (Orléans Administrative Tribunal)

Maine-et-Loire: hearing of 27/07/2023 (Nantes Administrative Tribunal)

Manche: hearing of 09/05/2023 (Caen Administrative Tribunal)

Meuse: hearing of 13/06/2023 (Nancy Administrative Tribunal)

Nièvre: hearing of 31/03/2023 (Dijon Administrative Tribunal)

Oise: hearing of 09/05/2023 (Amiens Administrative Tribunal)

Orne: hearing of 03/08/2023 (Caen Administrative Tribunal)

Puy-de-Dôme: hearing of 30/05/2023 and 01/08/2023 (Clermont-Ferrand Administrative Tribunal)

Savoie: hearing of 16/06/2023 (Grenoble Administrative Tribunal)

Seine-et-Marne: hearing of 25/07/2023 (Melun Administrative Tribunal)

Tarn-et-Garonne: hearing of 03/05/2023 (Toulouse Administrative Tribunal)

Vienne: hearing of 26/05/2023 (Poitiers Administrative Tribunal)

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Trapping: today it is a fawn; how many other victims before a shake-up happens?

Trapping: today it is a fawn; how many other victims before a shake-up happens?
17.08.2023
Bouches-du-Rhône
Trapping: today it is a fawn; how many other victims before a shake-up happens?
Wildlife

Every year, tens of thousands of animals are trapped in France. Apart from the cruelty of it, this practice constitutes a major danger for many of them, wild or not, who are immobilised, mutilated, or killed. In the outskirts of the town of Aurons, a fawn was recently taken by a neck snare trap. Faced with the growing concern of all citizens who fear for wild animals and for their pets, we are alerting the mayor so that the person responsible for this illegal installation can be identified and we are once again condemning trapping as a practice.

Pets or wild animals: no one is spared

A few months ago, we announced that we were filing a complaint for Mani, a cat who almost had to have an amputation after being trapped in a neck snare. After long hours of suffering, he was finally freed and his paw saved in the nick of time. Cooper was saved from a leg-hold trap, and a wolf was found strangled in a fox trap in Gard. We have filed a complaint for them too. Despite repeated alerts, nothing has changed, and forests are transformed into an obstacle course for animals.

In the small village of Aurons, dismayed residents have recently alerted us after having discovered a panicked fawn taken by a trap in August 2023. For several hours, he remained immobilised, a strong metal wire tightening around his neck all the more as he tried to escape.

Far from being anecdotal, these cases are symptomatic of the hypocrisy of the regulations. To be authorised, traps are supposed to be ‘selective’. In other words, they must only be used for species classified as likely to cause damage (previously ‘pests’). How can they be selective if they are put in the middle of the forest, ready to spring into action at the slightest movement? In reality, these devices work in an indiscriminate way, whatever the animal may be.

Traps: a nightmare for animals classified as species likely to cause damage

Beyond trapping non-targeted individuals, every year, from foxes to stone martens and crows to jays, hundreds of thousands of animals lose their lives, killed by trappers. Strangled by neck snares, mutilated by leg-hold traps, trapped by their leg that is often broken before being killed, imprisoned in cages, or tangled up in nets, nothing spares them.

The ordeal of members of these species on the ground that are supposedly ‘pests’ is constant: at any time and anywhere, hunters are formidably inventive when they conquer them. While we are filing a plea against the classification of numerous species as ‘species likely to cause damage’ throughout the area, we are solemnly calling on authorities to take action and responsibility, while our forests are progressively turning into minefields for all animals.

For the fawn in Aurons, we have written to the town mayor so that the trapper can be identified and pursued. For all of the others, collective support is vital! Sign our petition for a radical reform of hunting, and let us know about any trap that does not clearly show the trapper’s registration number!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

New investigation at Parc Saint Léger: nothing has changed for animals at the settled circus

New investigation at Parc Saint Léger: nothing has changed for animals at the settled circus
17.08.2023
France
New investigation at Parc Saint Léger: nothing has changed for animals at the settled circus
Exploitation for shows

After the April 2022 seizure at Parc Saint Léger, has Kid Bauer done what is needed to transform his settled circus into a haven of peace for the ring-tailed lemurs, lions and other animals? Not really! Our investigation from May 2023 shows that their situation is still as alarming, from the felines and raccoons imprisoned in ridiculous spaces and ring-tailed lemurs exposed to dozens of tourists inside their enclosure. While this is still happening, we are filing another complaint for illegal operation and mistreatment by a professional.

Nothing, or almost nothing, has changed since two muntjacs, a porcupine, a swan, two macaws, four tortoises, and a python were seized last year, which happened thanks to our investigators’ footage and our complaint for mistreatment. Far from taking a good look at themselves, the Saint-Léger-en-Braye settled circus continues to exploit the animals that they exhibit without changing any of their living conditions.

When the park is open, the ring-tailed lemurs have groups of fifteen to twenty people coming through their enclosure. The whole crowd is talking to each other. Led by the adults, some of the scared children cry while others shout with excitement and their ‘caregiver’ does not ask them to calm down. There is also no warning of the very real risk of zoonotic diseases, while visitors feed the animals perched on their shoulders by hand. Invaded from all sides, the ring-tailed lemurs have to endure these stressful moments if they want to eat, even if it means getting trampled. A scenario that is not improbable, since even the member of staff who shows them around the enclosure admits to having stepped on one of the lemurs’ tails earlier in the day. A surreal scene!

Raccoons who try to escape

In the raccoons’ miniature enclosure, the bowls are empty and wooden planks and concrete slabs litter the floor as a distraction. They have no trees and no swimming area to use, while in the wild they love climbing, swimming, and travel over a distance from one to three square kilometres. How surprising is it in such conditions that one of them, staring at us with his piercing gaze through the mesh, seems to be desperately looking for a big enough gap to escape through?

Lions and tigers still kept captive but not on the park map

Although Parc Saint Léger has not presented an elephant show since the ones Baby was forced to do in 2019 and seems to have abandoned the performances during which they brought a spectator into the lionesses cage, the trained big cats are still there. You could believe the opposite given that the lions and tigers no longer feature on the settled circus’ map or among the photos of the animals kept…

Shut up in an enclosure that does not allow them to hide or find any shade, all suffering from sterotypies, expressing their stress and boredom by the comings and goings that leave long, bare paths in the middle of the grass of these open-air prisons.

Nothing, neither the revelations from our investigations, nor the rescue nor the reminders to competent authorities, seems to have an effect on Kid Bauer. Are they waiting for the trainer to take an example from his brother and send his prisoners to die elsewhere, like at Belvédère, the Tunisian zoo where Gilbert Bauer abandoned Baby? Parc Saint Léger must close and all of the animals there must be placed into a sanctuary.

Every time, our footage has revealed the disastrous consequences for these animals. In 2023, the situation has hardly changed. For the pumas, giant tortoises, kangaroos, and all of the others, we are once again filing a complaint against the establishment.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Thousands of dogs destined for laboratories in the United States are being sent to Denmark to flood the European market

Thousands of dogs destined for laboratories in the United States are being sent to Denmark to flood the European market
09.08.2023
International
Thousands of dogs destined for laboratories in the United States are being sent to Denmark to flood the European market
Animal testing

Thanks to an investigation by Anima Denmark and Camp Beagle (England), we are condemning the terrible fate that has hit, and continues to hit, hundreds of dogs, particularly those destined for French laboratories. Alongside them and with numerous partners on an international level, One Voice is calling for Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) to stop transporting dogs to laboratories and for Copenhagen Airport to stop accepting them and facilitating their distribution throughout Europe. We are also asking for the closure of all Marshall BioResources breeding farms behind these imports and an end to testing on dogs.

On 14 January 2022, 74 dogs were sent by the New York breeding farm Marshall BioResources (MBR) to the Charles River laboratories in Évreux in Normandy. Three weeks later, another flight sent 83 others to French, Italian, and Danish laboratories.

Dogs’ terror in transportation boxes is only the start of the hell that awaits them

This new footage revealed by Anima Denmark and filmed at Copenhagen Airport is probably the only trace that remains of the existence of these animals. Worried, tired, wading through their own excrement, they remain enclosed for hours or even days in transportation boxes fixed to pallets. In Copenhagen, between two planes, one coming from the United States and others whose marks indicate France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain… they are thrown around in the wind, the noise of the turbines, ready to be sent to a place where they will undergo an ordeal and die. Their barking is heartbreakingly eloquent.

And that is just a small sample of the numerous imports carried out by MBR in Europe. According to Camp Beagle (England) who obtained and analysed data from British and Danish authorities; over three years, almost 5000 dogs were sent in this way. Every time, it’s Scandinavian Airlines at Copenhagen Airport who are involved, with the passengers on the flight not suspecting a thing.

The breeding giant for labs: Marshall in Europe…

The Marshall company was established in France at the end of the 1990s (nowadays known under the Lyon-based company ironically named ‘Utopia’) to import dogs from the United States to Europe. More recently, the company has bought the Gannat and then the Mézilles breeding farms to “produce” its animals directly in France, which is undoubtedly more profitable. But apparently, this is still not enough.

In Italy, while the Green Hill Marshall breeding farm was closed and its directors were imprisoned for cruelty towards dogs in 2015-2016, it was the parent company who took over and from then on continued exporting. In Spain, the Vivotecnia laboratory continued to receive dogs throughout 2022, despite the damning investigation led by our partner Cruelty Free International.

It is high time that this is stopped

Today, the dogs that we see in this footage are certainly all dead, after being poisoned due to testing of toxic products (specifically pesticides) and the consequences of these tests.

With our international partners Anima (Denmark) and Camp Beagle (England) and alongside Doctors Against Animal Experiments (Germany), Cerremos Vivotecnia (Spain), Animal Rights (the Netherlands and Belgium), Daniel Rolke (Sweden), and Peta (USA), we are calling for an end to Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) transporting dogs to laboratories and for the Copenhagen Airport to commit against these kinds of imports. We are also asking that all MBR breeding farms in Europe be closed and, like three quarters of French people (IPSOS/One Voice survey, April 2023), for an end to testing on dogs.

To appeal to them, you can use the texts below on social media.

Twitter:

.@SAS @SAS_Complaints @CPHAirports, stop participating in the transportation of dogs to laboratories and to their deaths! #AnimalTesting #MBRGatewaytoHell #EndAnimalTesting #freethembrbeagle @TheCampBeagle_ @animadk https://one-voice.fr/news/d…

Facebook:

flysas and copenhagenairport, stop participating in the transportation of dogs to laboratories and to their deaths! #AnimalTesting #MBRGatewaytoHell #EndAnimalTesting #freethembrbeagle thecampbeagle animadk https://one-voice.fr/fr/blog/d…

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Underground badger hunting with hounds: the State Council recognises protection given to the “young”

Underground badger hunting with hounds: the State Council recognises protection given to the “young”
08.08.2023
France
Underground badger hunting with hounds: the State Council recognises protection given to the “young”
Wildlife

Referred to by ASPAS, AVES France, and One Voice, on 28 July, the State Council returned its decision relating to the legality of the article from the Environmental Code allowing the opening of additional periods for underground badger hunting with hounds by prefects. Although this is a mixed decision, education has already had the effect of leading administrative tribunals to suspend the additional periods in place.

Underground hunting with hounds is a hunting practice that consists of digging out animals with the help of dogs to locate and corner them, then pickaxes and shovels to dig, and finally giant pliers and knives or guns to drag them out and then slaughter the so-called hunted animals. Prefects can authorise additional periods of underground hunting with hounds with decrees, which is in addition to the annual hunting seasons, and which therefore take place between mid-May and mid-September. A ministerial decree regulates the way in which the prefects can publish these decrees on a local level. It is this ministerial decree that our associations are attacking before the State Council.

ASPAS, AVES France, and One Voice have been condemning this cruel hunting method for years, and have specifically filed a complaint at the Bern Committee and obtained numerous suspensions of prefectural decrees in recent years, thus sparing thousands of badgers.

At the centre of the debates: the young

While rejecting associations’ pleas on the grounds that the contested article does not explicitly authorise killing the “young”, he recalls the ban on killing badger cubs. In doing so, he undermines hunters’ and the Ministry of the Ecological Transition’s arguments that consist of pretending that this ban does not apply to badger hunting.

It must be clarified that the “young”, in a scientific sense, are animals that are not able to reproduce and thus to contribute to the continuation of the species. Hunters taking weaning as the date that badgers become an adult is scientific nonsense because weaning is only one step in a badger’s feeding journey. Quite logically, no scientific study mentions weaning as a sign of moving into adulthood.

Then, without commenting on scientific studies relating to the species’ biology, the State Council took the debate back to a local level: they indicated that the Prefect is required to ensure, with regard to the local situation, that “such an extension [on underground hunting with hounds] is not likely to harm the state of the badger population or to favour ignorance, by hunters, of the legal ban on destroying young badgers”.

Incomplete or missing data

Yet, on one hand, campaigns by associations to gather information carried out in recent years around prefectures have shown that they keep very little data, or even none, on badger populations on a local level. The reality of the damage that the prefectures allege to base their decrees on is never shown, including when it comes to defending these decrees in front of administrative judges.
On the other, it has also been established that in most departments, up to 40% of those killed each year are young badgers that are not sexually mature.
As a consequence, based on scientific data, the administrative judges are suspending the additional periods for underground badger hunting with hounds en masse, specifically on the grounds of the impact on the badger cubs.

The decision by the State Council has convinced tribunals to follow their lead: since this decision was published, no less than five rulings have been delivered to suspend additional periods owing to: 1) their impact on “young” badgers; and 2) the lack of reliable data kept by prefectures both on the badger populations in each department and the damage that they are alleging.

While we regret that the State Council has not taken the opportunity to definitively put an end to this dispute, since tribunals on a departmental level are continuing to be referred to with pleas against inevitably illegal additional periods, we still welcome their contribution, putting an end to absurd debates and finally making prefectures responsible when it comes to badger hunting.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice