News Archive - Page 48 of 153

‘Cyno Breeders’ – the Mauritian industry of capturing and breeding macaques

‘Cyno Breeders’ – the Mauritian industry of capturing and breeding macaques
27.11.2023
Île Maurice
‘Cyno Breeders’ – the Mauritian industry of capturing and breeding macaques
Animal testing

Among the names of macaque breeding farms in the Island of Mauritius, two names keep reoccurring: Noveprim and BioCulture. With their Mauritian counterparts, these two companies have formed the ‘Cyno Breeders Association’, dedicated to propaganda in favour of animal testing, for the financial interests of its members. But their lies pale in comparison to the footage that was only just reported by our investigators in 2023. We are asking that these establishments are closed down.

Noveprim, created in the 1980s, is today half-owned by the Charles River company, which guarantees them a share of the American market. In Europe, its revenue is guaranteed by its Spanish centre, Camarney, which has sold more than 30,000 long-tailed macaques since 2005.

When it comes to BioCulture, its shareholders are companies run by other entities, going back to the Griffiths family which was established in the 1980s. Recently, a joint venture was set up with an Indian laboratory that carried out tests on animals.

From propaganda to reality

These two giants in primate trade collaborate with other local breeders from the Cyno Breeders Association, who themselves are also looking to promote animal testing at any cost, even if they are using shameful propaganda methods.

On this association’s website, we read that its members “opt for ethical practices that adhere to strict regulations and guarantee the highest standards of welfare for monkeys”. Our investigation, at one of these sites and during a capturing session by Noveprim, contradicts this with its footage.

According to what we see in the videos, welfare would therefore consist of a concrete cage combined with metal wire with, best case, a few plastic tunnels and ladders whose colour hardly cheers up the surrounding gloominess and oppressing acoustics. Not to mention the health risks, mutilations, or even illegal trafficking.

The economy against animals

Unfortunately, according to the European Commission, “it is not possible to contemplate a realistic way of only using primates from autonomous colonies in the short or long term”.

In fact, this ‘realism’ is a deliberate choice to always favour economical and industrial aspects to the detriment of animal interests. Clearly, breeding animals who have never felt the soil and grass beneath their feet is unacceptable. But captive individuals have one less source of suffering at least – being captured.

For a peaceful and shared future

Last year, long-tailed macaques were declared to be in danger of extinction in South Asia. In Mauritius, the situation is less clear.

While we estimate that the Mauritian population was around 30,000 individuals forty years ago, there were no more than 8000 in 2009, and no reliable data has been published since. Unfortunately, recent projects that attempt to assess how many of them there are on the island are done in collaboration with those who capture them… logical.

We would like massive and urgent funding for research methods without animals in order to facilitate the end of animal testing.

To help to move forward in this way, you can sign our petition asking for the closure of breeding farms and an end to capturing Mauritian macaques destined for laboratories.

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

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Melles: the hunting season for goats is open!

Melles: the hunting season for goats is open!
23.11.2023
Haute-Garonne
Melles: the hunting season for goats is open!
Wildlife

It is well known: goats are particularly destructive animals who represent a huge danger for public safety. With this in mind, the Melles (31) mayor has chosen a radical (and illegal) solution: to authorise hunters to kill a group of goats that have been abandoned in the hills of the village. And this is even despite the existence of numerous alternatives. Of course, it is always the same individuals who pay the price: animals. We are attacking this interim decree before the Toulouse Administrative Tribunal. The hearing is on 28 November 2023 at 10am.

Photo: Melles Collectif Preservons Melles with their kind permission.

Goats: ferocious animals

A few weeks ago, the mayor from a town in the Alpes-Maritimes department received some chilling information: four goats had the bad idea of… dropping a few stones onto the tennis courts. Without a second thought, the councillor authorised for them to be killed. The result: 4 animals were killed. We have condemned this situation but, clearly, the goats are easy to blame. In Melles, there are almost one hundred of them whose slaughter has been ordered, for ridiculous reasons.

The law allows the mayor to take measures to find a solution for the presence of “ferocious and destructive” animals. It is well known that goats are bloodthirsty animals who cause very significant damage throughout France. It is difficult to remain serious faced with such absurdity…

A doubly illegal massacre

Why not look for alternatives? Let’s remember that the mayor has significant power at their disposal to manage the presence of stray animals. If we are to believe the decree, there is no possible solution because the goats would move into an area that is not accessible to vehicles. And this even though they are actually accused of causing damage… to vehicles. How can anyone understand this?

Once again, the reality is very far from what is put forward by the town. It is about nothing more or less than offering easy targets to hunters. Under normal circumstances, administrative battles are entrusted to “wildlife control officers”, the State’s combat arms against animals. But, in Melles, the massacre is entrusted to local shooters. The cherry on the cake: this operation will happen… throughout the whole season. They have to make the pleasure last.

For dozens of goats who are at the point of becoming the umpteenth victims of this cruel hobby, and even though 60% of French people consider hunting to be ineffective in fighting against supposed damage caused by animals, we are attacking this decree urgently before the Toulouse Administrative Tribunal, where we will give them a voice during a hearing on 28 November at 10am.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Let’s rally for the wolves: we are participating in great numbers in the ministry’s public consultations!

Let’s rally for the wolves: we are participating in great numbers in the ministry’s public consultations!
23.11.2023
France
Let’s rally for the wolves: we are participating in great numbers in the ministry’s public consultations!
Wildlife

While the current National Action Plan (NAP) for wolves and farming activities will come to end on 31 December, a new plan and draft decree aiming to strengthen the (already formidable) use of lethal shots is currently subject to public consultation. Currently, the aim is to ensure the effective protection of a species but here, contrary to appearances, it is quite the opposite that is being sought. Given the media coverage of the agricultural lobby and the outing of many politicians who show little concern for animals’ fate, we are not expecting much, but still… Help us to advance the fight by responding to these consultations before 7 December 2023.

Wolves are collateral victims of intensive farming practices. Demonised, they are killed in their masses under the pretext of legal shots in the name of protecting herds of animals destined for the abattoir. Unfortunately, wolves are little-known animals who wrongly suffer from a bad reputation. They are, however, sensitive and intelligent, and their ways of life are ultimately similar to our own: they are made up of real families, where each of them has a well-defined function in the wolf cubs’ upbringing. As for their role for such a fragile biodiversity, this no longer needs to be demonstrated! This does not prevent the government from taking ever more unfavourable measures against them, due to the power of the hunting lobbies and industrial agriculture.

Openly anti-wolf projects

The contents of the first consultation surpassed our worst predictions… The plan was void of any substance to the benefit of the sacrosanct interests of farmers. In fact, the document displays unfailing support for existing farming practices without ever questioning their negative consequences. The biggest losers here are clearly the wolves. Their protection is no longer at the heart of the project, in fact quite the opposite: they are appointed as targets to be slaughtered.

The second consultation relates to a draft decree whose purpose is nothing more or less than to reinforce the use of lethal shots. On the program: an increase in the number of shooters, a generalisation of the possibility of using thermal cameras to better target wolves, an end of the obligation to shine a light on them before shooting, the end of the suspension of shooting authorisations when an individual is killed… In short, the draft decree amounts to confirming the possibility of massacring representatives of a protected species.

Unbearable and senseless persecution

The two projects submitted to the consultation have received unfavourable opinions from the CNPN [Conseil national de la protection de la nature – French National Council for the Conservation of Nature]. Despite all of this, the government, committed to defending the worst agricultural interests, remains deaf to warnings from scientists and nature protection associations who recommend not killing wolves.

No matter how unbalanced the game is and how difficult victories are to come by, we will continue to fight for wolves. For more information on who they are and their situation, we invite you to consult our report. We need your support in this fight. This is why we are offering you, below, a ‘toolbox’ that will allow you to participate in the consultation up until 7 December 2023 and therefore to defend wolves.

TO SAY NO TO THE NAP PROJECT, CLICK HERE :

Protecting wolves is not addressed in the project:

No protection aims for wolves appears in the project even though the species is classified as ‘vulnerable’ in France.
Nothing is planned to guarantee that the wolf population will do well in the future.
The NAP project even goes so far as to recognise the need to increase the use of lethal shots. It is hard to imagine anything less protective than this.
As noted by the CNPN, continuing shots, including during the reproduction period, is contrary to the very essence of the status of a protected species.

The NAP project favours farming to the detriment of wolves:

It reverses the logic of the NAP, supposed to be protective, and echoes the anti-wolf discontent of the farmers it defends.
It maintains the unjustified principle of non-protectability of cow herds: a farmer can let his cow herd wander without any supervision or protection, then come and demand authorisation to kill wolves.

The NAP project does not insist enough on the protection of herds with non-lethal methods:

No assessment/feedback on herd protection measures has been established.
The NAP does not bother to strengthen checking measures on the implementation of herd protection measures.

The NAP project disregards the positive impacts of wolves within the ecosystem and does not even address them:

Wolves, however, continue to maintain a balance in natural environments by limiting the development of deer and wild boar populations.
Wolves assist biodiversity.

TO SAY NO TO THE DRAFT DECREE, CLICK HERE :

The draft decree reinforces the use of lethal shots to the detriment of alternative solutions:

The draft decree includes a series of measures intended to ensure that shots kill even more effectively.
This project indirectly paves the way for an unacceptable increase in the upper limits for killing wolves, a protected species.
The draft decree contravenes the logic of “protected species” exemptions which must normally remain exceptional and a last resort.

The draft decree keeps ‘test shots’:

‘Test shots’ – which are similar to real wolf hunts – are part of the project. The government does not even intend to take even a small step in favour of wolves by ending this possibility.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Hunting birds by crushing them under a stone: is it the end for stone traps?

Hunting birds by crushing them under a stone: is it the end for stone traps?
22.11.2023
France
Hunting birds by crushing them under a stone: is it the end for stone traps?
Wildlife

If there is one thing that characterises hunters, it is their ability to come up with yet more cruel ways of killing animals. Under the cover of ‘tradition’, they use techniques each more violent than the next that cause intense suffering for field larks, thrushes, lapwings, and all other bird species used as targets here. Our fight against these practices from a bygone era is moving forward: on 23 November 2023 at 9:30am, the State Council will decide on our request to definitely annul the use of s tone traps in Aveyron and Lozère.

After glue, cages, nets, and decoys, the moment of truth has come for stone traps

For thrushes in Lozère and Aveyron, stone traps are synonymous with suffering and death. They are small bird traps that spring into action when the bird touches the bait: a stone then falls on it, giving it no chance. When the bird is not killed instantly, it suffers fractures which will condemn it and stop it from flying away. The trapper can then come and get it to finish it off, most often by hand.

Since 2018, we have been leading a relentless fight against all of these types of hunting. While stone traps in Ardennes and glue in the south-west have definitively been banned by the State Council and the decrees authorising cages and nets have been urgently suspended, judges have not yet ruled on stone traps. Beyond their barbaric character, this practice is clearly illegal, as we have been saying for years.

To what point will the government support traditional hunting against birds?

So why continue to persist in authorising these sadistic tools that concern only a handful of people but cause so much suffering to birds? Defending traditions is easy to blame! In reality, it is nothing more or less than satisfying the demands of a lobby. And it is an understatement to say that the current government is giving crazy amounts of energy to protecting this minority who take pleasure in killing.

Under the cover of ‘scientific experimentation’, they also recently allowed the capture of several thousand birds with nets, cages, and stone traps, which is in fact frowned upon by the State Council! Our pleas allowed the suspension of three of the five decrees and it is a safe bet that the government will try its luck again next year in the event that the decrees authorising cages and nets are not definitively cancelled by the State Council by then.

But if the legal system sticks to its consistent position, we are hopeful that stone traps, like trapping and glue hunting, will soon be nothing more than a distant memory for animals. And if,like 70% of French people, you believe that hunting is a cruel practice, sign our petition for a radical reform of it!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Persecution of animals’ bodies: but how far will they go?

Persecution of animals’ bodies: but how far will they go?
21.11.2023
France
Persecution of animals’ bodies: but how far will they go?
Wildlife

The body of a wild boar dragged by a car for several metres. Strapped to a wheelchair in full view of the camera. All to the soundtrack of a happy song and the sarcastic comments of a young man who clearly finds all of this very funny. In France, all animals bear the brunt of the violence that humans are capable of. If they are wild, they are the most exposed and can be the target, completely illegally, of the worst atrocities. And even when they are dead, they continue to be victims of the most crass inhumanity by some people who will do anything just for a few ‘likes’.

Humiliating sentient beings even in death to amuse an audience

On 20 November, we received a new report. On his Instagram account, a photographer had published several videos of him and a friend entertaining themselves with a dead wild boar. The boar was attached to a car with a rope before being dragged along the tarmac. The passenger of the car filmed the body and was amused by the situation: “we’ve got a problem here, there’s a wild boar behind us”. The animal was then attached to a wheelchair and wheeled around to bursts of laughter. Between those who find decapitating geese and rabbits to be a rite of passage and others who entertain themselves with a dead animal, what has this society come to?

For many months, we have been alerting the public to these repeated outrages. From the head of a wild boar abandoned on a public bench to the remains of foxes hung at village entrances, it is hard to see where these people who think nature is a playground and those who live here with these objects at their disposal will stop. Being able to kill them limitlessly is not enough for them, they must also torture their remains!

The law allows the worst atrocities against wild animals. Let’s change that!

Let’s not forget that, in France, the law does not ban acts of cruelty against wild animals. They can be hunted, killed, and even tortured with no consequences. How can anyone understand this difference in treatment? Like dogs, wild boars are capable of great affection. Like dogs, they feel pain. So why treat them differently?

The explanation is clear: to preserve hunting. All of the attempts to protect wild individuals are met head-on by the hunters’ lobby. And while our politicians deliberate, it is always the same ones that pay the highest price: badgers and foxes who are going to be massacred even in their burrows, including the young, birds who are killed with bare hands within the context of traditional hunting, which the government is looking to reauthorise…

Although our many fights have been fruitful and have allowed us to save yet more lives, from mountain Galliformes to badgers, it is essential that we continue to give wild animals a voice. While waiting for them to be protected, you can sign our petition for a radical reform of hunting!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Horseshoe crabs tested on for their blood: yes, alternatives exist

Horseshoe crabs tested on for their blood: yes, alternatives exist
21.11.2023
France
Horseshoe crabs tested on for their blood: yes, alternatives exist
Animal testing

In a video published by online media company Brut on Wednesday 15 November, an underwater photographer explains regretfully that the blood of horseshoe crabs is necessary for the production of all vaccines. An incorrect statement that we are going back on.

In the video, we hear the interviewee state that, today, “we cannot go without horseshoe crabs” to make vaccines, and even that there is “no alternative” and that “this is why half a million horseshoe crabs are captured and fished each year”.

These lies, broadcast to thousands of people, obviously made us hopping mad given that methods without these animals have existed for around fifteen years.

Monocyte activation tests*, which assess the pyrogenicity** of substances directly on human blood components, have been approved since 2006 and were included in the European Pharmacopoeia in 2009. And that is not all: since 2020, it has also been possible to use a synthesis reaction to guarantee the safety of the products being tested for future patients.

These recognised methods do not, however, force laboratories to stop using horseshoe crabs who are arthropods living on the seabed that are endangered now due to overfishing and the loss of their habitat. According to the report, horseshoe crabs – from whom 30% of their blood was taken – are released into the wild and marked so that they are not used for a second ‘sample’. Despite these minimal provisions, with this blood loss, half of them die as a result of this barbaric protocol.

Worse, despite the existence of methods that do not involve animal suffering, researchers sometimes persist in living in the past. We saw this in rabbits: the monocyte activation tests that could also replace the pyrogen tests carried out on them did not prevent France from testing on more and more individuals for these experiments between 2015 and 2019 and from killing them.

Faced with researchers’ relentlessness and generalised resistance on this subject, it is necessary for laboratories to use alternative methods to animal experimentation when they exist, for any information produced to highlight alternative methods, and for public authorities to fund research into them where they do not exist!

*Monocyte Activation Tests (MAT) measure the release of cytokines (molecules that participate in the activation of an immune response) with monocytes (cells present in the blood) while human blood is exposed to a trial substance.

**that which induces fever

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

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

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

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

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

Breeding activity practised illegally and knowingly

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To find out more about Arche de Noël

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

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

Arche de Noël: children subjected to the spectacle of animal abuse
18.11.2023
Arche de Noël: children subjected to the spectacle of animal abuse
Domestic animals

As well as pet animals, Arche de Noël also abuses rats who are disliked but just as sensitive. Considered by the bosses to be ‘pests’, these little rodents are victims of unspeakably cruel abuse and, to make matters worse, children are exposed to it and are themselves pushed into being perpetrators. We have filed a complaint and are asking that these animals be rescued. For this, we need your help.

Our investigation, led from October 2022 to February 2023 at Arche de Noël, revealed that the rats were everywhere: in the false ceiling of the miserable nursery, digging underground tunnels underneath the outside kennels, walking around the edge of the swimming pool and even close to the enclosures. They are victims of terrible abuse, just like the dogs who are abused, beaten, and enclosed all the time to be used for breeding.

Death by drowning

Cage-traps are placed around the entire property. They are then immersed like that into the swimming pool, with the rats trapped inside, after several days of agony prey to hunger and thirst, and are drowned without a second thought.

Killing dogs by making them eat poisoned rats

For the rodents that are too suspicious to go into the traps, poison is scattered around the farm. One day in November, in front of a kennel, a rat was found immobile and lethargic. One of the volunteers stated that “he has been poisoned and is not well” and offered to finish him off with a shovel before changing her mind, feeling that she could not kill an animal (at least in front of a witness). She then set out to find someone to kill it for her, without success. Then she tried to encourage Ola, a Belgian Shepherd, to devour the rodent. In context, an abominable death and an astounding idea when we know that the rat has certainly ingested poison and that the dog will inevitably be poisoned in turn. Several months later, we learnt that unfortunately this is what ended up happening to Ola. One more death in this breeding farm of horrors.

Encouraging children to throw stones at rats

Seconds afterwards, a child of about 7 or 8 years old appeared who eventually grabbed a stone and threw it at the lifeless animal, under the amused gaze of the adults around him. The little boy stayed there for a while, impassive, staring at this little animal convulsing, before turning around, smiling, and shouting: “I got it!”. This is the sordid atmosphere that prevails over Arche de Noël, for a little boy to commit an act of such cruelty of his own accord and be so proud of it… Children are not violent towards animals by nature but can become so by reproducing behaviours that they have witnessed. At this age, their psyche is in full development. Being exposed to such an atmosphere seriously calls into question their learning of good and bad and the development of their capacity for empathy. Many studies have shown that there is a link between violence inflicted on animals and violence inflicted on humans.

Rats are intelligent, social animals, themselves gifted with sensitivity in the same way as a dog or rabbit. To get rid of them, they are tortured when the only solution to resolve this ‘problem’ would be to implement basic hygiene measures and stick to them.

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

Sign our petition to ask for the closure of this breeding farm.

To find out more about Arche de Noël

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

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

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

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

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

A deadly and extremely contagious canine disease

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

Death confirmed within and outside the breeding farm

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

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

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

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

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

To find out more about Arche de Noël

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

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

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

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

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

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

Dangerous overpopulation for the animals

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

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

Slaughtered because no one wanted to help her

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

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

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

To find out more about Arche de Noël

Translated from the French by Joely Justice