News Archive - Page 49 of 147

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

The decree listing species likely to cause damage has been published. As promised, we are challenging it!

The decree listing species likely to cause damage has been published. As promised, we are challenging it!
04.08.2023
France
The decree listing species likely to cause damage has been published. As promised, we are challenging it!
Wildlife

The Ministry for the Ecological Transition has just published on 4 August 2023 the decree listing species likely to cause damage for the next three years. This law will consequently allow, via prefectural decrees, the trapping and slaughter of the animals listed on it in addition to the hunting period that they are already subjected to… Visibly preferring wildlife and animals dead rather than alive, the Ministry has therefore just published a law that also condemns hundreds of thousands of individuals.

Beyond the principle of considering animals as harmful (or pests) by nature, we also challenge this method that regulates how they are chosen, which is totally distorted from the start. The game is rigged for weasels, martens, foxes, crows… the agricultural and hunting lobbies are completely free to organise the declarations of damage on which the list is based at the French Departmental Commission for Hunting and Wildlife (CDCFS – Commission départementale de la chasse et de la faune sauvage).

If anyone still believes that the government was keen to defend wildlife and biodiversity, it is time to open their eyes. In reality, they are organising its decline in the more or less short-term. In this case as in so many others, hunting is well and truly a deadly problem.

The Ministry is deaf to public opinion

In total, 49,266 opinions were received on the public consultation led by the Ministry. 70% of participants were opposed to the classification project that they proposed – which is 5% more than the previous decree. Yet the final law is a complete copy-and-paste of this project, to which 7 out of 10 people were opposed to!

As we have announced, we are going to file, as are other associations, a plea before the State Council to fight this nonsense and to defend the animals being targeted by French authorities. Economic interests or human hobbies cannot systematically lead to the massacre of living beings who are just as significant!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

From the circus to a zoo, Baby’s ordeal continues on the other side of the Mediterranean

From the circus to a zoo, Baby’s ordeal continues on the other side of the Mediterranean
03.08.2023
Tunis
From the circus to a zoo, Baby’s ordeal continues on the other side of the Mediterranean
Exploitation for shows

In June 2023, we went back to see Baby, this time in Tunisia. Alone in an enclosure without any water or an area to rest in, she has difficulty in standing on her legs which cause her acute pain. In France, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition condemns animals kept by circuses to get rid of them quickly.

After having documented the arrival of Baby at the zoo in Tunisia a few weeks ago, we went there to follow up on our investigation into her exploitation that has been ongoing for more than thirty years.

In the middle of the enclosure, the concrete pool is desperately empty. Nothing is provided to protect her from the blazing sun, or to relieve her disabled legs. And she risks falling in the empty pool at any moment and injuring herself even more. This new prison does not even have a single bit of enrichment that could allow her to break her boredom. So, to relieve the unbearable pain in her legs, Baby leans against a wall, her back to the public, without ever being able to escape them. She now struggles to rely on two of her legs. Her suffering is outrageous.

In a deafening racket of music and shouts, and while visitors throw her inedible food, Baby seems to be condemned to being locked up doing repetitive movements. Still isolated, she was quickly forgotten by Gilbert Bauer. The trainer, who did not stop professing his love for her, can no longer take a profit.

A dangerous place to die for the animals and the public alike

The water available to the monkeys, like for most of the animals, consists of a small dirty puddle. Even the ducks do not have a real pond. The bear running out of strength that was filmed in February seems to have disappeared… replaced by two others who kill time by watching visitors throw them food over the green-tinged water.

Worse: children enter into the hippopotamus’ enclosure to provoke him by making sudden gestures and throwing branches at him from the side of his pool. No one intervenes to move these intruding youths away from this animal who is part of a very dangerous territorial species.

A bit further, there is a board saying “Do not throw stones at the crocodiles”, reminding us that one of them was stoned to death.

The State continues to protect circuses to the detriment of the animals

Baby should never have been sent to this place to die. After her trainer having been convicted twice following our investigation at Parc Saint Léger in 2019 then a repeat offence in 2022, the legal system should have entrusted her to us. We actually proposed that we take charge of her and place her in a sanctuary where she would finally benefit from being cared for and some tranquillity.

While the government puts forward its « fight against animal mistreatment » by boasting about the end of wild animals being present in circuses, it would rather empty travelling establishments of their animals as quickly as possible whatever their fate may be, with no regard for the solutions that we have offered. After having left Dumba to dash off to Germany where she died less than a year later, Kamala to go the United Kingdom after the death of her companion Mina, or Nelly and Brigit as well as Rosa and Bambi who were sent to a circus in Hungary, it is unsurprising that the Ministry of Ecology has done everything they can to get rid of Baby, an elephant thrown out in the trash. The State undoubtedly thinks that we will applaud these despicable actions. In addition to the ministerial decree published on 13 July that unfortunately allowed circuses to obtain competency certificates equivalent to those held by zoos.

We no longer expect anything from the Ministry who have delivered animals from a protected species into the worst possible conditions. But for Baby and all of the others, we will continue to rally. Until their last breath.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

A new double victory for One Voice for bears in Ariège!

A new double victory for One Voice for bears in Ariège!
02.08.2023
Ariège
A new double victory for One Voice for bears in Ariège!
Wildlife

Our determination for bears has allowed us not to dwell on last week’s negative decision. In fact, the Toulouse Administrative Tribunal has just suspended the two decrees published on Monday evening (31 July 2023). No scaring shots will therefore take place tonight nor the next on the Arreau and Ourdouas pastures (second suspension ordered this year).

The hearing set for this morning was presided by a judge who had never had to rule before on our freedom emergency interim proceedings since the start of our weekly battles with the Ariège Prefecture. Among the questions he asked, we remembered this one in particular: if the scaring shots are so necessary and significant, why pass decrees for such a short duration?

We found the reasoning given by the judge for the Arreau pasture magnificent, and even more satisfying after the rejection the week before. Several specific arguments that we struggle with every time have finally been accepted, in particular on the issue of night watchmen, proof of significant damage, and proof that these simple scaring shots have taken place before any escalation of the measures implemented.

For the Ourdouas ‘shepherding group’, it was the same: the judge also referred the Prefecture to its responsibilities. It is for them, among others, to prove that the bears are the cause, not for us to justify that they have nothing to do with it.

This time, and it is a huge relief, the decisions have been returned before the shots even started. They are in line with the position we defend and are argued by Hélène Thouy and Olivier Vidal. Beyond the principle, it is also about, and above all against, the abuse of the Prefecture, who, let’s remember, only publishes these decrees to satisfy the farming lobby, without having the legal justification to do so.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

A complaint filed in Nice for a mare violently beaten in Levens

A complaint filed in Nice for a mare violently beaten in Levens
01.08.2023
Alpes-Maritimes
A complaint filed in Nice for a mare violently beaten in Levens
Domestic animals

On the weekend of 29 and 30 July, the Levens horse festival was held in the Alpes-Maritimes Department. A mare was brutally beaten by being kicked and hit with a stick by two people who could not get her into a truck, in front of dozens of witnesses. A surge of violence on a visibly scared animal incapable of escaping given that it was tethered. One Voice has filed a complaint for acts of cruelty in particular.

In the videos, widely shared on social media last weekend, we see a man and a woman violently beating a petrified mare by kicking it and hitting it with a stick, to try to get it to go into a lorry. The footage is unbearable, and the blows are so brutal that you can even hear the crack of the wood hitting the mare’s face and neck, who is completely terrified. According to witnesses at the scene, a shovel was even smashed on the animal’s head in the face of such persecution.

Mistreatment committed by a professional who would not be at his trial run…

How astonished we were to learn that the perpetrators were none other than a director of the equestrian centre and the animal’s owner! Since the announcement of our complaint being filed for acts of cruelty, serious abuse, and mistreatment by a professional (an aggravated circumstance), we have received several reports from former riders, witnesses of mistreatment toward the horses in this establishment.

In fact, these unbearable actions are not just a recent occurrence: there have been years of this, and for several minutes, a pony was hit on the head with a horse ball to the point where the straps broke open the bridge of her nose, going so far as to cause bleeding.

Hitting an animal is never acceptable

The Levens Mayor himself, who explained that he intervened and managed to load the mare calmly and without resorting to force into another truck a few minutes after all of this, testified to Nice-Matin: “This is not the first time that we have had problems with him. It’s crazy, it’s a scandal… We are behind the associations; we will support the complaints that will be filed.”

For this mare, we have filed a complaint for acts of cruelty, serious abuse, and mistreatment committed by a professional (an aggravating factor) on a domestic animal, tame or kept in captivity. So that justice can be done in this sordid matter, we are here to listen to any witness statement by persons present at the horse festival in Levens on Saturday 29 July when this happened.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Bear scaring: the weeks pass by and nothing changes in Ariège…

Bear scaring: the weeks pass by and nothing changes in Ariège…
01.08.2023
Ariège
Bear scaring: the weeks pass by and nothing changes in Ariège…
Wildlife

In response to us filing two new freedom emergency interim proceedings, a hearing has been urgently set at the Toulouse Administrative Tribunal tomorrow, 2 August 2023 at 9:30am, to get the two prefectural decrees made secretly (again) last night suspended. One Voice will be there for the bears.

Reinforced scaring planned for bears in the Pyrenees mountain range during the night from 2 and 3 August and from 3 to 4 August have been authorised this Monday, mostly after 5:30pm, by the Ariège Prefecture. For the Arreau pasture, our freedom emergency interim proceeding of two weeks ago led to the shots being interrupted. For the one in Ourdouas, it is as yet unpublished in 2023.

Once again, and this is clearly a new reality in this department in Occitania, the State does not care about giving bears even an ounce of space to breathe… or those defending them. Each week since the beginning of July, it is the same story: it is a race against time to stop scaring shots on bears and bear cubs, going against their health and that of the species as a whole.

These shots, which, let’s not forget, are a special dispensation to a strict protection regime, are likely to lead to intense stress, going so far as to cause miscarriage in pregnant females and the separation of the female bears from their young, which is unacceptable damage both in terms of the sentience of these animals as well as the environment. Their population is in great danger of extinction, to the point where captures have been carried out in Slovenia to try to reverse the trend… even though they are released into a territory that is highly hostile to their very existence.

Will the administrative tribunal challenge the arguments blown away by farmers?

Fortunately, the administrative tribunal heard the arguments developed in our first freedom emergency interim proceedings and did not challenge any of them the following week. We are furious about the irresponsible behaviour by the Prefecture who refuses to protect animals in danger, to benefit an all-powerful agricultural lobby who literally dictate their own laws.

However, nothing proves to farmers that bears are to blame! And even if that were the case, can we not find solutions that allow us to coexist without immediately jumping to their persecution?

At a time when the fight to preserve biodiversity and for animals’ rights to live in peace constitute a major challenge of our time, allowing the limitation of the demise of the living and the impact of environmental changes, the Prefecture makes the delirious choice to continue scaring bears.

On 2 August 2023 at 9:30am, we will therefore be present at the hearing at the Toulouse Tribunal (for the third time already this summer) to defend female bears and their young against scaring shots in the Ariége pastures of Ourdouas and Arreau.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

The One Voice, AVES, and PAZ Associations are rallying so that Valentin the bear will not be exhibited in Troyes this summer

The One Voice, AVES, and PAZ Associations are rallying so that Valentin the bear will not be exhibited in Troyes this summer
31.07.2023
Aube
The One Voice, AVES, and PAZ Associations are rallying so that Valentin the bear will not be exhibited in Troyes this summer
Exploitation for shows

The ‘hunting and countryside’ festival has been organised for 20 August 2023 at Château de Vaux and is planning to present a trained bear named Valentin to the public for two performances. The AVES France, One Voice, and PAZ Associations have joined forces and written to the festival organisers, the Aube department Prefect (Cécile Dindar), and to the Troyes Mayor (François Baroin). Our three organisations are asking that Valentin will not be presented to the public during this event. Support our action by signing our petition!

Bears are wild animals who cannot in any case be fulfilled in captivity. Some of them, like Valentin, are taken away from their mothers from a very early age in order to create a dependence between the animal and their trainer who keeps them in captivity. Through unnecessarily violent training, the bear ‘shower’ gets blind submission from their animal. These bears are enclosed for their whole lives and transported, sometimes over long distances, to places to be showed. Their living conditions are intolerable; we also very often see behavioural problems (such as stereotypies) and states of chronic anxiety. The fact that Valentin travels in an air-conditioned trailer from town to town to be exploited is in no way a guarantee of his well-being. It is just a diversion to make the public and organisers believe that this bear is treated well, while his simple participation in shows is against all of the needs of his species.

In accordance with the law of 30 November 2021 against animal mistreatment, keeping wild animals in travelling performance establishments will be banned from now until 1 December 2028, while acquiring them, commercialising them, and breeding them will be banned as of 1 December 2023. Regarding the bears and wolves, showing them to the public for travelling shows will become illegal from the end of the year.

While waiting for this law to be implemented, the AVES France, One Voice, and PAZ Associations are worried about the fate reserved for Valentin, and are asking that he urgently be put into retirement and be placed in a sanctuary as soon as possible. For this to happen, him being exploited for shows showing his complete submission must stop!

Furthermore, during the festival, many activities using animals have been offered to the public. To cite a few examples:

large game exhibition in one of the castle’s rooms;

presentation on foot of digging hunting dogs and packs of running hounds;

equestrian show – dressage;

falconry display;

big show of underground hound hunting.

Others could also be carried out, primarily aimed at children, such as visits to a puppy park, pony promenades, or even being pulled in a carriage.

On one hand, these demonstrations are not educational. What example do they give to young generations? The animals are considered as simple objects for entertainment that we can manipulate, exploit, and use without any consideration for their wants or needs. This reification of animals conflicts with the education of future generations to be more respectful of their environment and the individuals with which they share it.

On the other, this environment is totally unsuitable for the animals. Voluntarily subjecting them to such levels of stress for a purely recreational purpose is cruel and unethical. Dogs, horses, and birds, who incidentally have extraordinary cognitive and sentient capabilities, are reduced to numbers here.

We are also extremely concerned about the conditions that the animals are being kept in during the festival. In fact, the festival was organised right in the middle of August, when outdoor temperatures are often higher at that time of year. In these conditions, the individuals could suffer from the heat, in particular during their shows, and would also be subjected to the stress of visitors passing by and the noise, with no possibility of getting away from it.

As it stands, this festival and the displaying of animals certainly will tarnish Château de Vaux’s image, which also has an undeniable cultural interest.

For all of these reasons, we are urging the authorities (Prefecture and town council) and organisers to act in favour of the animals being shown during the ‘Hunting and countryside’ festival and to, from now on, stop the two scheduled performances of Valentin the bear, in order to favour more ethical shows instead. Our associations are willing to provide their expertise on this subject and remain at the disposition of anyone for any request for further information.

We are inviting the public to sign our petition !

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Worryingly overweight and permanently stressed: a new complaint for the last circus elephant in France, Samba

Worryingly overweight and permanently stressed: a new complaint for the last circus elephant in France, Samba
27.07.2023
France
Worryingly overweight and permanently stressed: a new complaint for the last circus elephant in France, Samba
Exploitation for shows

Nothing has changed for Samba since our first ‘meeting’ in 2002. Twenty years later, she is alone, moving between the lorry and the big top, always coerced into performing shows that are humiliating and dangerous for her body that has been bruised by decades of exploitation. Based on our latest investigation footage and four experts specialising in African elephants, we are filing a complaint against the Cirque d’Europe. The last French ‘circus elephant’ must be placed in a sanctuary before it is too late.

At 35 years old, Samba is still roaming around in Seine-et-Marne. Last April, we found her in Dammarie-les-Lys, then in June in Longperrier. The footage that we sent to courts is not deceptive; despite her declining health, she continues to be exploited relentlessly with the complicit inaction of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition.

Under the big top, fear and pain are the only reality

Parading around, turning herself around on a stool that is just about big enough for her four feet, walking on her wrists and collapsing to the ground… all with a circus performer permanently on her back. This is what Max Aucante forces her to eternally repeat on the Cirque d’Europe stage. An aberration when we know that such pressure on an elephant’s backbone can deform it, deteriorate their bones, and exacerbate arthritis. The effort that is asked of her is so significant that she urinates on herself during the performance.

How many times has Samba had to have been hit with an ankus to make her submit, for fear of being beaten like she was in 2003?

“There is no doubt when it comes to the current mistreatment of this elephant and the need to move her… I recommend that Samba be taken away from this standard of treatment that has led directly to physical and mental injuries, both in the past and present. Samba needs high-quality care which can be offered by an elephant sanctuary.” Philip Ensley, veterinarian

Being enclosed and left alone for life

It does not matter, in the eyes of those who exploit her, that she is an extremely social, intelligent animal that is full of empathy… Outside of the shows, Samba is enclosed in a trailer where she barely has enough room to lay down, or even on the tarmac in an enclosure which would be incapable of preventing an escape if she tried to break out of her ordeal again. Desperately alone, she does not even have any enrichment to distract her.

The inaction of authorities has condemned French elephants

For Samba to have a dignified life far away from her trainer, we have rallied investigators, referred to the legal system, published reports, gained the support of specialists, organised protests, written to elected representatives… All this so that the Bouches-du-Rhône Prefecture, on which the circus relies, and the Ministry for the Ecological Transition can turn a deaf ear.

The old elephant in her thirties is currently overweight, the main cause of death among captive elephants. A place in a sanctuary is waiting for her in the United States. But we have to believe that the State would prefer her life to come to an end as miserable as it has always been in our country. If nothing is done quickly, she will be abandoned outside our borders to die there, like Dumba before her, or transferred with the agreement of the Ministry to a zoo abroad where her exploitation will continue indefinitely like Baby.

We will not let the State abandon Samba. We are once again referring to the legal system for her. Sign our petition to ask that the “last French circus elephant” be placed immediately in a sanctuary.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

The ‘progressive’ suppression of using animals in chemical testing, not in cosmetics

The ‘progressive’ suppression of using animals in chemical testing, not in cosmetics
26.07.2023
European Union
The ‘progressive’ suppression of using animals in chemical testing, not in cosmetics
Animal testing

On 25 July 2023, the European Commission launched a plan aiming to progressively suppress animal testing for chemical products in the whole of Europe, but they will not protect a ban on testing on animals for cosmetic products as requested by the ‘ Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics’ European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), signed by 1.2 million European citizens. A response that leaves a mixed impression to say the least.

While we were glad about the plan aiming to eventually eliminate animal testing for chemical products and more long-term propositions aiming to reduce and progressively remove animal testing from research and education, the Commission has scandalously ignored calls from citizens to keep a ban on animal testing for cosmetic products, a ban established by legislators more than a decade ago.

Despite the European Union having banned tests on animals for cosmetic ingredients in 2009, tests on animals for chemical products used by workers in the industrial sector or likely to be released into the environment still exist pursuant to the REACH regulation (registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals). For the European Commission, since certain tests have not yet been replaced, banning the use of animals would mean forcing certain products to be withdrawn from the market. As always, the economy comes before animals. Rather than waiting for the EU tribunals to resolve this issue as an ongoing matter as proposed by the Commission, citizens’ requests must be taken into account immediately in order to avoid animals suffering even more.

In the EU and in Norway, 8 million animals suffered in laboratories in 2020. Substances are forcefully administered into their throat, they become infected by diseases rendering them disabled, they are genetically manipulated, subjected to brain damage during surgical operations, exposed to intense pain, and used in breeding programmes that perpetuate the cycle of suffering. However, the Commission is pleased about this “reduction” in 2020 in relation to previous years, without mentioning that it is mainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as we saw with the rise in French figures in 2021.

A European participatory democracy tool used for the end of animal use in laboratories

This Initiative was launched in August 2021, in particular by One Voice within the coalitions Cruelty Free Europe, European Coalition to End Animal Experiments, and alongside Eurogroup for Animals, Humane Society International/Europe, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, with support from The Body Shop and Dove brands. It called for the reinforcement and protection of a ban on animal testing for cosmetics, for a transformation of the regulations on chemical products to put an end to tests on animals, and for a commitment to progressively eliminate all tests on animals in Europe. It is the second ECI on this subject that has gained more than one million signatures, after ‘Stop Vivisection’ in 2015, and only the ninth to have been crowned with success among more than one hundred that have been submitted to European institutions.

A positive response that leaves an unfinished taste

Among the positive commitments made by the Commission in response to the ECI, we found:

the development of a road map to put an end to all obligatory tests on animals for industrial chemical products, pesticides, biocides, and human and veterinary medications. But no precision was given on the means that will be invested in this road map, except that it will be defined during two workshops, in the second halves of 2023 and 2024. It does not have to be done in a hurry… the Commission is fully aware of the need to modernise the law to make the adoption of testing methods without animals easier, which is essential;

the response to the ECI also mentions creating a committee of experts, preparing workshops, and coordinating national policies to develop research methods without animals, without giving any details as to the more concrete content of these proposals however;

as for alternative methods, the Commission is pleased to have subsidised their development for up to a billion euros in twenty years – which corresponds to the financing of a few hundred full-time people. Knowing that the Horizon Europe programme has a budget of almost one hundred billion euros over eight years, and that France alone has more than 600 animal testing laboratories, the European desire to simply “continue” financing alternatives frankly seems insufficient.

Citizens now expect all parties concerned to ensure that the measures proposed by the Commission have maximum and significant impact. We will continue to work for yet more ambitious commitments!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice