For its ‘decoding’ of animal testing, UFC Choisir has chosen kindness against laboratories. An update is needed.
Archives: News
One Voice is filing emergency interim proceedings for corvids against the Jura department. The hearing is on 4 May in Besançon
One voice is fighting against the prefectural decree of 24 March 2022 allowing carrion crows and rooks to be killed in Jura. The hearing is on 4 May in Besançon.
Let’s stop the ibex in Bargy from being massacred! Killing shots have been authorised in Haute-Savoie since Spring
Alongside its partners, One Voice has filed emergency interim proceedings against the prefectural decree targeting the Bargy ibex. The hearing will take place in Grenoble on 11 May.
Adaptive hunting: threatened species under hunters’ fire. One Voice is at the State Council on 11 May for the birds.
Elegant turtledoves, majestic Western capercaillies, fierce Eurasian curlews, and even black-tailed godwits, greylag geese, and common pochards better watch out!
Mina dead at the start of 2022 and Kamala taken abroad. But what are the authorities doing?!
Mina dead at the start of 2022 and Kamala taken abroad. But what are the authorities doing?!
Mina dead at the start of 2022 and Kamala taken abroad. But what are the authorities doing?!
27.04.2022
Mina dead at the start of 2022 and Kamala taken abroad. But what are the authorities doing?!
Circuses
Elephants exploited in French circuses for decades, complaints about not knowing what to do with them, an eventual law that just generates cynicism, and to what outcome? These great females are put into the worst places under stress and the others die in lorries without ever having lived a peaceful life… Rumours have been circulating about Mina and Kamala, the elephants kept by the Medrano Circus. We are requesting factual information and accounts from those in charge.
Social networks have related alarming information on one of the two elephants being kept by the Medrano Circus settled in Aimargues and whose opening order we have tried to have cancelled : Mina, who was presented to us as being in good health by both the establishment keeping her and by the DDPP services (Prefecture) within the framework of the proceedings taking place before the Rennes Administrative Tribunal, was in fact dead and had been for several months! And Kamala had re-joined the Skanda Vale Centre in the United Kingdom that welcomed Lechmee. A Centre which we had warned the Ministry of Ecology about since 2018 so that they did not let Maya be sent there because it is in no way an acceptable place for elephant welfare. All of this while Elephant Haven, in France, is an available, adequate, and welcoming sanctuary!
«This is a massacre for circus elephants and, at the moment, the Ministry is getting away with it unscathed and silently. It is scandalous.»Muriel Arnal
A law giving the illusion of action
The law on the mistreatment of animals passed in November 2021 is a huge farce for the animals being kept in circuses, especially for the elephants who are dying one after another or are being sent abroad. Because only travelling circuses are targeted, leaving those who want to settle down and to thus continue to exploit the animals at their leisure, as is the case with the Medrano circus. But this law has also still allowed the breeding of big cats for years… in addition to the fact that no application decree has yet been issued.
The authorities must show their accounts!
We are asking for the accounts and factual findings from the Côtes-d’Armor Prefecture.
«It is surprising to say the least that your services can continue to uphold before a court that the animals are in perfect health and kept in excellent conditions even when they are dead or have been given away. This at the very least reflects a dysfunction in your control tasks.»Extract from One Voice’s letter to the Côtes-d’Armor Prefecture (DDPP)
The Association is particularly worried about Mina’s fate, who is now deceased. We would like to understand the circumstances of her death and have access to all of the related documents, especially the veterinary autopsy report carried out and the rendering certificate. With regard to Kamala, the Association is asking for the CITES or CIC document and the handover date.
We have also written to the Rennes Tribunal, because if it turns out that Mina is indeed dead and Kamala has been given away in England, our complaint could be considered as ‘unfounded’ and therefore do absolutely nothing (as happened for the Barbary Macaque kept by the Poliakovs)… Because instead of ruling on problems at the time of the complaint, justice abandons legal proceedings as soon as the animals die from the consequences of the mistreatment they have received… and those who inflicted it on them get away with it. Incidentally, the Medrano Circus boasts, after so many years of cracking the whip and wielding an ankus, about now putting on a show without animals.
Finally, and as always (equally for Lechmee), the exploiters felt that the tide was turning and divested themselves of the elephants to avoid a withdrawal being imposed by the law after more than five years of One Voice’s legal proceedings.
Our incessant campaigns — proceedings, making the public aware, and pressure on the authorities with our investigation footage in particular — got the better of the resistance from the civil service, but too late for Mina who is most likely dead… We are doing all we can so that those responsible will pay.
Translated from the French by Joely Justice
Fighting for transparency should not be a full-time job
Fighting for transparency should not be a full-time job
Fighting for transparency should not be a full-time job
26.04.2022
Fighting for transparency should not be a full-time job
Animal testing
When we try to access inspection reports for animal testing laboratories, the civil service often resists. However, the rulings have followed in quick succession in support of transparency permitted by law, which is not supposed to be optional. But sometimes there is not such good news: recently, the Nice Tribunal authorised the Alpes-Maritimes Prefecture to hide the identity of a laboratory… The law remains subject to interpretation and the fight for transparency becomes a tedious and long-term job.
Since last Autumn, almost thirty rulings in around twenty administrative tribunals have maintained and confirmed that the animal testing laboratory inspection reports are administrative documents that are available to the general public.
In one of the latest examples, the Clermont-Ferrand Tribunal had given this ruling for the Allier, Haute-Loire, and Puy-de-Dôme Prefectures. These rulings can only exist thanks to persistence being maintained in the long run.
In fact, administrations’ customs are often to play the silent card, while hoping that those who address them do not know about the existence of the Commission for Access to Administrative Documents (CAAD [Commission for Access to Administrative Documents — CADA), or do not have the resources, in the favourable opinion of the CAAD, to appeal to the administrative courts, the proceedings of which can take more than a year. And if this does finally end up before the court, the most likely case is still that a layperson does not know how to defend their right of access convincingly, while administrations can put confidence in their legal services to argue their refusal in terms that can be heard by a court.
Documents that should already be public
Drafting these pleas (and gathering the knowledge necessary to argue them correctly) is time-consuming, but sometimes we get a result. While prefectures claim that publishing inspection reports would be risky for the laboratories concerned, who would then be targeted by attacks from animal activists, the majority of the courts are not fooled. The prefectures also claim that animal testing in itself is so frowned upon by the general public that it would be absolutely necessary to conceal the identity of the laboratories. But again, the courts do not believe this.
It must be said that the vast majority of these laboratories do not belong to Sanofi, Royal Canin, Marshall BioResources, or other chains. In fact, the majority are public establishments – universities and other higher education or professional training establishments, but also research teams from CNRS, Inserm, INRAE, or even military laboratories… Why would we not have the right to know where our money is being used in these research centres? And why do we not have a right to know when these centres break the law with public money; with our money?
Transparency on show
Numerous laboratories incidentally signed a ‘transparency charter on the use of animals for scientific and regulatory purposes’ last year. It seems that the term ‘animal testing’ does not really attract public favour – but recognise that a charter that does not commit a research centre to much other than advertising animal testing and its regulation is a pretty clever find. This allows the general public to believe that laboratories have nothing to hide, while the civil service does what it can so that no really substantial information can be leaked.
Even those who are looking to whistle blow internally can find themselves without a job while nothing is done to resolve dysfunctions. We hope that this type of situation will disappear with the protection of whistle-blowers permitted by the law adopted unanimously by the Senate on 16 February.
Disillusions
For now, with several tribunals, case files, and rulings, everything does not always go the way that we would hope and there can be some disappointments and issues. In December, despite several more favourable decisions already released by other tribunals, the Lyon Administrative Tribunal ruled that the security risks justify the names of the establishments being hidden on the inspection reports. However, we have already found information online on animal testing at the Claude Bernard University – Lyon 1, Inserm’s P4 Laboratory, and the Charles River websites, which are not hiding that they are carrying out animal testing.
More recently on 22 February, the Nice Administrative Tribunal ruled that it was possible to hide the name of only one of the establishments concerned by the requested reports, insofar as this establishment houses an ‘A3’ animal facility which handles the rabies virus and a ‘P3’ zone which handles feline coronavirus[1]. According to this ruling, due to the presence of dangerous pathogens, revealing the name of the establishment would be equivalent to creating a security risk. Just by typing ‘A3 animal facility’ into a search engine you will quickly come across construction websites that show where they have built such animal facilities, even on the websites of establishments that themselves indicate that such an animal facility is present on their premises.
Furthermore, these pathogens directly concern viruses present in the wild and have a direct repercussion on the health of wild animals and on human populations – not to mention keeping primates and other wildlife animals in numerous laboratories, or even the inherent risks in handling pathogens regardless of the precautions taken (in the event of an escape or accident) The Environmental Code allows this kind of information to benefit from a right to extensive access for the public. This is what was argued in the case file sent to the tribunal and could have swayed the magistrates towards an even more favourable decision for our cause. But this is not discussed in the decision made by the tribunal, without it being known if this oversight is voluntary or not.
[1] The A3 and P3 acronyms refer to levels of biosafety (from 1 to 4). The higher the level, the bigger the constraints are to avoid escapes and external contaminations as much as possible.
The fight does not end there
Despite these two more nuanced decisions, since autumn, more than twenty rulings from other tribunals have established that the inspection reports for the animal testing laboratories can be communicated by hiding only the names of the staff from the establishments and the veterinary inspectors. These rulings are the result of an in-depth work that we do not see on the ground and which we hardly hear spoken about on social networks – but it is work that requires a lot of time, energy, and money to highlight what is happening and to counter the prevailing obscurity when it comes to animal exploitation.
Many case files still do not give rise to a ruling, and we are filing other requests to obtain the documents that will allow us to better understand the situation, better inform the public, and inform on unjustifiable, or even illegal, practices. As long as animal testing exists, we will fight to demand transparency, to demand public powers to invest greatly in research methods that do not involve animals, and to oblige laboratories to exclusively use these methods. We will never stop fighting for the animals who are victims of this injustice.
Translated from the French by Joely Justice
Animals still under fire in Gard. One Voice is appealing to the Nîmes Administrative Tribunal; the hearing is set for 3 May
Foxes, badgers, wild boars, deer, roe deer, and fallow deer are targeted by the Gard Prefecture. One Voice is fighting the decree of 21 February 2022. The hearing is on 3 May.
Eleven animals seized from Kid Bauer in the Saint Léger Park: the investigation continues!
Eleven animals seized from Kid Bauer in the Saint Léger Park: the investigation continues!
Eleven animals seized from Kid Bauer in the Saint Léger Park: the investigation continues!
22.04.2022
Eleven animals seized from Kid Bauer in the Saint Léger Park: the investigation continues!
Circuses
On Wednesday 20 April a confiscation took place at the Saint Léger Park as part of our complaint for mistreatment. An extensive inspection was arranged by legal authorities on the property and with staff and also carried out animal by animal with the help of veterinarians. We have organised for the animals seized to be cared for as an outcome of this inspection and entrusted to us.
We could not say anything about it on D-day, especially as nothing was guaranteed until the last minute. But now that the Beauvais public prosecutor’s department have spoken, we can tell you that eleven individuals have been seized and put under One Voice’s protection by the deputy public prosecutor who led operations. Two muntjacs (tiny deer), a porcupine, a swan, the two macaws (parrots), four tortoises, and the python left the Saint Léger Park as soon as the decision was made and the papers were signed.
Eleven animals are safe with our partners
Arriving on site in the refuge of our partners, the animals were first of all placed in quarantine. They will soon be able to get comfortable in much bigger and more secure enclosures than at the Saint Léger Park where, for example, the tortoises were frequently trampled on, as evidenced by the signs reading ‘do not step on the tortoises’ which we took photos of several times over the years, and there were low fences surrounding the space reserved for them. As for the swan, its wings were clipped which prevents it from flying away if it were to be attacked…
The animals still on the premises
The lions and tigers from this settled circus are subjected to training and must perform in shows each day that the park is open to visitors. Members of the public are invited to enter the wild cats’ cage… not to mention the tiger cubs exhibited and passed from one person to another at the end of the show… The lemurs as well, who were filmed a few months ago trying to climb on children, licking hands, risking being trampled on… We will never give up on them. And this is not a persecution of the park owners! We have nothing against them, but a settled circus cannot confine wild cats to a life in a lorry. Who can still believe that that is an acceptable habitat for them? It is clearly the animals who pay the price.
Either way, it is about a provisional placement. We will therefore obviously wait for the end of the investigation and to obtain the magistrate’s final decision, but we are confident for the future of these eleven animals. We will do everything we can for the others, whose futures remain uncertain, especially as the park is up for sale.
Translated from the French by Joely Justice
World Day for Laboratory Animals on 24 April: moving towards the end of animal testing in Europe
A weekend of action and a website on the figures on animal testing on 24 April 2022 for World Day for Laboratory Animals.
On 14 April on Flight 473, Air France transported 100 monkeys from Mauritius bound for a British laboratory
On 14 April at 6 o’clock in the morning, a passenger flight from Mauritius landed in Roissy, probably full of tourists coming back from their holidays on the idyllic island. What these passengers did not know was that 100 terrified monkeys were just beneath their feet in the hold.