On 11 March, Cruelty Free Europe (for which One Voice is the French representative), Eurogroup for Animals, and GAIA, all Animal Protection NGOs, will not be happily celebrating the ninth anniversary of the European law preventing the sale of all cosmetics products tested on animals, as chemical products rules look set to render European laws meaningless.
Archives: News
One Voice’s national actions in March are calling for respect for wolves
In seventeen towns, One Voice activists are raising awareness of wolves among the public on 12, 13 and 19 March 2022.
SOS for Ukraine’s animals
In Ukraine, thousands of animals have found themselves abandoned after the forced exile or death of their human companions. We are rallying together to help them.
The decree allowing the massacre of wood pigeons when they arrive after migration has been partially suspended!
The Aude Prefecture decree allowing wood pigeons to be killed by hunters before the ‘conventional’ hunting period has just been partially suspended. A victory for One Voice and beyond, for the birds.
Stray cats: unveiling a website dedicated to the Chatipi programme and a press briefing at the Chatipi in Vannes on 3 March at 2pm
Le Cercle des Chats Libres du Pays de Vannes [Society for Stray Cats in Vannes] in the Morbihan department contacted the One Voice association to take charge of the issue of stray cats in the town. The Association de Défense des Animaux [Association for Animal Welfare], who has fought against feline straying for years, implements partnerships with municipalities and local associations to microchip and neuter homeless cats and release them, while finding them shelter and holding informational panels. The Chatipi programme therefore means that cats without a human family no longer suffer from deprivation. In Vannes, a press briefing will take place at the Chatipi on Thursday 3 March at 2pm, organised by the municipality. One Voice will open their website dedicated to the Chatipi programme to the public on the same day.
Hunters and animal supporters overcome their differences on penned hunting
One Voice’s presidents and the Amis des Chemins de Sologne are united against penned hunting and enclosing nature.
The unprecedented meeting between Muriel Arnal, One Voice’s president, and Raymond Louis, Amis des Chemins de Sologne’s president, will take place on Tuesday 8 March 2022.
Would you dare torture and kill a fish for science ?
In his new book, Laurent Bègue-Shankland explores our relationships with other animals and the way in which our empathy is sometimes put to one side.
Animal experimentation in the Finistère Department: justice calls once more for administrative transparency
On Monday 22 February 2022, the Rennes Administrative Court ordered the Prefect of Finistère to hand over the latest inspection reports on animal experimentation laboratories in their Department…
The death of Mina and of at least two psittaciformes are now added to that of Micha
The death of Mina and of at least two psittaciformes are now added to that of Micha
The death of Mina and of at least two psittaciformes are now added to that of Micha
22.02.2022
The death of Mina and of at least two psittaciformes are now added to that of Micha
Circuses
The images of the prison conditions, complaints, a criminal trial, a very light conviction… Since the ruling, we have done everything we can to obtain the inspection report from the Prefecture of Loir-et-Cher — the Departmental Directorate for Protecting Populations (DDPP) — and we have put ourselves before the administrative tribunal to get the animals removed… After a long and rough legal proceeding, we learned that Mina is dead, along with two birds. The Prefecture services were careful not to inform us of this and are still leaving the animals with the Poliakovs! We have filed a request in the meantime to the Orléans administrative tribunal and a complaint against the trainers, specifically for acts of cruelty and mistreatment by a professional alongside the Blois high court. We are calling for the immediate withdrawal of the animals and access to Mina’s autopsy report.
Edit from 10 March 2022
The decision is being deliberated and is expected to be released within the next week.
Edit from 3 March 2022
The hearing is set by the interim relief judge for 10 March 2022 at the Orléans administrative tribunal.
We had to continue the fight. We asked the Prefecture of Loir-et-Cher twice for access to the latest inspection report, carried out at the centre of the establishment managed by the Bruneau-Poliakov couple, in order to understand in particular the state of health and the prison conditions of the animals that justice had seen fit to abandon. As a matter of fact, in the context of an administrative foreclosure, it is possible to ‘seize’ the animals while leaving them where they are, in the good care of their torturers!
A debilitating proceeding before the authorities
Our requests for access to this report have fallen on deaf ears. We then, almost as always, had to apply to the Committee for Access to Administrative Documents to force the civil service to comply. And, unsurprisingly, they were in favour of our request. With this backing, we had to rewrite to the Prefecture services who had finally this month deigned to send us the report dated 2 June 2021… We then learnt that many more animals that they were keeping are dead. And the report, heavily redacted
incidentally (even the names of the trainers are ‘concealed’, which is absurd), finds significant non-conformities.
Mina and the birds were prisoners for life
Following Micha, Mina is dead, as well as two of the rare birds… All of them are living in minuscule and gloomy spaces, unlawfully, under the eyes and ears of the authorities who have turned a blind eye for more than a decade. Those who redacted the report, agents from the DDPP, who are cynics and willingly detached, conclude that “on the date the report was published, Mina was dead, lifting the non-compliance”.
The Bruneau-Poliakov trainers would never have needed to have had a proficiency certification for the Barbary macaque, even though they exploited her during very lucrative events. She spent eleven years in a 50cm3
cage with no light, which was rarely cleaned. These facts were known by the authorities. What did they do to get them out?! Ticking boxes, again and again, and setting deadlines that were never met… We had to capture images in these unspeakable places; the spoiled food had to be filmed so that their enclosure could be made bigger and enriched with a measly swing.
The amount of major non-conformities from the report is shocking
According to the very criteria of the DDPP, there has always been an issue at staffing level, an issue with the consistency of proficiency certifications and the species kept, a concern regarding regulations, and dysfunctional follow-up veterinary care. But who are we kidding in this country? When will the Prefectures finally abide by the rules relating to the respect and well-being of wild captive animals?!
In a previous article, we asked ourselves if there truly is any protection for wild animals in France. The answer is crystal clear: it is non-existent.
We are therefore filing a complaint in particular for acts of cruelty, to have access to information on the circumstances of Mina’s death, and above all to obtain the immediate seizure of the other animals, in addition to our interim application.
Translated from the French by Joely Justice
Wood pigeons in the Pyrenees: migratory birds still in the firing line
The Aude Prefecture has published a decree meaning that wood pigeons may be recognised as a species likely to cause damage (previously known as pests). The emergency interim hearing is set for 7 March.