Farming: 9 NGOs take the government, who insist on keeping laying hens in cages, to court.

Today, in the middle of the presidential campaign, 9 NGOs (the Anti-Corrida Alliance/Animal Cross/CIWF France/L214/the Foundation for Animal Law, Ethics, and Sciences (LFDA)/OABA/One Voice/the Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA)/Welfarm) are making a joint request before the State Council against the decree published in December 2021, which limits the ban enacted in 2018 for any new or refurbished buildings for hens farmed in cages.

Femke, the authorities are still tackling her autopsy report…

Femke, the authorities are still tackling her autopsy report…

Femke, the authorities are still tackling her autopsy report…
07.02.2022
Femke, the authorities are still tackling her autopsy report…
Dolphinariums

After one year, we still have not received Femke’s autopsy report. After a letter to the Prefecture and an open letter to Parc Astérix, a request to the Committee for Access to Administrative Documents, who authorised us to obtain this document, and a reply from the park, we once again turn to the Oise Prefecture…According to the park, the Departmental Directorate for Protecting Populations (DDPP: the Prefecture’s veterinary services) have supervised all of the dolphinarium’s projects and the autopsy report is at their sole disposition. We request that the death of Femke is fully investigated and for this the Prefecture must be transparent. What are they waiting for?

Mrs Corinne Orzechowski
Oise Prefect
2, Avenue de l’Europe
BP 70634
60 006 Beauvais Cedex

Vannes, 4 February 2022

Dear Madam Prefect,

A year has passed since the dolphin named Femke, kept by Parc Astérix, was euthanised. To understand the circumstances surrounding her death, we requested in February 2021 that you let us have her full autopsy report. Faced with your silence and with the favourable recommendation of the Committee for Access to Administrative Documents, we have made a request to the courts for disclosure of these documents.

As part of this procedure, your services have indicated to us that they do not have this information.

We therefore withdrew our plea given that the law does not actually provide an explicit obligation for the owner to send this report to the Prefecture.

However, keen to understand the reasons for this action and to respond to queries from our members, we addressed the Director of Parc Astérix in an open letter. She responded to us on 20 January 2022, saying that Femke’s autopsy report was available at the Oise DDPP.

As you know, bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) belong to a protected species on a national and community level, and are part of our wildlife heritage.

Due to their unique nature in terms of sensitivity, intelligence, and culture, cetaceans are also at the heart of recurring scientific debates on their skills and their status as non-human persons. Femke’s living conditions and her fate therefore transcend the question of ownership.

This is the reason why the data concerning the circumstances of her death must be known by the general public and is in their general interest.

This is why we are asking you once more to show transparency on this issue by sending us a copy of the autopsy report, which only you can be the recipient of.

We thank you for your attention to this letter and ask that you accept the expression of our highest consideration.

Muriel Arnal
Founding President of One Voice

Femke’s autopsy report: response from Parc Astérix

Télécharger

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Threats to poach wolves: we are filing a complaint!

Threats to poach wolves: we are filing a complaint!

Threats to poach wolves: we are filing a complaint!
24.01.2022
Threats to poach wolves: we are filing a complaint!
Wildlife

A farmers union is calling for the illegal massacre of wolves and hiding the bodies? We are filing a complaint. Wolves must be respected and protected. As for the State, they must take responsibility and stop engaging in double dealings.

Edit from 3 February 2022:

On 31 January 2022, we filed a second complaint, this time before the Limoges Legal Tribunal. They have joined to conclude our legal proceeding in order to include declarations from the Haute-Vienne Rural Organisation.

At the beginning of December 2021, the Haute-Vienne Rural Organisation published a press release on the presence of wolves, in which it is written in black and white: “In Haute-Vienne, we have pellets and poison and will regulate by ourselves!”

Taking this idea up on Saturday 22 January, Florian Tournade, President of the same union in the Creuse department, has thus confirmed in front of the camera for France 3, in Nouvelle Aquitaine: “For us, the solution is poison and pellets. We invite farmers to take their hunting rifles and to kill the wolves without saying anything. We must do this discretely to make the bodies disappear. The Rural Organisation will reimburse the pellets and the bags of lime.” They even drive the point home by asking all farmers to exterminate wolves.

Around a hundred wolves are already massacred every year with the State’s approval

A farmers union calling for organised crime on members of a protected species? The Ministry of the Ecological Transition reacted quickly, announcing that they were opening an enquiry… but knowing that the State authorised the annual massacre of more than one hundred wolves, we were shocked to read the Minister’s falsely indignant tweet.

We are filing a complaint at the Guéret Legal Tribunal

Poaching of a protected species is a crime, punishable by several years in prison. Incitement to commit a crime is also prohibited by law.

We are filing a complaint for collusion by incitement to destroy specimens from a protected animal species and provocation to commit a crime through mass media. The Pet’s Rescue France association is also joining our complaint.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice