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.
Archives: News
Official opening of the Chatipi for stray cats in Chanteloup-les-Vignes on Saturday 9 April at 11am
One Voice, who has fought against feline straying for years, implements three-way partnerships with towns or drop-in centres and local associations to microchip and neuter homeless cats and release them, while finding them a wooden chalet for them to rehydrate themselves, eat, and take comfort. The official opening of the Chatipi will take place in Chanteloup-les-Vignes on Saturday 9 April at 11am.
A few less animals in labs in 2020?
The figures from 2020 on animal testing have just come out. Spoiler: the situation is not improving… we can tell you everything.
New investigation: Jumbo and his miserable companions still locked up in the Muller Circus, seen from above
Our investigators have reported images of Jumbo in the Muller Circus in Vitrolles at the beginning of March 2022… taken from above.
Badger digging in Gironde: hunters and the Prefect dismissed
Victory for badgers: the Bordeaux Administrative Tribunal made the opening of an additional hunting period for underground hunting with hounds illegal in Summer 2021.
A total crisis for badgers in Morbihan
To stop the massacre of young badgers in Morbihan, we are calling on you to respond to the public consultation online until 15 April.
Animals in the Franco-Belge Circus still being exploited… We are writing to the Mayor of Péronnas
The Franco-Belge Circus is in Péronnas for a few days. Let’s write to the town’s Mayoress for circuses without animals!
One Voice’s rescue mission for Ukraine’s cats
Since 24 February 2022, we have offered to help our Ukrainian partners to welcome the animals. This is the story of our first rescue.
Samba — the eternal exploitation of a circus elephant
Samba — the eternal exploitation of a circus elephant
Samba — the eternal exploitation of a circus elephant
25.03.2022
Samba — the eternal exploitation of a circus elephant
Exploitation for shows
We have been following the Cirque d’Europe for more than twenty years, to protect Samba. This autumn, it was reported to us as sometimes being in Salouël, sometimes in Mouroux, or even in Malesherbs… More recently, in mid-February, we noticed it in Marolles-en-Hurepoix, then in Goussainville in the last few days, where one of our investigators visited. He filmed the elephant, when she was not hidden by the circus staff.
On 14 March 2022, the Cirque d’Europe had then parked their lorries and camper vans in Foussainville, as they have done for years, and as another ten or so other circuses do. The town does not seem very vigilant of the misery of the animals subjected to travelling and training, so it is a key stop-off for circus performers…
Samba, always hidden away
As they do every time, the employees of trainer Max Aucante position the lorries in such a way as to hide the maximum amount of the animals, and in particular Samba of course. Animal advocates should not be able to film her.
A fight lasting over twenty years, led for Samba by One Voice teams
In the spring of last year, the appeal hearing of our summons of the prefect of Bouches-du-Rhône took place to obtain the withdrawal of the circus’ opening licence. The Court of Appeal did not rule in our favour… but we have not stopped the fight despite this.
In January, we reached out to the Ministry of the Ecological Transition with a letter explaining for the umpteenth time how appalling Samba’s life is and how she is inevitably suffering in such conditions. We demanded that the Minster intervene for her to finally be put into a sanctuary.
Because it has been more than twenty years that One Voice has been defending this elephant… and we will never stop. She should be at Elephant Haven where, since our participation in this wonderful project back when it started, a place is waiting for her. This sanctuary awaits only her. Samba will be able to live there in semi-freedom, far from the lorries, the stares, sticks, being hit with a cattle prod, and from forced isolation.
Is the Ministry of the Ecological Transition’s policy to let circus performers have all captive animals in French circuses? To let them send them abroad? The legislative decree of the 30 November 2021 law relating to circus animals is still not published (this is not the only one)! This certainly allows the government to claim victory even though their exploitation will continue outside of France until death ensues… (there is no doubt that there would then be no need for a law and for decrees). Out of sight, out of mind… but not for us!
Translated from the French by Joely Justice
Hunting in Sologne: when birds dying is a good deal
Hunting in Sologne: when birds dying is a good deal
Hunting in Sologne: when birds dying is a good deal
22.03.2022
Hunting in Sologne: when birds dying is a good deal
Wildlife
Last November, our investigators infiltrated a group of hunters in Sologne. At their own risk, they filmed the gunfire, the birds being thrown into a panic with tens of them falling down, then dying while being sneered at. Horrific scenes, paid for in cash. Hunting is a fruitful market. Killing birds off pays big time.
« The birds try to escape, to fly quickly and up high, but they are surrounded. Their only chance of survival is the shooting mistakes made by mediocre killers. Some fall dozens of metres mid-flight, still alive. The impact is violent: their body crashes into the ground, they struggle, their legs broken, lungs punctured. The agony is drawn out… » one of our investigators reported, still very shaken by the scenes that he had just witnessed.
Last November, we also infiltrated a hunt in Sologne. If our images – mainly distributed discretely – reveal the barbaric nature of these practices that certain people still dare to defend in the name of tradition, they also expose what is less well known: the fruitful trafficking of hunting.
Fairground tickets for sentient beings
Our videos prove it: hunting is not a healthy walk in the fresh air, a harmony between humans, nature, and living things. Let’s stop with the clichéd ideas. To fill their knapsacks, the hunters pay the owners of the estates. They negotiate the date of the killing and the number of birds that they can shoot. Death is a trade, a money-making business.
On that day, pheasants and young partridges are released into a sky littered with bullets. They are at the meeting place. Hunters have paid. In a panic, the birds try to escape. Alas, captured in the sights of armed men, they are nothing but fairground tickets, tumbling down to the ground. On the ground, the men gather them and line them up.
Some are still moving, twitching, dying.
« I saw this magnificent revered pheasant struggling, desperately drawing on the last bit of life left in him to calm the pain running through him. Unblinking, the hunters watched him. Finally, one of them grabbed him by the tail and legs, shook him and put him back among the corpses. But the bird was still writhing. “Play dead”, another one ordered. Several long minutes passed still before his wings stopped moving. For good. This is what the agony of a pheasant struck in mid-flight looks like. » our investigator testified again.
Massacres every year
In the evening, after the hunt, the men count their takings. 124 pheasants, young partridges, and green woodpeckers have been shot down. The men applaud. They have earned themselves an aperitif.
Each year, millions of birds are killed in this way, slaughtered in plain flight or after months of being bred in captivity. Our investigators have been infiltrating hunts for three years. They have witnessed the ‘gifts’ which the authorities constantly deluge the hunters with. In this electoral period, the hunting lobbies will put pressure on those elected more than ever. We will not let them do it.
Translated from the French by Joely Justice