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Jura, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence: One Voice is coming to the rescue for wolves against prefects

Jura, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence: One Voice is coming to the rescue for wolves against prefects

Jura, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence: One Voice is coming to the rescue for wolves against prefects
06.02.2023
France
Jura, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence: One Voice is coming to the rescue for wolves against prefects
Wildlife

Between mid-December and the beginning of January, seven prefectural decrees were issued approving simple defence shots against wolves in Jura and the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, without making reference to any specific analysis to prove the need for these measures in the cow farms concerned, contrary to what is required by law. One Voice is filing a plea requesting the cancellation of each decree. While waiting for these hearings on the merits, the Association will be present on 8 February 2023 at 10am at the Besançon Administrative Tribunal and the day after at 10am at the Marseille Administrative Tribunal to try to get them urgently suspended.

It is a very far-fetched prefectural note that the Jura and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Prefectures have pulled out of their hat to authorise these shots against wolves on 19 December 2022 and 3 January 2023. According to the document from 28 June 2019, some herds would be ‘unprotectable’ in nature, and their owners could therefore be allowed to kill wolves to protect them without having carried out a preliminary analysis, simply because the farm animals in question are bovine. The problem: this law contradicts a ministerial decree that well and truly obliges farmers to establish the non-protectability of herds on a case-by-case basis. So without differentiating between cows and sheep.

As we have in other cases, One Voice has filed an emergency suspension interim proceeding. With continual laws authorising shots, the decrees do not sufficiently demonstrate the existence of a risk of significant damage for the farms concerned in our opinion, do not make reference to any analysis carried out case-by-case, and they exonerate farmers from implementing protection measures.

Clearly, the primary — and real! Why are we even asking? — goal of these decrees is not to protect the herd animals, but actually to kill as many wolves as possible! Does the state want to exterminate them? Can they not find other ways to help farmers and calm their irrational fear of a population who, for the most part, has never seen any wolves living freely? Beyond the tragedy that this will represent for wolves and their ecosystem, incidentally can we really continue to believe that their extinction will help farmers to face up to their difficulties? Wolves’ impact is ridiculously low. All herd animals are destined for the abattoir…

There were tens of thousands of them in our country in the Middle Ages. There are just 921 wolves today and their species is still not viable. As proof: they are classified as vulnerable. However, each year, the number of wolves that humans are authorised to slaughter increases. We already reported this to the State Council in 2022, a year in which the government organised the massacre of 118 of them. This year, 174 could be killed. Two of them already have been as recently as mid-January. Rather than assassinating them en masse, the authorities must find alternative solutions and be pleased about the presence of these great predators in our country, who play an essential role in the ecosystems as well as being sensitive, intelligent beings with socially complex lives.

One Voice is requesting an immediate suspension of the six decrees authorising simple defence shots issued by the Jura Prefecture and the one issued by the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Prefect. It is already scandalous that, under false pretences, wolves get shot completely legally. We can no longer allow this massacre that violates the law to take yet more victims.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

In Lot-et-Garonne, ‘hunting’ dogs are left to their own devices in a barn

In Lot-et-Garonne, ‘hunting’ dogs are left to their own devices in a barn

In Lot-et-Garonne, ‘hunting’ dogs are left to their own devices in a barn
01.02.2023
Lot-et-Garonne
In Lot-et-Garonne, ‘hunting’ dogs are left to their own devices in a barn
Domestic animals

Around ten dogs exploited for hunting and kept year-round in an almost abandoned barn at the bottom of a wood: out of sight, out of mind? Not for One Voice, who are blowing the whistle and filing a complaint at the Agen legal tribunal.

After an alarming warning of dogs being kept shut up year-round behind bars in a barn lost in the woods on the outskirts of Agen, our investigators have gone to the premises. They discovered, while going along a wooded path, a prison building, all very banal in appearance, except for the ten or so dogs found there kept without supervision. This dilapidated place, containing tools and all kinds of objects thrown here and there, plastic bags, breeze blocks, floorboards, wires, and with hard, uneven ground, strewn with faeces between the dirt and stones… And in the middle of these boxes of odds and ends, at the mercy of the cold and wind at that time, but also the stuffiness of the air during the spring, around ten dogs were calling out for help.

Like a weapon: a life of boredom at the shed, or hunting

‘Hunting’ dogs, so to speak: forced to work at hunters’ service until they are exhausted, and kept far from dwellings such as in Chaux-du-Dombief so as not to disrupt the neighbourhood, but also out of the sight and attention of those who might worry about their welfare.

Dogs like any other!

Despite nothing differentiating them from other dogs with regard to legislation, these dogs are seen as tools by their exploiters and as a collective, not as individuals. Only the pack counts. Hunters are interested in them sparing no effort, not being scared by the gunshots, and being at their beck and call. And if one of them dies, it will quickly be replaced. For the rest of them, outside of hunting, they are stored in places like this one so as not to ‘bother’ anyone with their barking.

After a day spent hunting, some of them have eye injuries or are limping, others scratch intensely. They find their bowls empty and disgusting from the previous week, or even a little cocktail of yellow stagnant water that looks like urine. They share the contents of a crate filled with several animal limbs left out in the open air which leaves them susceptible to becoming unwell. We realise that what we thought were stones on the floor is in reality a carpet of bones. There are even animal skulls in the straw.

#NotAllHunters

Many hunters deny the facts that we have documented, maintaining that they are not like that, that they love their dogs and treat them properly with forced photos on social media. But where are they when we defend the dogs that they love so much? Why are they siding with Goliath and not David in this battle of the iron pot against the earthen pot, if, really, they want the best for the so-called ‘hunting’ dogs? Why are they not at least morally condemning this abuse, and why do they prefer to boast by publishing photos that have nothing to do with the problem?

We are filing a complaint for mistreatment at the Agen legal tribunal. To support us in this process and allow these dogs to be rescued as quickly as possible and to find a loving home, sign our petition for hunting dogs !

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

The Pyrénées-Orientales Prefect is playing hide and seek with his decrees

The Pyrénées-Orientales Prefect is playing hide and seek with his decrees

The Pyrénées-Orientales Prefect is playing hide and seek with his decrees
30.01.2023
Pyrénées-Orientales
The Pyrénées-Orientales Prefect is playing hide and seek with his decrees
Wildlife

For years, the Pyrénées-Orientales Prefecture has published, in total opposition to French law, many decrees retrospectively authorising pure and simple destructions of animals carried out the month before. Since they have learned of this procedure, One Voice has alerted those concerned. The only response that the Association has had in return: silence. Call for the Prefect to force them to stop this intolerable practice.

French law is unambiguous: administrative acts only come into effect after their official publication. Yet, since 2015, the Pyrénées-Orientales Prefect, under pressure from those who wish to practice their lethal hobby without being questioned, has been agreeing to evade French law.

In fact, at the time of the monthly publication of the so-called normal register of administrative acts (RAA) on their website, the Prefecture has taken the opportunity to make a large number of the decrees already being implemented, or even already implemented, public.

More than 200 decrees retrospectively passed

In 2022, they also published 238 decrees retrospectively allowing the ‘management’ of populations of wild boars, badgers, foxes, deer, pigeons, etc. with official hunts and/or individual shots. The ‘destructions’ had been carried out day and night with light sources in many towns, and sometimes even as close to 150 metres from houses.

In the greatest secrecy, the Prefect authorised a wolf-hunting lieutenant, accompanied by local hunters of their choice or even wolf-hunter lieutenants from neighbouring areas, to kill an unlimited number of individuals over a period ranging from a few days to around a month.

It was only once the ‘management operations’ were completed, or about to be completed, that the authorisation act was published on the Internet, too late for any of us to know…

Trampled democratic principles!

This practice is scandalous and completely undemocratic! It prevents all of those concerned from knowing about these authorisations within a reasonable time scale. It particularly deprives associations, such as One Voice, from the possibility of referring them to the appropriate courts to try to get them cancelled.

We are fighting for a minimum period of fifteen days to be introduced between the publication of decrees authorising official hunts or individual shots and the actual start of operations – something which is still not planned for currently. In fact, the publication frequently comes in one or two days after the hunts, making any legal appeal impossible and pointless, just as the case was specifically for the ibex in Bargy.

When it comes to the Pyrénées-Orientales, we have contacted the Prefect, Mr Rodrigue Furcy, several times. Unsurprisingly, we have not received any response. Worse, despite our many letters, he continues to publish his decrees well after them coming into effect.

The almost total disinterest of the political representatives for animal advocates is clearly demonstrated once again: the Prefecture proves their lack of consideration for animals who will be killed, alongside their contempt regarding our initiative for more transparency and legitimacy.

Let’s demand that the Prefecture respects the law!

Send the letter, downloadable here, to the Prefect. Thanks to you, there will be no other choice than to admit that this practice is illegal and to stop it as soon as possible.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

No respite for wolves: new year, new massacres

No respite for wolves: new year, new massacres

No respite for wolves: new year, new massacres
27.01.2023
France
No respite for wolves: new year, new massacres
Wildlife

Wolves, who belong to a protected species, can be slaughtered completely legally in France. However, these legalised massacres do not even seem to be sufficient for their opponents, since wolves are also victims of poaching, killed outside of any legal framework.One Voice regularly challenges Prefectural decrees authorising lethal shots on wolves, and more widely is fighting to stop this carnage from happening.

An exemption to the protection of the species applied with no reflection

While wolves are protected by the Bern Convention and the European Union Habitats Directive, it is completely possible to slaughter them “to prevent significant damage particularly to crops, farms, forests, fisheries, water, and other types of property”, according to Article L. 411-2 of the Environmental Code.

In France, when shots have been authorised by prefectural decrees, wolves that approach herds can be killed without question. Never mind if the animals eliminated are not those who are directly involved in the attacks. Complete nonsense that is denied by our neighbours, who do everything they can to minimise the instability of packs and the impact that the lupine population has on conservation. The disappearance of a breeding male effectively destroys the social structure of the pack and increases the risk of its members dispersing, jeopardising their survival and increasing the risk of disruptive attacks by wolves operating alone from that point. But is it not the eventual aim of the French State, under pressure from lobbies, to further demonise wolves?

In Austria, only specifically designated wolves can be killed. They therefore make sure that the wolf that causes the attack will be slaughtered – a wolf who, let’s remember, does not kill for pleasure but out of necessity to feed itself. Killing another other animal is forbidden. An Austrian tribunal incidentally cancelled a shooting authorisation in December 2020, given that the risk of killing another wolf – that was not responsible for past attacks – was too high.

In Switzerland, wolves are not chosen randomly: it must be a young animal so as not to disturb the hierarchical configuration, on the condition that the pack has successfully reproduced, and only if said pack has killed at least ten livestock animals in four months.

In France, the number of individuals slaughtered is constantly growing. Until this policy exterminating wolves ends, One Voice will ensure that the (minimal) conditions necessary to obtain a destruction authorisation are followed, which unfortunately is not always the case.

Two weeks after the start of the new year, two wolves have already been killed by hunters

The killing of wolves is monitored by the DREAL [Direction régionale de l’Environnement, de l’Aménagement et du Logement – Regional Directorate for the Environment, Development, and Housing] in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, who would rather put these killings down under the pleasant description of “an intervention protocol for the wolf population”, probably to try and minimise the severity and make people believe that, as their name suggests, they are concerned about the environment.

In 2023, 174 wolves could therefore be slaughtered completely legally. Scarcely twenty days after the start of the new year, this was already the case for two of them: the first in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Department due to derogation shots, the second “deliberately destroyed outside of the protocol” (poached, in reality), somewhere in France with no further precision, as the DREAL tracking chart shows.

About a year ago, we challenged two agricultural unions who called on their members to poach wolves, bragging about having “bullets and poison”. However, “incitement to commit an offence harming a protected species” is only a crime if it is followed by a result (an individual kills a wolf in response to the union’s incitement). This lack of violation is highly contestable. An amendment was filed against this scandal under the Biodiversity law framework, but was unfortunately rejected…

There has been no information on the first two victims of 2023 in the media. On the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Prefecture’s website there is no more information on the wolf concerned but there is a call for applications to appoint a wolf-hunting lieutenant who will participate, among other things, “in operations provided for in the ‘wolf’ protocol” – including: “will participate in the killing of wolves”.

Wolves are animals with complex emotional intelligence. But according to the State, they are simply heads to be cut off to please hunters who only think about nature and its wildlife in the context of the prism of immediate profits that they can derive from it. We are still here, despite the catastrophic situation in which biodiversity finds itself.

It is all the more despicable that no scientific study has shown that killing wolves would significantly reduce their impact on farm animals, who, let’s not forget, will end up at the abattoir after a (short) life of being exploited in an over-grazed environment.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

The European Citizens’ Initiative for a Europe without animal testing has been approved with more than 1.2 million signatures!

The European Citizens’ Initiative for a Europe without animal testing has been approved with more than 1.2 million signatures!

The European Citizens’ Initiative for a Europe without animal testing has been approved with more than 1.2 million signatures!
26.01.2023
The European Citizens’ Initiative for a Europe without animal testing has been approved with more than 1.2 million signatures!
Animal testing

Signed, sealed, delivered! The ‘Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics’ European Citizens Initiative (ECI) — ‘Commit to a Europe Without Animal Testing’ has risen to the challenge of collecting one million valid signatures by receiving more than 1.2 million votes from European Citizens. One Voice is delighted with this result. In France in particular, the minimum threshold of signatures has been quadrupled!

The European Commission must now meet activists and respond to citizens’ concerns. With more than ten million animals suffering each year from experiments led within the EU and new non-animal technologies being developed more quickly than ever, it is time to change course.

«Non-animal approaches to ensure the safety of cosmetics and other consumer products have been routinely used in the EU for decades. There is no reason to test ingredients on animals when advanced non-animal assessment strategies are available and offer reliable alternatives to animal testing. With this ECI, we call on the European Commission to commit to actions that can ensure the protection of human health and the environment by managing chemicals without the use of animals, and to invest in human-based, non-animal approaches for regulatory decision-making.»
Muriel Arnal, President of One Voice and Member of the ECI Organising Committee

«Forcing cosmetic ingredients on to defenceless animals, deliberately injecting them with incapacitating diseases, or drilling holes in their skulls are practices that must stop. A radical overhaul of the system on an EU level is needed to ensure this change.»
Sabrina Engel, President of the ECI Organising Committee, PETA Germany.

«This European Citizens’ Initiative strongly supports the request from the European Parliament to definitively get rid of tests on animals. With citizens’ voices being added to the chorus of protests, the Commission cannot ignore vehement calls to speed up the transition to non-animal science.»
Tilly Metz, Member of the European Parliament (The Greens/European Free Alliance)

«With the threat that the chemical product strategy poses to animals in laboratories, this ECI could not be more timely. From today, no additional tests on animals should be carried out to fill the gaps in informing on chemical products. We need to move to a safer more ethical system for evaluating them.»
Sirpa Pietikäinen, Member of the European Parliament (European People’s Party Group)

«The message from citizens has never been as clear or aligned with scientific, industry, NGO, and political views. Everyone understands that a progressive elimination plan for animal testing is necessary for everyone’s good: humans, other animals, and the environment. Now, the Commission must listen to citizens and act in order to make this plan a reality.»
Anja Hazekamp, left-wing Member of the European Parliament

«European citizens have been calling for cruelty free cosmetics for a long time. This European Citizens’ Initiative is another reminder for the Commission that they will not continue to do nothing while gaps in legislation are not being filled to put an end to all cosmetics testing on animals.»
Niels Fuglsang (Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats)

The three fundamental requests of the ECI are:

  • the rigorous implementation of a ban by the EU on tests on animals for cosmetic ingredients;
  • a total move to non-animal methods for chemical safety tests;
  • a commitment in favour of a plan aiming to progressively eliminate all experiments on animals.

Launched in August 2021 by Cruelty Free Europe, the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments (the two coalitions for which One Voice is the historical French representative), Eurogroup for Animals, and PETA, the ECI has been supported by beauty and care businesses worldwide — The Body Shop, Dove, and Lush — and actively promoted by a coalition between associations and activists in the whole of Europe. Hundreds of celebrities have also supported the campaign, including Sir Paul McCartney, Ricky Gervais, Finnish heavy metal group Lordi, Italian singer Red Canzian, French journalist Hugo Clément, and actress Evanna Lynch.

No other ECI has received such support in so many different countries. To be successful, an ECI most receive at least one million valid signatures and reach a minimum number of signatures in at least seven EU countries. This ECI has surpassed this goal in 22 countries, showing a Pan-European desire to abolish tests on animals.

Thanks again to all those who signed who, with us, have committed for an end to animal testing in Europe during the last year!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Animal testing: One Voice is requesting the control of a repeat offending laboratory in Finistère

Animal testing: One Voice is requesting the control of a repeat offending laboratory in Finistère

Animal testing: One Voice is requesting the control of a repeat offending laboratory in Finistère
26.01.2023
Bretagne
Animal testing: One Voice is requesting the control of a repeat offending laboratory in Finistère
Animal testing

The Centre of Documentation, Research and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution (Cedre) in Brest uses various species of fish to test the effects of contaminated products. In 2016, the Finistère Prefecture raised a flagrant disrespect of the regulations… without this giving rise to a penalty, or even a new regulatory inspection. Today, One Voice is asking the Rennes Tribunal to order a new check on Cedre and the implementation of appropriate measures.

On 23 May 2022, after having consulted the 2016 Cedre inspection report (latest to date), One Voice has requested that the Finistère Prefecture provide proof that the numerous problems stated have been resolved. Several letters have been exchanged to obtain these documents and to state that there is currently no evidence of the resolution of serious problems revealed in 2014, then in 2016, at Cedre.

Checks on laboratories

At best, the Finistère Prefecture would have controlled Cedre in 2020 and stated that the regulations here were already being followed. Except no trace of these checks exists, since no report would have been made by the inspector… which is against regulations.

According to this, animal testing laboratories must be inspected every three years (or every year if they keep primates, cats, or dogs). And this frequency must be increased if the laboratory does not follow the regulations, to check more closely.

«They still dare to tell us that, in laboratories that are testing on animals, inspections and regulations are very strict. But since we have been watching them more closely, the reality is totally the opposite. Here, we are talking about a laboratory that has been evading the law for years (and could still be now) and that has never been penalised or even punished for it!» Muriel Arnal, President of One Voice

In fact, the Cedre has not been checked for at least four years according to an inspection there that revealed numerous non-conformities assessed as ‘major’ by veterinary services, which should have given rise to, at the very least, a formal notice.

The Cedre is a repeat offender

On 23 June 2016, the Prefecture revealed eleven non-conformities, of which six were ‘major’. The problems relate in particular to the absence of any qualification among the staff, experiments being carried out without authorisation or with the opinion of the ethical committee, and the absence of any veterinary care for the animals at weekends and on bank holidays.

They had also been involved in the death of several fish with one project. Additionally, the absence of a person holding a competency certification for the use of non-domestic animals in experiments (which was already reported in 2014) is liable to a criminal penalty of a €150,000 fine and three years imprisonment.

Despite this damning proof, the Finistère Prefecture preferred not to punish the Cedre and to leave them to carry on with their activities without checking on them again. They even went so far as to favour them by sending them a new agreement in advance in 2020, while the inspection report justifying this agreement (supposedly having taken place three months before) has never been written.

Faced with this unacceptable situation, One Voice has referred to the Rennes Administrative Tribunal to request that a new inspection be carried out at the Cedre, that a report be written for this, and that the non-conformities that will be seen here will be followed up on. The Rennes Administrative Tribunal will have to decide.

For more information on the animals used in animal testing, the amount of them and their suffering, you can consult the specialist website produced by One Voice: https://experimentation-animale.com.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

The Saint-Avold deer: welcome to absurdity

The Saint-Avold deer: welcome to absurdity

The Saint-Avold deer: welcome to absurdity
24.01.2023
Moselle
The Saint-Avold deer: welcome to absurdity
Wildlife

The Moselle Prefect has authorised, on the same day, the killing of twenty deer and the introduction of twenty other deer a few metres further away. Far from the alleged ‘regulations’, the State has lost their mind, hunters are delighted, and animals pay the biggest price as always.

The town of Saint-Avold (Moselle) is home to the biggest American cemetery from the Second World War in Europe: a park measuring 46 hectares and largely wooded to the delight of several deer who have taken up residence there and spend time peacefully alongside fallen soldiers.

But these visitors are not welcome: in March 2022, the Moselle Prefect authorised the killing of thirty of them within the cemetery grounds. This was not enough to wipe them out: so on 17 January 2023, he allowed another massacre to slaughter twenty more deer.

To compensate these killings, a decree was signed on the same day to reintroduce twenty others, without a doubt from breeding farms, into the Saint-Avold national forest. This forest is only separated from the cemetery by a road which obviously will not stop roebucks, doe roe deer, and fawns. Be warned, however: if they cross it, the Prefect will jump at the chance to authorise a handful of lucky representatives to come and kill them among these tombstones.

Complaining about the damage caused by deer, killing them, then reintroducing deer in the same place: how far are they willing to go to satisfy a few peoples’ instinct to kill?

Additionally, do we need to remind the Moselle Prefect that alternatives to killing exist? These animals could be quite simply captured and released into the forest, as we do elsewhere in France. No need to make them suffer and die. Yet more proof of the total disinterest of State representatives for animals’ lives. To them, killing twenty individuals and reintroducing twenty others a few metres further away is the same as not killing any of them.

Let’s continue to demand a radical hunting reform to fight this absurdity!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Democratic Republic of the Congo: mountain gorillas are in danger!

Democratic Republic of the Congo: mountain gorillas are in danger!

Democratic Republic of the Congo: mountain gorillas are in danger!
24.01.2023
Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo: mountain gorillas are in danger!
Wildlife

In an attempt to return to calm in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Congolese and Rwandan governments have asked for a rebel group to retreat to Mount Sabyinyo. The problem: it is the natural habitat of mountain gorillas, a species that is endemic and weak due to the numerous conflicts that have been shaking up the region for decades. Along with our on-site partner, the NGO Innovation pour le Développement et la Protection de l’Environnement [Innovation for the Development and Protection of the Environment] and around ten other organisations, we are worried about the danger weighing on the lives of these large primates. One Voice is co-signing a letter addressed to the relevant authorities.

Following the resumption of hostilities in 2022, the “coalition of non-governmental civil society organisations in the environmental, human rights, real estate, and town and country planning sectors” has already sent a letter to the DRC and Rwandan Presidents. In the mountain gorillas’ territory, in the South of the Virunga National Park, on the border between Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC, fights have broken out between Congolese armed forces and the M23 rebel group.

Now, while the governments of the two countries are telling the rebels to withdraw from the same territory, our concern is at its peak. In a new letter to authorities, in French, English, and Spanish, we are joining the collective: we fear that fighters arriving onto the mountain gorillas’ territory creates increased deforestation and pollution which could have serious consequences on their health. Added to these risks are those of poaching and trafficking of baby monkeys, as well as the spread of zoonoses between animals and humans. Finally, the behaviour of the gorillas, traumatised by weapons going off and the migratory movements that have been happening in their territory for months, could be used as a pretext for the systematic killing of these beings who are already so vulnerable. We cannot let this happen without reacting!

Since the profound commitment of scientist Dian Fossey in favour of these majestic primates, we know that mountain gorillas, far from the bad reputation that they’ve been given, are intelligent, sweet animals who are very tender, especially between members of the same family united within their group and are very playful. We have also known for decades that poaching and deforestation dangerously weaken their population which is already limited to the narrow geographical area in which they are still evolving freely, and this is why active protection of these individuals is still essential.

Faced with the danger weighing on mountain gorillas’ lives, and at the risk that the last of them could disappear before our eyes — and under what conditions? — One Voice has signed a letter, sent on Monday 23 January, calling for the protection of these victims in spite of human conflict.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Press conference at the Grenoble Chatipi for stray cats on 23 January 2023 at 10:45am

Press conference at the Grenoble Chatipi for stray cats on 23 January 2023 at 10:45am

Press conference at the Grenoble Chatipi for stray cats on 23 January 2023 at 10:45am
23.01.2023
Isère
Press conference at the Grenoble Chatipi for stray cats on 23 January 2023 at 10:45am
Domestic animals

One Voice, who has been fighting against feline straying for years, has implemented the educational Chatipi programme, which educates the population on cats in general and allows these felines with no human family to no longer suffer in misery. One Voice is also implementing three-way partnerships with town councils (or residential areas) and local associations to microchip and most importantly neuter homeless cats and release them if they cannot be adopted, while providing them with a wooden chalet for them to rehydrate themselves, eat, and take comfort. This is what has happened in Grenoble, where an agreement was signed between the town, Cosa Animalia, and One Voice. A press conference will take place on Monday 23 January at 10:45am.

The press conference on Monday 23 January will take place behind 48, quai de France in Grenoble (in front of the Chatipi) at 10:45am. It will happen in the presence of Sandra Krief, Town Councillor responsible for animal welfare, and Andréa Argémi, President of the local Cosa Animalia Association. Finally is Mathilde Perrot who is in charge of the Chatipi programme for One Voice and who will represent the association.

According to Sandra Krief, Town Councillor responsible for animal welfare in Grenoble:

«Street cats, just like us, have only one life that they hold onto as we do. We have created an urban environment that is extremely hostile to them. I believe that our duty is to naturally reintegrate them, protect them, and take care of them. And this is exactly the objective of the Chatipis in the town.»

According to Mathilde Perrot, Head of the Chatipi Programme for One Voice:

« Chatipi has the aim of helping cats by providing them with a shelter, care, and food, and neutering them. But the project also aims to make the population aware of the problem of feline straying which stems from individuals not getting their cats neutered. Every year, new kittens are born in the wild and are condemned to a completely miserable life with all of the problems that come along with it. It is dramatic. It is vital that people are made aware of this and that they get their cats neutered.»

According to Muriel Arnal, Founding President of One Voice:

«The number of unneutered cats abandoned on our streets is astronomical. It is easy to casually throw a cat out. And the management of our millennial companions is allocated under the ‘waste’ budget for towns. It is time for change!»

Chatipi: a lasting solution for the vicious circle of feline straying

Chatipi is a plan with the ethical aim of creating areas for stray cats in order to keep them safe while raising awareness among citizens of their suffering and needs. Around twenty projects are in place and almost as many are being developed. Several Chatipis have been established near schools or nursing homes, health centres, and hospitals (particularly in Pitié-Salpêtrière), not only to give cats safety but also to offer comfort to residents. Because One Voice’s goal is fundamentally to educate about cats.
In fact, we too often mistakenly describe these small felines as independent animals, when they are very affectionate, loyal, and dependent, which makes them vulnerable in the event of being abandoned.

Neutering must be habitual!

That being said, feline straying is not only caused by abandonment. This vicious circle begins with erroneous assumptions about cats, particularly that they have an intrinsic need to reproduce in order to be happy, which leads to their human families not always getting them neutered. Many cat births take place in the wild. In any case, these kittens, when they survive, are hit by hunger, cold, and illness. They are neither microchipped nor neutered, because their humans are sometimes not even aware of their existence. And so, litters only continue to multiply in these circumstances. Towns or drop-in centres must manage these individuals faced with this misfortune, which also has an impact on biodiversity. One Voice has, by the way, published its investigation footage in two pounds, one in Lot-et-Garonne, the other in Normandy, and is calling for awareness of the problem to be raised urgently by public services but also and primarily by the public themselves. Neutering cats must be part of the compulsory steps when we commit to taking one on.

Sharing out tasks and responsibilities

One Voice, who invented the Chatipi concept, provides the chalet and the cat flaps and is responsible for the feeding and veterinary fees (neutering, microchipping, tests) for the cats at the beginning of the operation as well as the educational board. The location and implementation of the concrete slab is left to the town. The local animal protection association manages the feeding and health monitoring of the cats long-term; Cosa Animalia has also promised to set up the chalet and to do the interior layout.

The One Voice site dedicated to the Chatipi programme gives lots of information on this educational programme on cats.

Sign the petition for an urgent plan for feline straying.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Huge success in the United States: it is no longer necessary to carry out tests on animals to develop medications

Huge success in the United States: it is no longer necessary to carry out tests on animals to develop medications

Huge success in the United States: it is no longer necessary to carry out tests on animals to develop medications
20.01.2023
The United States
Huge success in the United States: it is no longer necessary to carry out tests on animals to develop medications
Animal testing

For the first time in more than eighty years, a change in American law will allow testing of new medications without having to use animals, via modern methods based on humans. One Voice, with its German partner within the ECEAE, Doctors Against Animal Experiments, is delighted with this tremendous step and is calling on the EU, as well as Germany and France of course, to follow this example by developing and implementing a development strategy for medications suitable for humans without animal testing.

The new law, approved by Joe Biden at the end of December 2022, will allow the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve new medications without the need for data resulting from animal testing. Formerly, pharmaceutical companies were required by law to test the safety and efficacy of their drug-candidates in several tests on animals by using as least two species, before being allowed to put them to the test in clinical trials on humans and patients.

«Various data clearly shows the failures of the obsolete animal testing system. On average, 92% of drug-candidates that pass all animal tests are then abandoned in human clinical trials, mainly because they do not work or they have secondary effects.» Dr Dilyana Filipova, Scientist at Doctors Against Animal Experiments

Animal testing is therefore no longer the only option to approve medications in the United States

Thanks to a new law, modern and relevant techniques for our species, such as mini human organs (‘organoids’), organs-on-a-chip, and computerised methods, can now also be used for regulation purposes in the United States in place of animal testing. Numerous ethical processes have already proven to be more precise and more reliable than tests on animals. A recent study has also shown the toxicity of several compounds on the liver with the help of human liver chips, while former experiments on animals had erroneously classified these same compounds as being harmless.

«Such examples highlight the importance of this legislative change, not only to save countless animals from horrific tests and atrocious deaths, but also to ensure better safety for patients.» Dr Dilyana Filipova

An openness to ethics but not a paradigm shift

Animal testing, however, is not banned by the new law and remains allowed as a possible testing method. Nevertheless, the fact that pharmaceutical businesses are no longer bound by law to carry out tests on animals and are free to use these precise procedures, suitable for humankind and without using animals, represents huge progress.

While the United States is introducing this modern legislation and turning to the future, certain tests on animals in the EU, and therefore also in France, are still required by law for the approval of medications. In Germany, the percentage of regulation animal tests is around 17%. This percentage has reached 31% in France.

Will the European Union make up for their tardiness?

One Voice, like its German partner, asked the European Commission to establish and immediately implement a progressive elimination strategy for animal testing, a defective system if ever there was one, as requested by more than one million people who have signed the Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI).

«Europe must use the United States as a model and no longer carry out tests on animals for medications. If we want to develop better treatments and keep up with the global drug market, we must rely on the most modern, effective, reliable methods based on humans, and not on animal testing which has proven to be ineffective.» Dr Filipova

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Translated from the French by Joely Justice