News Archive - Page 60 of 146

Investigation into Finnish fur farms: let’s call for an end to the production and sale of fur in Europe!

Investigation into Finnish fur farms: let’s call for an end to the production and sale of fur in Europe!
20.01.2023
Europe
Investigation into Finnish fur farms: let’s call for an end to the production and sale of fur in Europe!
Fashion

Shocking footage showing fur-farmed foxes in Finland with weeping and swollen infected eyes and ears; injured and bloodied tails; and deformed, splayed feet has been released by One Voice partners from the FFA coalition: animal protection groups Oikeutta eläimille and Humane Society International/Europe. The footage also shows obese “monster foxes” with huge skin folds from selective breeding and baby foxes cannibalising their dead siblings.

The footage exposes the suffering of animals for fur fashion, even in a country like Finland where the fur trade boasts that almost 100% of fox fur farms are certified by the fur trade’s SAGA Furs assurance scheme. The scheme promises “the highest level of animal welfare” but the atrocious conditions documented show a different story. Fox fur originating from Finland is used by brands including Fendi, Yves Salomon, Woolrich, Ermanno Scervino and Max Mara.

The exposé comes as more than 1.2 million EU citizens so far have signed the EU-wide “Fur-Free Europe” European Citizens’ Initiative petition calling on the European Commission to ban the farming and sale of fur in the EU.

Finnish animal group Oikeutta eläimille filmed at six randomly selected fur farms in the Ostrobothnia region of western Finland between June and November 2022.

«The majority of Finns want to ban keeping animals in barren cages just for their fur, but our politicians have failed to bring an end to the cruelty. An EU-wide ban would help the animals also in other member countries, where the greed for money is valued over animal welfare.»Kristo Muurimaa, Oikeutta eläimille«Fur production in France has stopped thank to making the public aware, who we have reassured for years with the help of our investigations into mink farms in the country and, finally, with the November 2021 law that guaranteed that these breeding farms could not rise again from the ashes. In Finland, production is not banned; it is about time! The ban on the sale of fur in the whole of the European Union would allow it to maintain Europeans’ very clear refusal to play musical chairs with globalised production (like in Russia or China; the animals here will suffer just as much or even more).»Muriel Arnal, President of One Voice«It is completely unacceptable that millions of animals continue to suffer terribly for fur fashion across Europe. As this latest footage from supposedly high-welfare fur farms in Finland clearly demonstrates, these animals are subjected to miserable lives in tiny cages. Fur farm conditions are so grim that most consumers want nothing to do with fur, as evidenced by the enormous support for our European Citizens’ Initiative to ban fur farming and trade across the EU. Fourteen EU member states are already leading the way by having banned fur farming, indeed only a small number of countries, including Finland, allow this practice to continue to take place, and now it’s time for an EU-wide ban to consign this cruel trade to the history books once and for all.»Dr Joanna Swabe, senior director of public affairs at Humane Society International/Europe

Fur facts:

More than 100 million animals are killed for their fur every year worldwide—that is equivalent to three animals dying every second, just for their fur.
Fur farming has been banned in 19 European countries (14 of which are EU member states), including the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Malta, Ireland, Estonia, France, Italy and most recently, on 22nd September 2022, Latvia. Political discussions on a ban are also underway in Romania, Lithuania, Spain and Poland. A further two countries (Switzerland and Germany) have implemented such strict regulations that fur farming has effectively ended, and three other countries (Denmark, Sweden and Hungary) have imposed measures that have ended the farming of certain species.
An increasing number of fashion designers and retailers are dropping fur cruelty. In the last few years alone, Canada Goose, Oscar de la Renta, Valentino, Gucci, Burberry, Versace, Chanel, Prada and other high-profile brands have announced fur-free policies.
The fur trade in Finland is in financial decline, with many fur farms closing down and some fur farmers in Europe diversifying or transitioning to other livelihoods such as solar panels, to secure their future.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Transparency for mouse lemurs: hearing on 17 January in Versailles

Transparency for mouse lemurs: hearing on 17 January in Versailles
13.01.2023
Ile-de-France
Transparency for mouse lemurs: hearing on 17 January in Versailles
Animal testing

In Essonne, the staff from the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN) [French National History Museum] bred almost 500 grey mouse lemurs on which they led experiments. These small lemurs are subjected to awful abuse. On 17 January, at a hearing at the Versailles Administrative Tribunal, One Voice will ask in person to have access to documents relating to this breeding and non-human primate testing centre, to highlight these shameful practices.

In Madagascar, their native home, the grey mouse lemurs are victims of a loss of their habitat and are classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a species whose population is in decline. Should we not be coming to their aid rather than adding to their suffering? Whether they are protected or not, nothing justifies these small lemurs with big eyes being abused. However, in a Parisian region, in Brunoy, they are used for experiments.

There are currently almost 500 to be locked up in what is, to our knowledge, the biggest breeding facility for mouse lemurs in the world, and this despite an expansion of the site’s laboratory activities still being planned. Closely linked to us due to being considered as the base of the primate line, while being small enough to still be easily handled, these small individuals make ideal victims for cynical researchers. It is from this large ‘stock’ that the members of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) [French National Centre for Scientific Research], but also those from the Museum, dug them out to lead their tests. The mouse lemurs are then at best left in darkness or subjected to an accelerated alternated day/night to shorten their lifespan, or at worst isolated and undernourished for several days before being decapitated in a barbaric machine and packed off in bits to Canada.

A strange mission for the MNHN, who boast about “raising awareness of the importance of biodiversity” and who are supposed “to provide scientific support to… the characterisation of the species’ conservation status”. Is it really necessary to remind the Museum that we cannot prevent their population from decreasing by cutting the heads off animals?

This umpteenth revolting example does nothing but reinforce our fight for the victims of animal testing, far too often forgotten about in current claims. We already organised a rally to demand the closure of the grey mouse lemur breeding farm on 9 October 2021. A year later, we will stop at nothing and expect to obtain information on what these little lemurs endure, how the authorities inspect the site, and how it functions ethically.

On Tuesday 17 January, at the Versailles Administrative Tribunal, we are giving a voice to mouse lemurs with the unfailing involvement of our consultants from the Géo Avocats law firm. So that the ordeal comes to an end for the lemurs used at the MNHN site, make some noise with us by signing our petition!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

The Muller Circus is changing… But only by name. For the animals, nothing has changed!

The Muller Circus is changing… But only by name. For the animals, nothing has changed!
11.01.2023
France
The Muller Circus is changing… But only by name. For the animals, nothing has changed!
Exploitation for shows

The Muller Circus is displaying a new name and is now presenting itself as ‘Cirque Zavatta’! A lick of paint out front will not be enough for us to forget either the confinement or the exploitation of the animals. We will continue to fight to free Jumbo and his companions, until they are sent to a sanctuary.

While the Muller Circus has received a little too much bad publicity, rather than changing and starting to an activity that does not exploit or train animals for example, they have changed their name! This is what we noticed a few days ago when, as if by magic, the stickers covering the circus performers’ lorries were adorned with the words ‘Cirque Zavatta’. A very practical way for this family to cover their tracks, with criminal charges piling up against them from illegal set-ups, incitement, violence towards activists, and death threats, as well as being a repeat offender of animal suffering. Who could be fooled?!

How can we forget Jumbo, whose existence boils down to rotting in a lorry-cage or basin, alone, for more than thirty years? How can we forget as well the all-day-long imprisonment of the monkeys and the tigers, who only escape boredom to perform in humiliating shows?

The Muller Circus is no longer welcome and they know it. No change of name or sticker will make us throw in the towel and give up our fight for the animals exploited. Their hell must come to an end!

Following the publication of this article, Franck Muller left us two voice messages on the Association’s Facebook page as follows:

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

One Voice is rallying throughout France to stop fur being sold in Europe!

One Voice is rallying throughout France to stop fur being sold in Europe!
11.01.2023
France
One Voice is rallying throughout France to stop fur being sold in Europe!
Fashion

One year after the closure of the last mink farm in France, and with it the end of fur production in our country, it is time to say farewell to this cruel industry in the whole of Europe!
Supported by One Voice, the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) for a ban on the production and marketing of fur in all member states has already reached a million signatures! The collection of European citizens’ signatures will end on 18 May; we must ensure that 500,000 additional people get involved for these animals.
One Voice is organising coordinated action in a dozen towns in France on the weekend of 14 and 15 January. They will also participate in their partners’ action in front of the Samaritaine [department store] in Paris, to put an end to this deadly fad in Europe.

Supported by One Voice, the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) for a ban on the production and marketing of fur in all member states has already reached a million signatures! The collection of European citizens’ signatures will end on 18 May; we must ensure that 500,000 additional people get involved for these animals.

One Voice is organising coordinated action in a dozen towns in France on the weekend of 14 and 15 January. They will also participate in their partners’ action in front of the Samaritaine [department store] in Paris, to put an end to this deadly fad in Europe.

	Towns	Event	Address	Time
04	Forcalquier	https://www.facebook.com/events/525268119374214/	Place du Bourget	2:30pm to 4:30pm on 15 January
06	Nice	https://www.facebook.com/events/2669284793207147	Place Massena	11am to 1pm on 14 January
10	Troyes	https://www.facebook.com/events/968142997482937?	71 Rue Émile Zola	3:30pm to 5:30pm on 14 January
13	Aix-en-Provence	https://www.facebook.com/events/676888010846599/	Allées de Provence	11am to 12pm on 28 January (note the change of date)
33	Bordeaux	https://www.facebook.com/events/1362640897825211	Place de la Comédie	2:30pm to 5pm on 15 January
34	Montpellier	https://www.facebook.com/events/2548597101957566/	Place de la Comédie	2:30pm to 4pm on 14 January
44	Nantes	https://www.facebook.com/events/897997564704349/	Place du change	3:20pm to 5pm on 28 January
59	Lille	https://www.facebook.com/events/692278982478913	Place Richebé	11:30am to 1pm on 14 January
64	Bayonne	https://www.facebook.com/events/1560352084375762	Carreau des Halles	3:30pm to 5pm on 14 January
69	Lyon	https://www.facebook.com/events/2418294038319216	Place St Jean	2:30pm to 5pm on 29 January
75	Paris:	https://www.facebook.com/events/1163816727609309	Pont Neuf	3pm to 4:30pm on 14 January
80	Amiens	https://www.facebook.com/events/699342655062772	Place René Goblet	1:30pm to 4pm on 28 January (note the change of date)

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

A dying fox, a walker threatened: will the ‘trapper’ soon be identified?

A dying fox, a walker threatened: will the ‘trapper’ soon be identified?
10.01.2023
France
A dying fox, a walker threatened: will the ‘trapper’ soon be identified?
Wildlife

After having received a witness statement from a shocked walker, and faced with the initial lack of reaction from the authorities, we have intervened to bring the unacceptable behaviour of a fox trapper, who has openly threatened this whistle-blower and subjected a fox to particularly cruel acts before killing it, to their attention. While these cousins of dogs are victims of an unbearable persecution, we will remain fully committed so that the investigation will allow the suspect to be identified and brought to justice.

One Voice’s action, crucial to launch the investigation

At the beginning of December, during a walk during which she simply wanted to benefit from nature, a woman found herself face to face with a panicked, dying fox with its paw in a foot snare trap, undoubtedly for several hours. Looking to come to its aid, she was violently challenged by the trapper who did not hesitate to insult her before threatening her, gun in hand. Additional proof, if there is any need for it, of hunters’ feeling of total impunity. The walker had to resign herself and step aside. The man then fired a first bullet at the fox, without killing it… Was this to prolong its suffering and benefit for the longest time possible from his hobby? The poor animal had to endure a few long seconds before it was finally put out of its misery.

While the initial report to local police seemed to go unheeded, we intervened to report these particularly serious facts and to demand a quick response against these acts of cruelty.

This decisive action allowed some progress: at the start of January, supported by our local point of contact, the walker was interviewed at the police station. An investigation was launched on three counts: illegal trapping, threats, and acts of cruelty towards an animal. She will, hopefully, be able to identify the trapper so that he can answer for his actions.

One Voice fully committed for foxes

For many years, we have reported on the fate reserved for foxes in France. Classified nationally as a ‘species likely to cause damage’, they are perpetually massacred. They are the subject of the most cruel hunts: horse and hound hunting, night hunts, underground hunting with hounds. Hunters do not hesitate to attack foxes, held on the ground before being violently killed, sometimes with metal clamps on their heads.

Red foxes are sensitive and intelligent beings who, like all animals, deserve to be protected. Nothing can justify the persecution and massacring that they are victims of. Faced with repeated attacks by hunters to kill more and more animals by resorting to the most unbearable methods, we are repeating our appeal for a radical reform of hunting, and will continue to intervene whenever necessary to give foxes a voice. Together, let’s demand that foxes be removed from the list of species likely to cause damage (formerly ‘pests’).

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Lack of safety in hunting: hunters 1, others 0

Lack of safety in hunting: hunters 1, others 0
09.01.2023
Lack of safety in hunting: hunters 1, others 0

While 4 in 5 French people are favourable towards a ban on hunting on Sundays, the day when the largest number of accidents linked to this hobby are reported, the State prefers to strengthen the interests of a dangerously armed minority: an app-gadget to signal horse and hound hunts is not only anti-democratic, it is also to the advantage of hunters who will have their sense of ownership of nature and biodiversity reinforced.

Against the overwhelming majority of French people in favour of stopping hunting on a Sunday (78%*), the hunting lobby offers ridiculous gadgets and refuses any progression. And what is the State doing? It is listening to the lobby.

In response to the problem of a lack of safety linked to their hobby, hunters offer an app that is just as useless as it is dangerous. They are already struggling to put ‘hunting in progress’ signs up properly; we wonder how an app, with all the eventualities that this involves (having a smartphone, signal, etc.) could be shown to be effective.

With this tool, hunters would signal to walkers, urging them to avoid ‘danger bubbles’ — in reality these areas are much larger than indicated, given the range of weapons — and to head towards ‘safe’ zones.

But everything rings untrue:

There is no signal in many natural zones affected by hunting;
The app is not compulsory and will only relate to the hunts;
It assumes that all hunters and walkers have a smartphone, and that they would systematically think to go onto the app;
A single hunter could find themselves outside of the ‘danger bubble’ indicated;
Such a gadget gives a false impression of safety to walkers, and would above all give hunters a clear conscience, who would feel free from any constraints and responsibility: in the event of an accident, who would be responsible? Victims or hunters?
What would happen if a walker, in the middle of their hike, received an alert to signal that a hunt was about to start around them?

In reality, this app would do nothing but reinforce the dominance of hunters over nature and make this dangerous (or even deadly, for other people) ‘hobby’ legitimate. In summary, the message is “Clear off, we are hunting! ”.

Sundays without hunting was brought in in England in 1831, and nowadays in numerous other countries in Europe (the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Portugal…) observing at least one national hunt-free day. But not in France, where the powerful hunting lobby has been imposing their diktat for decades, when they do not even represent 2% of the population.

In short, rather than restricting hunting, the government prefers to restrict the freedom of others: French people have no other choice than to zigzag between the ‘danger bubbles’, or to stay at home, as already recommended by the head of the Fédération nationale des chasseurs [National Federation of Hunters]… Did you say democracy?

Associations that have signed:
Animal Cross, ASPAS, Fondation Brigitte Bardot, Humanité & Biodiversité, LPO, One Voice, SFEPM, Stéphane Lamart, Un Jour Un Chasseur, WWF

*IFOP survey, December 2022

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Safety in hunting: One Voice reports on an umpteenth smokescreen

Safety in hunting: One Voice reports on an umpteenth smokescreen
06.01.2023
France
Safety in hunting: One Voice reports on an umpteenth smokescreen
Wildlife

When animal killers become just killers, the government offers Canada Dry, far from the expectations and despair of the French population who would like to benefit from nature and the great outdoors (the bit that is left) without risking their lives. One Voice is reporting on the dramatic under-sizing of government propositions that are taking shape in relation to the stakes. What it will take is a radical reform on hunting, not small measures that are once again insulting to grieving families and to biodiversity which is being wiped out before our eyes.

From the elusive to Canada Dry…

At the end of October 2022, Bérangère Couillard, the Secretary of State in charge of Ecology and therefore the hunting file, implemented a consultation – what made this necessary..? Because these announcements about hunting management are elusive… We thought that there would be a bill after the efficacy of the petition filed on the Senate’s site by the One Day A Hunter [Un Jour Un Chasseur] collective, then from our hearing at the Senators’ mandate… But no, still no immediate decisions.

On Monday, the Minister announced the result of this consultation. It involved, among other things, limiting hunters’ blood alcohol levels, a minimum measure which French people were gobsmacked by in the autumn when no restrictions had so far been imposed in this plan for people who were nevertheless armed in the countryside. A request that One Voice has been bringing up for many years, just like annual eye check-ups…

Another of the measures expected by more than four in five French people to make hunting in France safe (a stable proportion for five years: see the three rounds of the IPSOS/One Voice survey in 2018, 2021, and 2022), is a hunting ban during the whole of the school holidays as well as for two days a week including Sundays.
Instead of this, the government is delivering a gadget, an application called ‘Suricate’ (they will tell us that just this once it is not a freephone number) which, if it did not concern the lives and deaths of others, would be laughable.

A hunting and gunmakers’ lobby that is stronger than safety and biodiversity

The lack of any political desire to change anything is such a pity. The accumulated deaths of animals and humans still do not measure up to a lobby for which we wonder how they still manage to dictate their own laws when they represent such a small minority. Country people as well as city-dwellers are more than fed up!

What can we still expect from a government that is not even capable of listening to the population? To keep them safe?
Horse and hound hunting is still happening, as well as underground hunting with hounds, penned hunting, and wild boar breeding farms, or deer being released to be killed. The French President even lowered the price of hunting licences by half during his first mandate! And the Ministry has opposed us so many times at the State Council to keep and justify the massacring of birds with cruel glue hunting traps and other traditional hunting methods…

If the great advances for biodiversity in general and animals in particular come down to plastic fast-food packaging and an app, we are far from the hopes raised by the ‘Make our planet great again’ from the beginning of Macron I.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

For the closing down of a colony of baboons at the University of Murcia

For the closing down of a colony of baboons at the University of Murcia
05.01.2023
Murcia
For the closing down of a colony of baboons at the University of Murcia
Animal testing

Stop Camarles, One Voice’s Spanish partner, has just revealed a video of the conditions that beagles and baboons are being kept in at a Spanish university where toxic products are being injected into the brains of monkeys and pig organs are being transplanted onto them. Along with us, call for this colony of baboons in Murcia to be closed down.

On 12 October, a baboon escaped from the cage in which it was being kept by the university. After having crossed the motorway and travelled from roof to roof, he was recaptured, hit with a tranquilliser dart, then taken back to the cage.

In response to this ‘incident’, One Voice is naturally working with the Spanish association Stop Camarles (with whom we are already partners for many projects involving primates destined for laboratories) and fifteen other associations worldwide to ask the ethical committee at this university and Spanish ministries to get this colony of baboons closed and to supervise the transfer of the animals to a sanctuary who could meet their needs without subjecting them to gruesome experiments.

The university will not even respect the regulations…

Yesterday morning, Stop Camarles revealed new images and videos, which show the dog kennels and monkey cages.

generics.video.play

The one that escaped in October could, for the first time, feel the grass under his feet and climb real trees. Forcibly returned to the cage, he will have to, like dozens of other members of the colony, be content with a hanging tyre and a few platforms fixed onto the wire mesh.

The overcrowding is blatant. [Edit from 19 January 2023] Not to mention that keeping such different species such as baboons and beagles in such close proximity could potentially create stress that is easily avoidable for individuals from both species.

Baboons’ fate

Like the majority of science universities, this university in the south-east of Spain particularly offers courses in veterinary practice, biology, and biochemistry, interspersed with practical work involving live animals. And research using baboons is no more pleasing. Many of them were exploited here in the 2000s to study the xenotransplantation of pigs’ organs (a practice that has been condemned for a long time).

More recently, in 2019 and 2020, two articles were published by the University of Murcia in collaboration with French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Quatari counterparts. Here we discovered that more than thirty baboons from this colony had been injected in the brain with products (or had been used as controls) to create the appearance of dementia to be observed for two years, before all being killed for analysis of said brains…

Help us to put an end to these practices

We have started a petition along with Stop Camarles, Action for Primates, and PETA to demand the closure of this baboon colony at the University of Murcia and for the animals to be transferred to a suitable sanctuary. You can sign this petition and share it on social media in order to support our request and encourage Spanish authorities to respond to it favourably.

I demand the closure of the baboon colony in Murcia

These animal testing practices exist in Spain but also in France. You can consult our website dedicated to the figures and to recently authorised experiments for more information.

If you have witnessed practices that outrage you, do not hesitate to oppose them (as the students at the University of Strasbourg did recently, thanks to whom lab work using live hamsters will not be repeated next year) and to contact us to give your witness statement.

Open letter to Fabien Di Filippo regarding the fate of dogs neglected by the management at Arche de Bouba

Open letter to Fabien Di Filippo regarding the fate of dogs neglected by the management at Arche de Bouba
05.01.2023
France
Open letter to Fabien Di Filippo regarding the fate of dogs neglected by the management at Arche de Bouba
Domestic animals

One Voice has been alerted to the fact that the management at the Ranguevaux pound-rescue, Arche de Bouba, might be operating at different sites in several departments: the town of Nitting in Moselle and Sainte-Menehould in Marne. After joining the Moselle Prefecture, we contacted Mr Fabien Di Filippo, the deputy of the fourth constituency of this department, in order to ask him to implement measures to help rescue dogs who will be abandoned in this miserable place. We are also writing to the Marne Prefecture in order to ensure that no animal can be kept in this place in Sainte-Menehould any longer.

Photo DR

Deputy
Fabien Di Filippo
National Assembly
126, rue de l’Université
75007 Paris

Vannes, 5 January 2023

Subject: Pound-rescue in Ranguevaux – Arche de Bouba

Dear Deputy,

You have surely been made aware of the latest facts relating to the matter of the Ranguevaux pound-rescue (57700), which has now been around for several years and which perfectly illustrates the lack of respect given to animals suffering under public powers in France.

The calvary of several sick animals (fleas, worms, coryza, typhus, feline infectious peritonitis, feline immunodeficiency virus) needing urgent treatment, abandoned and kept in a place that is more like a rubbish tip than a pound, ended on Monday 26 December. The police, accompanied by an animal protection association and elected representatives from the town of Ranguevaux, were able to obtain their transfer to another organisation. Unfortunately, as reported in the regional media, some will not have survived and will have died with no concern.

With the Ranguevaux pound already being known unfavourably by the Moselle Prefecture’s veterinary services for several years, this situation could and should have been avoided.

Several dozen animals have already been taken there over time, suspensions of activities had been ordered, and the management had even been convicted of animal abuse and deceptive commercial practice.

It is unbearable that this pound-rescue’s activities are able to continue. What are the relevant authorities waiting for to get this place definitively closed? How many innocent animals are still going to suffer in agony for public authorities to make the necessary decisions?

Even if the surviving cats could have left this hell, One Voice had been warned of the fact that the dogs belonging to the management would themselves be kept in revolting conditions at another site in the town of Nitting, part of your constituency. Around ten dogs will effectively be kept in an unsanitary cabin as well as in kennels and on a veranda, and will only be fed two or three times a week because no daily human presence is guaranteed here.

Additionally, we have been informed of the fact that you would have known about these dogs’ situation and that you have refused to react to it, all while approving the words of an elected official who had stated: “They are only animals”.

If this is the case, One Voice would like to know your position on the situation, as well as the actions that you intend to take so that the animals that are still on-site can be rescued quickly, and above all, to get this place closed, which should have been done a long time ago.

We thank you for your attention to this request and await your response. Deputy, please accept our sincere regards.

Muriel Arnal,
One Voice President

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

In breach of the law, a pet shop is still offering animals for sale without giving time for consideration

In breach of the law, a pet shop is still offering animals for sale without giving time for consideration
03.01.2023
Bretagne
In breach of the law, a pet shop is still offering animals for sale without giving time for consideration
Domestic animals

From 1 October 2022, the implementation of a commitment and knowledge certification arising from the law against animal abuse should enforce anyone adopting or buying a pet to wait at least seven days from the signature of said certificate and them acquiring a dog, cat, ferret, gerbil, rat, or rabbit. Yet this is not the case! In a pet shop in Brittany, from where a whistle-blower who was aware of our involvement for pet animals entrusted us with a recording, and without a doubt in many other pet shops in France, it is still possible to leave with ‘their’ ‘pet’ animal the same day in complete violation of the law! Together let’s say: “Pet shops: I refuse! ”

A law voted in straight away and immediately evaded!

We already had serious reasons to doubt the scope of the law against animal abuse announced on 30 November 2021. Entrusted to our team just before Christmas, the recording of a surreal exchange between an employee of a pet shop in Brittany and a woman explaining her desire to get a dog shows that, if need be, the commitment and knowledge certification included in the law was nothing but another gimmick, quite incapable of preventing the compulsive purchase of a sentient being.

A wait of an hour instead of a week to obtain their animal-thing

In this pet shop, the client only waited “a good hour” from the moment when they set their sights on what they simply considered to be a cute “ball of fluff”, to the moment they left the shop with their animal-thing in their possession. The time that the employees took to do the paperwork. Say goodbye to the seven days of reflection imposed by law. It was enough for the client to sign another certificate, provided by the pet shop, to “waive the wait set by the law” under the pretext that five minutes of discussion with a salesperson and a few papers would allow them to have sufficient knowledge on the animal that was about to be bought, and that they are completely aware that this purchase is in reality an adoption and therefore a lifetime commitment.

How do we know that this outlandish exchange was an exception? Who will ensure that these worthless certificates have actually been provided and signed, if not the salesperson and the pet shop that employs them, who can visibly evade the law without a second thought? And what is the point of these signatures anyway if it is possible to edit disclaimers at leisure?

Pet shops? I refuse!

Because of classified adverts and pet shops, which turn animals into merchandise like anything else in the consumer system, rescue centres are overflowing with cats and dogs waiting desperately to be adopted by a loving family, while many of them have been victims of abandonment.

We maintain that, out of respect for animals, rescue centres must be preferred over pet shops. Choose a real meeting between an adoptive family and an animal, and adoption after a carefully considered decision, rather than an impulse buy of a sensitive and dependent being who they will not necessarily have the means to look after in the long-term. In April 2022, in Nice, as part of our “Pet shops: I refuse!” campaign, our local branch had already led shock action to report unlawful pet shops that continued to display cats and dogs in the window like common trinkets destined to lure consumers in.

This situation cannot continue! Report any unlawful pet shop to us until these places that objectify animals stop their activities in 2024. Sign our petition to protect our canine and feline companions so that they will no longer be treated as objects. Together, let’s also call for an urgent plan against feline straying

Translated from the French by Joely Justice