News Archive - Page 62 of 146

Blood farms: when animal testing serves the profitability of European farms

Blood farms: when animal testing serves the profitability of European farms
06.12.2022
International
Blood farms: when animal testing serves the profitability of European farms
Animal testing

From porthole cows to rapidly grown chickens, it is hard to imagine a more horrific treatment than that reserved for pregnant mares whose blood is taken for the eCG hormone, used in French breeding farms to schedule ovulation and births. We wrote to Gircor three months ago. Welfarm have just revealed new footage.

For decades, public organisations have defended animal testing, particularly when it involves livestock animals. This is how the INRA [French National Institute for Agricultural Research], who has been looking to increase productivity of animals farmed for their meat or fluids since the 1960s, has more recently become involved in the foie gras industry, while the Ministry of Agriculture defended the use of porthole cows.

Zootechnics and animal testing

These animal testing practices reveal what we call zootechnics, which study and carry out tests on breeding conditions and animal exploitation. Every time, you can hear the words ‘animal welfare’ being echoed in the background.

But it is hard to imagine a more horrific treatment than that reserved for pregnant mares whose blood is taken to produce the eCG hormone, used in French breeding farms to schedule ovulation and births.

The horror of blood farms, from South America to Iceland

In South America, after four months of pregnancy and heavy blood tests, these mares are aborted manually, without any anaesthesia, to then be made pregnant again and subjected to the same treatment until they are so exhausted that they cannot be used.

Uncovering the footage circulated in France by Welfarm in 2017 and 2018, French companies ended up turning to Iceland, where pregnancies are carried to term and the foals sent to the abattoir. But the footage taken in 2021 shows that the situation in Iceland is no better than in South America.

A new investigation from the Animal Welfare Foundation | Tierschutzbund Zürich (AWF|TSB) in South America, carried out in 2021 and 2022, reveals that the situation is not getting better: mares are beaten, injured without being treated, malnourished, and neglected…

The eCG hormone in France

France is the only recipient in the European Union of the eCG powder produced by the Syntex company in Uruguay for astronomical amounts.

According to a French specialist questioned in 2017, the use of the eCG hormone is “almost systematic in breeding farms for goats and sheep [in France], in order to ensure milk production all year round. eCG is also used widely to schedule births and to increase the number of piglets per sow.

This is the “double disaster” reported: mares are farmed and mistreated elsewhere in the world to allow French breeding farms to better profit from their farming of sows, cows, sheep, and goats.

And eCG is the source of a third disaster: its use inevitably involves tests on animals. As long as they support a breeding system that is unnecessary, these tests, such as the production of eCG, are not vital and must therefore be considered illegal under rural legislation.

What the authorities concerned are saying

In 2017, the Ordre national des vétérinaires [National Association of Veterinarians] hid behind ‘animal welfare’ and the impossibility of knowing precisely where the eCG used in France comes from to avoid having to come down unfavourably on its use.

Three months ago, we sent a letter to Gircor, a French animal testing lobby, in order to see if they would go so far as to justify tests and practices that cause suffering to serve a breeding system that is not necessary. We have not received a reply…

What can you do?

If these practices outrage you as they do us, sign the petition requesting a pure and simple ban on the production and importation of the eCG hormone within the European Union.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Wild boar head left on a pathway: we are writing to the appropriate authorities

Wild boar head left on a pathway: we are writing to the appropriate authorities
05.12.2022
Gard
Wild boar head left on a pathway: we are writing to the appropriate authorities
Wildlife

We were informed about photos taken on 5 December of a wild boar’s head left on a public bench in the town of Saint-Maurice-de-Cazevieille (Gard). We have just written to the town hall, the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB, the hunting police in particular), and the Gard Prefecture.

A wild boar’s head, cut off, was put down and left on a public bench in a town in Gard. Beyond the cruelty of this act, the total absence of respect for the animal killed, and the shock undoubtedly caused to passers-by – particularly children – by the sight of an abandoned wild boar head, this act is a criminal offence.

We have written to the appropriate authorities (the town hall, OFB, and Prefecture), because this head could legally be considered as litter, which is the responsibility of the town hall; additionally, the animal could have been killed outside of any rules applicable to hunting, which is the responsibility of both the OFB and the Prefecture…

Just for abandoning this animal’s body part on a public road could risk up to two years of imprisonment and a €75,000 fine. If in addition the regulations on hunting had not been followed… Faced with acts of provocation by hunters, we think that checks should be increased.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Puppy show in Bourg-en-Bresse: an open letter to Town Mayor Jean-François Debat

Puppy show in Bourg-en-Bresse: an open letter to Town Mayor Jean-François Debat
02.12.2022
Ain
Puppy show in Bourg-en-Bresse: an open letter to Town Mayor Jean-François Debat
Domestic animals

While selling cats and dogs in pet shops should be banned by 2024, ‘puppy shows’ do not seem close to giving up the lucrative trade of pets. We condemn this practice and are writing an open letter to the Bourg-en-Bresse local council, who welcomed a ‘puppy show’ on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 December.

Strasbourg, 2 December 2022

Dear Mayor,

We have been informed that a ‘puppy show’ is being held in Bourg-en-Bresse on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 December.

One Voice, whose purpose is to protect and defend animals and nature, are worried about the image being spread by this ‘show’ and about the fact that your town is encouraging the trade of pets, going against the tide of what our society really needs.

The law against animal abuse enacted in November 2022 banned the sale of puppies and kittens in pet shops and increased sanctions in cases of abuse against them.

A ‘puppy show’… Like a ‘car show’? Very young sentient beings being sold like cars? Don’t even! Because unlike car buyers, puppy ‘consumers’ mostly do not take the trouble to think before going ahead with their purchase. They will buy a baby Australian Shepherd just like they bought themselves a jumper to then be resold on Vinted. Or succumb to a kitten like they do a pair of shoes that they will return because they make their feet hurt. Without realising that welcoming an animal into your home means committing to caring for them for fifteen years and that this new arrival in the house represents a profound change. These shows give little information to their clients, who are often unaware of the consequences of this compulsive purchase, of sharing a happy life with their new companion, cute though it may be.

We must also remember that these commercial events involving living beings encourage breeding in abusive conditions for those being bred. To keep making more profit, they must keep producing more puppies.

In a context where rescue centres are overpopulated, where the price of food has skyrocketed, where keeping a ‘pet’ is more and more expensive, it would have been really useful to organise a show which puts cats and dogs up for adoption, with the support of associations in your region. Visitors would have received tailored information, without pressure, with the certainty that their decision would be right, respecting both animals and humans.

In November 2020, we had already written to you about your policy regarding animals. Today, we are urging you to stop welcoming and promoting these shows that objectify animals instead of educating about them, and only increase the number of animals abused or abandoned in your area.

Our Association is ready to give our expertise with regard to policies concerning pet animals and remains available to you for any request for additional information.

We thank you for your attention to this letter and ask that you accept our highest consideration, Mr Mayor.

Muriel Arnal, President

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Animal testing like you have never seen

Animal testing like you have never seen
01.12.2022
France
Animal testing like you have never seen
Animal testing

Thanks to relentless work carried out in the spring with the aim of providing the public with a complete representation of current practices in France in animal testing, One Voice has today unveiled an interactive web page combining explanations and analyses. An important and accessible resource for the general public and journalists.

Although they have not distributed them, the Ministry of Research has detailed figures on animal testing, such as those declared by laboratories. This data, much more interesting than the ‘statistical surveys’ that were published late and strewn with typos and omissions, have been obtained by One Voice on request from the Ministry.

Since the start of the year, we have analysed them and formatted them to better inform you. Today we have revealed a new version, expanded considerably, of our dedicated page on the experimentation-animale.com site, better documented than the Ministry’s statistical surveys.

Detailed and current information

Firstly, the species used are detailed. Together with mice, dogs, macaques and zebrafish, whose use is well-known, we show that laboratories exploit hedgehogs, wild boars, dolphins, canaries, salmon, foxes, turkeys, and sardines, among so many animals grouped in the ‘other’ categories of the statistics published.

Our page also shows the data concerning the types of research and the levels of pain and stress inflicted on animals, always accompanied with examples of project summaries approved in 2022 by the Ministry and that can be shared on Twitter. What better way to get informed to respond to those who claim that we only inform on practices from the 1980s!

Annotated graphs and a dictionary

All of the graphs available on the page are accompanied by an annotation regarding the chosen species. Even those who are not comfortable with graphs will therefore have access to important information.

Finally, we have written a small animal testing ‘glossary’, available on a separate page, but also directly on the main page, in order to guide people who are not yet familiar with terms such as ‘zootechnics’, ‘no wake procedure’, or ‘routine production’.

A resource for journalists

Beyond its benefits for the general public, we hope that journalists will use this page as an indispensable resource to report on recent and tangible animal testing practices in France, in order to increase the debate by surpassing subterfuge in the industry and obscurity by public authorities.

We are available to the media to provide complete datasets, which contain even more details than we can publish at this time.

And then?

In fact, this page will not stop there: it has been created to expand over the years with new French figures, but also with detailed research goals included in graphs (types of toxicity testing for the purpose of basic research, including diseases studied in applied research), a comparison against figures from other European countries, the possibility of grouping several species on one graph, and numerous other functionalities.

Do not hesitate to write to us if you come across any problems while exploring this resource, if you notice any errors or typos, or if you would like to see any further definitions or new functionalities.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Two foxes hung at the entrance of town: One Voice is launching a witness appeal

Two foxes hung at the entrance of town: One Voice is launching a witness appeal
29.11.2022
Saône-et-Loire
Two foxes hung at the entrance of town: One Voice is launching a witness appeal
Wildlife

Two foxes have been hung at the entrance of the Dracy-Saint-Loup town on 28 November. One Voice are rising up against this act of cruelty. For the time being, the perpetrators have not been identified. One Voice is launching an appeal to anyone who has information so that they can be pursued and sentenced.

On 28 November 2022, the inhabitants of the Dracy-Saint-Loup town (Saône-et-Loire) have discovered with horror the bodies of two foxes hung on the entrance sign of their town. Having been informed, the Mayor contacted the police who recorded the facts and removed the foxes. Because they did not have any information allowing them to identify those responsible, for now the Mayor has not referred the matter to the public prosecutor.

Beyond the monstrosity of this staged event, these acts constitute a criminal offence and must not remain unpunished.

Killing wild animals is, in France, subject to hunting legislation. The ignorance of these rules can be heavily punished, with penalties ranging from a simple fine to imprisonment. Additionally, the foxes’ corpses could be considered as ‘litter’ on a legal level. Abandoning them on a public road constitutes a crime punishable by a two-year prison sentence and a €75,000 fine. The perpetrators of these acts must be pursued and sentenced.

Animals referred to as ‘pests’, such as those who are protected, in the firing line of authorities

If foxes are classified as a ‘species likely to cause damage’, it is to satisfy the impulses — sorry, we have to say the passions — of hunters.
Because even when animals are protected, authorities publish exemption after exemption… Clearly, when the State itself takes pleasure in considering animals as ‘pests’, how can these animals be respected, protected, even simply left in peace?

We are asking witnesses to protest!

The One Voice Association is therefore launching an appeal and is offering a sum of €10,000 to anyone who can give solid information that can formally identify, beyond any reasonable doubt, those responsible for these acts, asking them to email us at info@one-voice.fr.

This information will be sent to the public prosecutor in the context of a complaint by the Association.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Historical ruling: the circus trainer of the ten tigers seized, has been heavily convicted!

Historical ruling: the circus trainer of the ten tigers seized, has been heavily convicted!
28.11.2022
France
Historical ruling: the circus trainer of the ten tigers seized, has been heavily convicted!
Exploitation for shows

Thanks to the endless work by One Voice with its investigations and legal proceedings, the Beauvais Tribunal has just convicted Mario Masson as being guilty of crimes of mistreatment of animals committed by a professional and of improper operation of an establishment keeping non-domestic animals from 2019 to 2020, illegal acquisition and transfer of animals, and breaches of employment law and fraud. Finally, he is prohibited from engaging in any activity relating to animals for two years, associated with two years of ineligibility and a fine. In total, he must pay off €246,000 to various stakeholders in the case.

According to Muriel Arnal, President of One Voice:

«It is the first time in France that a circus trainer has been found guilty of mistreatment of animals with the aggravated circumstance of being a professional. It is an historic ruling. What a huge satisfaction knowing that the tigers will not return to the lorry-cage in the courtyard of the abandoned factory where they were enclosed for 24 hours every day, as our footage shows! We will continue to lead these investigations and to bring them before the legal system to highlight the horrors that circus animals live in. We had to suffer a lot of setbacks before this victory; it is all the more strong. A big thank you to all those who believed in our unfailing determination for these tigers and who have supported us in the face of adversity.»

The tribunal ruled that the tigers and equipment would be confiscated permanently and that the Tonga Terre d’Accueil — the refuge that we chose to welcome the animals — and we must in particular receive repayment of the sum spent on the ten tigers since them being seized in the name of justice in December 2020. The State and the URSSAF must also receive the sum linked in particular to the secret work that Masson was involved in.

We have known Mario Masson since 2005; then he kept two terribly mistreated elephants. The investigation to initiate the complaint to the prosecutor was one of the most risky, but it was essential: our previous complaints had been dismissed. The seizure was done in total secrecy because he bred tigers to sell the babies when they were scarcely even a few days old, and some knew and turned a blind eye. The hearing lasted more than 8 hours, and was led for us by Maitre Caroline Lanty.

Since them being seized almost two years ago, we have also offered these tigers a new life far away from the lorry-cage in which they stagnated for such a long time. Far from training and their prison guards, they have been taken over by an attentive team. They have been able to discover grass and benefit from the simple joy of running and hiding, all while making the most of the enrichment at their disposal. An enclosure is currently being built to take them to a partner sanctuary.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

‘Music-loving’ rats: what the media is forgetting

‘Music-loving’ rats: what the media is forgetting
25.11.2022
International
‘Music-loving’ rats: what the media is forgetting
Animal testing

In mid-November, several newspapers reported on a Japanese experiment showing that rats synchronise their head movements with a musical beat. But all of them have forgotten to talk about the suffering endured by the rats for this experiment: the devices screwed to their skulls, depriving them of water, brain surgery, and death.

From the ‘quirky’ column of Radio Classique to the affirmation that “this experiment [can] seem cute and unimportant” on a private blog, passing by an inserted image of a rat playing the saxophone in Futura-Sciences and la Dépêche and by the idea that “in addition to having a sense of rhythm, rats also have taste” in the Huffington Post, you would have thought that the rats had fun listening to Mozart or Queen.

A gulf between press communications and reality

But, as quickly pointed out on Twitter by Sébastien Moro (Cervelle d’Oiseau), a populariser in ethology, reading the original study you are very quickly disillusioned.

Firstly, no article mentions that it involved 23 rats aged from nine to ten weeks, or that the declaration from the Japanese team had forgotten to specify the sex of these animals — an important specification, if only to avoid the methodological biases and problems with reproductive experiments.

No mention of suffering

The articles that talk about the accelerometer attached to the heads of ten rats do not explain the fact that the box made to keep the apparatus in place has been screwed to the skull of the rats after drilling holes in it, then reinforced with cement.

Furthermore, no article explains that the rats have been deprived of water in order to motivate them to stand on two legs to reach a bottle kept up high, so as to better observe their head movements. This “motivation” has been developed over several days during repeated sessions of thirty minutes, until they learn to stand up immediately upon entering the assessment box.

Too many experiments

Worse: even in the article from TrustMyScience, which talks a little more than the others about other hypotheses and the methodology of the study, we have not found any mention of the electrophysiological experiment that followed, during which thirteen remaining rats were subjected to brain surgery under anaesthetic to implant electrodes through the skull and damage one of their two eardrums, with the aim of analysing the activity of the auditory cortex.

And no one wants to remind you that all of the rats have been killed following the experiments.

An unacceptable situation nowadays

Clearly, having avoided all potentially controversial aspects of media coverage, the ethical discussion did not appear anywhere in the media. However, animal ethics specialists do exist (thinking in particular about the signatories of the recent Montreal Declaration).

In any event, it does not seem acceptable nowadays to qualify studies as “quirky” or “cute” when they involve making animals suffer and killing them to serve our own interests.

One Voice has written to the editorial staff of the media involved as well as the Agence France Presse (AFP: a French international news agency) to bring this situation to their attention and we are awaiting a response.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Traditional hunting: the ministerial decrees by the Ministry of the Ecological Transition annulled by the State Council

Traditional hunting: the ministerial decrees by the Ministry of the Ecological Transition annulled by the State Council
23.11.2022
France
Traditional hunting: the ministerial decrees by the Ministry of the Ecological Transition annulled by the State Council
Wildlife

Unsurprisingly, the State Council has annulled the 2021 ministerial decrees on traditional hunting which were already suspended in 2021, thus confirming their illegality. One Voice is pleased with this confirmation and that they stopped at nothing for the little birds affected by this cruel hunting, defended year after year by the LPO before judges of the highest French administrative jurisdiction.

The traditional hunting techniques concerned, snares, nets, and cages (traps in the form of collapsible nets and drop cages), have once again been ruled as non-selective and satisfactory alternatives exist. The decrees implemented in 2022 have, incidentally, already been urgently suspended.

Today’s victory leaves a bitter taste. When we think that these unjust authorisations have been issued despite opposing and repeated decisions (up to the Court of Justice of the European Union) and year upon year, by a Ministry of the “ecological transition”, it sends shivers down your spine. What does the future hold? Will the Ministry still disregard the State Council’s opinion, or will it finally respect the law? Muriel Arnal President of One Voice

We hope that 2022 will be the last year that we see the Ministry of Ecology, who are supposed to defend biodiversity and that which constitutes it, sign decrees authorising trapping and killing larks — and so many other little birds along the way — in this way.

What if animal defenders as a whole were not there to permanently defend animals against authorities who, in fact, break the law? How come the ministry in charge of representing animals is in fact the organiser of their killing?

We do not expect anything from the Ministry that is only ecological by name. We are preparing ourselves to counter their next decrees with our appeals which will deliver wildlife and birds to hunters whose only pleasure is destroying our heritage that is already so vulnerable due to global warming and the collapse of biodiversity. Muriel Arnal President of One Voice

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

One Voice will be at the Montpellier Tribunal on 30 November to enforce the law on protecting wolves

One Voice will be at the Montpellier Tribunal on 30 November to enforce the law on protecting wolves
23.11.2022
Hérault
One Voice will be at the Montpellier Tribunal on 30 November to enforce the law on protecting wolves
Wildlife

For one flock located in a non-protected zone, the Hérault Prefect has immediately authorised reinforced defensive shots on wolves without going through simple scaring and defence shots first. A measure implemented without respecting the obligatory steady increase written in law, a sine qua non condition to derogate from various wolf protection regimes. For One Voice, systematic shooting is not a sustainable or acceptable solution for happy cohabitation with nature and mountain inhabitants.

Wolves are sensitive, reserved, social animals who all have their place in our ecosystem. Their species has returned naturally to national areas; proof, if any is needed, that the conditions for their presence have been met.

We, humans, have to learn to live wisely with wild animals, without systematically using lethal solutions. We praise the inventiveness of our species, our innovation. Why then, in an ecological place and faced with other inhabitants of the planet, are we so uninventive? They, like us, deserve better than systematically resorting to the easiest solution: massacring. We are more creative than that. Let’s prove it.

The Canis lupus species is protected by the Bern Convention and the 1992 ‘Habitats’ Directive. The latter has imposed the implementation of strict protection for wolves within the member states, and France has therefore included them in their Code of the Environment. The only possible exemptions to this protection system are gradual and are, legally speaking, much led by the ministerial decree of 23 October 2020. This authorises prefects to sporadically implement scaring measures, simple defence shots, reinforced defence shots, and finally test shots.

For the herd in Fraisse-sur-Agout, admittedly declared as being un-protectable, no simple defence shots had been authorised beforehand, and above all, there had not been any attacks for a year! For One Voice, the prefectural decree does not fulfil the conditions allowing this authorisation to be legally granted. We have therefore filed an emergency interim suspension which will go to a hearing at 2:30pm on 30 November at the Montpellier Administrative Tribunal. This will allow us, if we win the case, to immediately prevent an application for the decree. At the same time, we have also filed a cancellation plea, to be judged later, which will decide on the legality of the decree.

On a European level, the coalition that we are part of, the European Environmental Bureau, has written to MEPs for them to join and commit in favour of large carnivores and wolves in particular with the resolution being voted on on 24 November.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

One Voice at the centre of the bullfights at the grape harvest bullfighting street festival in Nîmes

One Voice at the centre of the bullfights at the grape harvest bullfighting street festival in Nîmes
21.11.2022
Nîmes
One Voice at the centre of the bullfights at the grape harvest bullfighting street festival in Nîmes
Exploitation for shows

During the grape harvest bullfighting street festival in Nîmes, which took place from 15 to 18 September 2022, One Voice investigators filmed part of the bullfighting and the discourse of fans. On site, glamorisation of the cruelty and torture of animals did not spare the children, of which there were many in the audience.

The images and remarks collected by One Voice investigators at the grape harvest bullfighting street festival in Nîmes are clear. Among fans, preservation of bullfighting is a true ‘fight’ for which killing enthusiasts are willing to deny the evident animal mistreatment perpetrated in arenas. “The bull is not stupidly sacrificed, it is not mistreated[…] it is respected under its animal identity”, protests Simon Casas, the director of the Nîmes arena. A statement that is violently contradicted by our videos where bulls, their bloody backs stabbed with pikes, weak and distressed, are provoked endlessly by their executioners until they are killed. Here where the director of the Nîmes arena claims that there is respect, and not “violence”, the French National Order of Veterinarians stated in 2016 that “bloody bullfighting shows[…] are in no way compatible with respect for animal welfare”. Here where fans state that bullfighting culture is “one of our freedoms of expression” and teach their young children to applaud when animals are killed, punishable by five years imprisonment and a 75,000 Euro fine under the penal code for serious mistreatment and acts of cruelty leading to the death of an animal. Departments such as Gard, the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, or even Bouches-du-Rhône cannot continue to contravene the law to torture animals in the name of tradition.

An abolitionist bill

In agreement with the opposition of the general public to bullfighting, since 87% of French people are favourable to punishing any intentional act of cruelty leading to the death of an animal according to a study sponsored by the Brigitte Bardot Foundation and led by Ifop in February 2022,we are continuing our fight to, at the least, ban access to bullfighting for minors and for the closure of bullfighting schools.

We support MEP Aymeric Caron’s bill for the abolition of bullfighting in the entirety of France. After a weekend of rallying several thousand people, a rally is planned in front of the National Assembly on 24 November, the day when the bill will be debated in session.

One of our activists from the Nantes branch, Killian Leroux, has developed an interrogation tool for your MEPs. Do not hesitate to use it before Thursday!

Together we can abolish bullfighting!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice