The harrowing cry for help from the Zavatta Circus lions in Freneuse

The harrowing cry for help from the Zavatta Circus lions in Freneuse

The harrowing cry for help from the Zavatta Circus lions in Freneuse
24.01.2022
The harrowing cry for help from the Zavatta Circus lions in Freneuse
Exploitation for shows

They were roaring in a closed trailer… in the dark and overcrowded for more than a month. The lions and lionesses were hidden in a trailer and closed in for four weeks in a town in the Yvelines department. We are filing a complaint against the Zavatta Circus Fleury production.

Since mid-December, the Zavatta Circus, belonging to Jackson Fleury, set up its yellow lorries in Freneuse in an industrial area. The mayor had specifically allowed the set up to be authorised without any wild animals, to correspond to the beliefs of the city council and its electors. The circus had accepted and was able to put on their shows during all of the holidays and more, without big cats on the programme.

Roars as so many cries for help

But three days before leaving, the roaring of the big cats could be heard in the neighbourhood, coming from closed trailers. The town’s Mayoress therefore asked for our help. At the same time, their presence was confirmed by an opening of a metal gate which gave a glimpse of a lioness and a lion…

Social skills in fraud and lies

The police went to visit these places. And conveniently, if we are to believe the circus members, the lorry ‘had just arrived’ when the inspection by the authorities took place. However, a neighbour, who our investigator met yesterday when the circus demonstrated the material, attested to them having been there for several weeks. So the animals had not once been taken out of the trailer in thirty-two days!

The circus members have no respect for the animals that they exploit. For them they are just a source of income. Our non-stop work has allowed an increased awareness for around twenty years. The fact that the circus members prefer to hold them prisoner for several weeks in a row is even more proof that their well-being is the least of their worries!

A complaint filed at the Versailles Legal Tribunal

We are filing a complaint for non-standard operation of an establishment keeping animals of non-domestic species, mistreatment by a professional, and the placing or keeping in a habitat, environment, or facility which may be the cause of suffering.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Whistle-blowers: 36 associations and trade unions are calling out senators

Whistle-blowers: 36 associations and trade unions are calling out senators

Whistle-blowers: 36 associations and trade unions are calling out senators
19.01.2022
Whistle-blowers: 36 associations and trade unions are calling out senators
Other campaign of One Voice

On Wednesday 19 January, while senators were getting ready to discuss the bill aiming to improve protection for whistle-blowers, 36 organisations from civil society, comprising of associations, trade unions, and whistle-blowers, gathered together before the Senate to call upon senators to clarify and reinforce protection measures for whistle-blowers in France.

On Monday, these same organisations published an opinion column to remind of the importance of protecting whistle-blowers who are “first in line to defend general interests”.

This action aims to call out parliamentarians and public opinions on the dangers presented by the laws voted upon by the Senate for the rights of whistle-blowers and the freedom to inform and alert. Many amendments filed by the senators effectively come back to the benefits of the Sapin II law and break the requirements of the European guidelines that this bill is intended to change. While France has just taken chairmanship in the European Union, it risks becoming bottom of the class.

This guideline, passed by the European Union in 2019 thanks to rallying from civil society, does however constitute a major step forward in recognising and protecting the look-out role that whistle-blowers play in times where our freedom and rights are threatened everywhere in Europe. Whether they signal risks of public health crises to the authorities like Irène Frachon (Mediator), or reveal the mysteries of tax fraud like Antoine Deltour (Luxleaks) or of mass surveillance like Edward Snowden (NSA), whistle-blowers establish a safety net for our democracy. Yet they are too often facing retaliation and threats that the Sapin II law, despite its progress, has not been able to overcome.

The bill passed unanimously by the National Assembly on 17 November responds in part to these shortcomings. It goes over the many demands of the organisations gathered today before the Senate which, in a report dated 22 November, maintained that it represented a “considerable step forward for whistle-blowers, whose rights are strengthened”.

Many senators nevertheless propose that we revisit these arrangements, going back to the European guidelines on the Sapin II law itself.

For the organisations gathered before the Senate, these amendments, if they are passed, will constitute a colossal threat, susceptible to persuading a number of citizens not to inform on abuse which they are witness to and to put those who nevertheless decide to take the plunge at risk. Nowadays, whistle-blowers put themselves at risk of true social and professional suicide. The implementation law must remedy this situation, rather than aggravate it, for the good of everyone.

Photo © Jean Nicholas Guillo / Greenpeace
Whistle-blowers: 36 associations and trade unions are calling out senators

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

One Voice is re-entering the fray for Angora rabbits

One Voice is re-entering the fray for Angora rabbits

One Voice is re-entering the fray for Angora rabbits
17.01.2022
One Voice is re-entering the fray for Angora rabbits
Fashion

Six years after our first investigation infiltrating the breeders exploiting Angora rabbits, they continue to scream in pain and terror. We are filing a negligence complaint at the European Union Court of Justice and a preliminary review alongside the Ministry of Agriculture and Food.

A long-haul field survey

In 2016, our investigators went to establishments where rabbits were writhing in pain. The owners had shown them how to stretch them out and attach their paws to a plank of wood in order to be able to better pull off their fur by the fistful helped with a comb. Including around the eyes and genital area, where their skin tore, leaving them without protection from the cold, and bleeding. Their cries of terror and their attempts to escape were all the more terrible to witness.

The footage that we subsequently revealed, in 2018 and 2020, showed that none of that had changed and even that one of the breeders plucked the rabbits to music while whistling as if it were nothing. Our petition is still online.

A legal battle in France and at European level

The living conditions and the exploitation of these animals are guided by European and national regulations on breeding or production animals. In this context, after our first investigation, we requested that the Minister of Agriculture and Food forbid the collection of rabbit fur by ‘depilation’ (official term), as well as the sale and purchase of products containing rabbit fur collected in this way. Faced with their implicit refusal, we went to the State Council.
On this occasion, we produced Professor Broom’s main report condemning this practice and the associated breeding methods and put back into question the trustworthiness and effectiveness of Lagodendron, a plant which is supposed to help the rabbits fur fall out more easily.
In June 2019, the State Council rejected our requests mainly on the basis that the sloughing of rabbits every quarter is natural and that the method used is painless (combing and using Lagodendron). It also hid behind a Good Practice Guide, developed by the industry itself! But who better than the executioners to say that there is no suffering? We will come back to impartiality.

Following this decision, we filed a complaint before the European Commission French State on 11 June 2020. This complaint is based on the fact that “the member states have made arrangements for owners or keepers to take all appropriate measures in order to guarantee the welfare of their animals and in order to ensure that said animals do not undergo any pain, suffering, or unnecessary harm”, and that “the natural or artificial breeding methods that cause or could potentially cause suffering or harm to the animals concerned must not be practised. This arrangement does not preclude certain methods likely to cause suffering or minimal or momentary injury, or call for a procedure that is not likely to cause lasting damage, while these methods are authorised by national measures.”

But in November 2020, the Commission closed the file. According to them, we did not provide sufficient information proving the existence of a general practice, a problem with the national legislation’s conformity with the Union laws, or a systematic lack of French authorities in Union law.

However, they recalled beforehand that this issue does fall under their jurisdiction…

Two procedures relaunched in light of new information

We therefore consulted Professor Broom once again, who was this time looking at the Good Practice Guide from the Institut technique de l’aviculture (ITAVI: France’s Technical Institute that is an expert in the poultry, rabbit, and fish sectors). And on 2 April 2021, we received his conclusions.

The evidence appearing in the ITAVI Guide — the photos, videos, and the scientific literature — attest to the existence of many major problems when it comes to the welfare of Angora rabbits in all breeding farms carrying out combing and pulling out fur. Professor Donald Maurice Broom

In particular, he recommends that Angora rabbits, who need more care than other breeding rabbits, may not be lifted up by their fur or ears or attached by their paws, and may be put under sedation if necessary before and during the fur collection, which must incidentally be done by cutting the fur and not by pulling on it. Heat-related stress should also be reduced to a minimum.

Simultaneously, the French Rural Code and Maritime Fishing Code was enhanced by a new prohibition on 18 December 2020: “It is forbidden for all those who, to whatever end it may be, breed, look after, or possess domestic or wild animals tamed or kept in captivity… to implement breeding techniques likely to lead to unnecessary suffering to the animals, considering the sensitivity of the species concerned and the physiological stage of the animals.
In order to ensure that the living conditions of the breeding animals meet the biological needs of their species, the minister in charge of agriculture may impose the monitoring of professional breeders’ establishments for the implementation of breeding practices that respect animal welfare”.

As the laws have evolved, and strengthened by the new evaluation from Professor Broom, we are once again asking the Minister for Agriculture for a preliminary plea on this issue on breeding techniques likely to cause unnecessary suffering to an animal considering the sensitivity of the species concerned. At the same time, we are filing a new complaint before the European Commission on the basis of this expert report. We are organising a weekend to raise awareness of Angora rabbits’ suffering in France on 22 and 23 January 2022 (follow the link to our report for more information).

Who is Professor Broom?

Professor Broom holds a Master of Arts, a PhD, and a PhD in Science from the University of Cambridge.

He worked as a lecturer and then as an associate professor in the Zoology department and was positioned at the University of Reading from 1967 to 1986, then in the veterinary medicine department as a Professor of Animal Welfare at the University of Cambridge from 1986 to 2009. He has led research in biology and veterinary medicine since 1964 and was still doing so in 2018. This research relates to animal behaviour, the physiology of stress, animal welfare, animal management, disease transmission, as well as interactions between humans and other species. He studied in particular the effects of living conditions, management procedures, transport, handling, and culling on animal welfare. He has published 260 referenced scientific articles and eleven books, notably Stress and Animal Welfare (in collaboration with K. G. Johnson), Sentience and Animal Welfare, and Domestic Animal Behaviour and Welfare (in collaboration with A. F. Fraser).

In the framework of his consulting work concerning animal welfare alongside governments, he has held the following responsibilities:

  • President of the European Union Scientific Committee in the ‘Animal Welfare’ section, 1990-1997.
  • Vice-president of the European Union Scientific Committee for Animal Health and Welfare, 1997-2003.
  • Vice-president and member of the Animal Health and Welfare scientific panel of the European Food Safety Authority, 2003-2012.
  • At the request of the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs, he produced a 75-page study on animal welfare in the European Union which was published in January 2017.
  • President of the task force for animal welfare during transport by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), 2003-2007.
  • Scientific advisor alongside the Convention for the Protection of Animals Kept for Farming Purposes standing committee, 1987-2000.
  • Board member for the Welfare of Animals Kept for Farming Purposes (British Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food), 1991-1999.
  • Member of the Animal Procedures Committee (Home Office, United Kingdom), 1998-2006.
  • He personally testified on subjects relating to animal welfare at the European Parliament, World Trade Organisation, and alongside tribunals in several countries as an expert witness.
  • He led scientific research on animal behaviour, physiology, production, and protection since 1964. He has been a member of the panel and task force for EFSA who have produced a report on the welfare of rabbits (EFSA, 2005) and task forces who have produced reports on handling, transport, and culling of farmed animals, including rabbits. He therefore proves a specialised knowledge in domains of management and rabbit welfare in farming, as well as during transport and culling.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

The squeals of Angora rabbits: One Voice is blowing the whistle in 16 towns in France on 22 and 23 January 2022

The squeals of Angora rabbits: One Voice is blowing the whistle in 16 towns in France on 22 and 23 January 2022

The squeals of Angora rabbits: One Voice is blowing the whistle in 16 towns in France on 22 and 23 January 2022
17.01.2022
The squeals of Angora rabbits: One Voice is blowing the whistle in 16 towns in France on 22 and 23 January 2022
Fashion

One Voice is organising a coordinated national effort among its activists in sixteen French towns in the last weekend of January, to warn of the fate of Angora rabbits whose fur is torn out multiple times a year for the vanity and comfort of certain humans. They howl during the plucking process, and flaps of skin are often ripped off them along with the fur, documented by our investigations done several years apart for six years (in 2016, 2018, and 2020). After disappointments relating to this case in the past in the face of justice, the association relaunched, with new information, two legal proceedings: a negligence complaint before the European Commission and a preliminary appeal to the Minister of Agriculture.

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Femke’s euthanasia: open letter to Parc Astérix

Femke’s euthanasia: open letter to Parc Astérix

Femke’s euthanasia: open letter to Parc Astérix
14.01.2022
Femke’s euthanasia: open letter to Parc Astérix
Exploitation for shows

One year has passed since Femke’s euthanasia, having been kept in the dolphinarium at Parc Astérix since 2008. However, our questions regarding the circumstances of her death remain unanswered to this day. We are writing to the park’s management, in order to understand the exact circumstances of her death. Transparency must take precedence in this matter.

Ms Delphine Pons
Managing Director of Parc Astérix
60128 Plailly

Dear Managing Director,

One year has passed since Femke’s euthanasia, having been kept at Parc Astérix since 2008. However, our questions regarding the circumstances of her death remain unanswered to this day.

In fact, our association asked the administrative authorities in vain to see Femke’s autopsy report.

The common bottlenose dolphin species (Tursiops truncatus), which Femke belonged to, is a protected species in France and worldwide under Article L. 411-1 of the Environmental Code, under Annexe B of the Washington Convention, and under Annexe 2 of Council Regulation (EC) n° 338/97.

The cognitive and social abilities of bottlenose dolphins have won unanimous support nowadays within scientific communities and are sanctified by the UN who recognises the need to protect this species’ culture. As the captive individual, Femke was therefore a representative for her species and for individuals in the wild that make up the species.

Thus, beyond the fact that she was the legal property of Parc Astérix, Femke belonged to an international wildlife heritage which cannot be subject to appropriation for the benefit of private interests. This explains the emotion generated with each death and birth occurring within zoological parks. This is the reason why the data concerning the circumstances of her death must be known by the general public. It is not about individual visitors to the park who have shared moments with her and her sidekicks, but equally about all citizens who are, each at their own level, keepers of a small part of this shared heritage.

This is why we are asking you to please be transparent on this issue and to let us have Femke’s complete autopsy report.

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

Muriel Arnal
Founding President of One Voice

Translated from the French by Joely Justice