News Archive - Page 66 of 147

One Voice in court for mountain Galliformes!

One Voice in court for mountain Galliformes!
30.09.2022
France
One Voice in court for mountain Galliformes!
Wildlife

To please hunters, prefects continue to attack birds. More specifically, two mountain Galliformes: black grouse in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and grey partridges in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. The emergency interim hearings are set respectively for Monday 3 October at the Marseille Administrative Tribunal at 2pm, a case in which One Voice is filing a voluntary intervention supporting the Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux [LPO: League for the Protection of Birds] case file on black grouse, and at the Pau Administrative Tribunal on Tuesday 4 October at 2pm, where One Voice will be alone in defending the grey partridges.

Hunters are rubbed up the right way by the prefectures. A habit of State services who have not always understood that society has changed and that the requirement to set an example in terms of respecting nature and biodiversity is essential for the population. Under the pretext that it has always been done this way, it is no longer conceivable or tolerable to publish decrees indulging hunters, and what’s more, by justifying them, under clearly incorrect pretexts.

According to Muriel Arnal, President of One Voice: « Hunters are perpetually trying to push the limits of their deadly hobby. But it is not conceivable to leave the animals, registered on the list of animals to be protected, to be shot at! The reports, which confirm what we have been claiming for decades, are not lacking: animals are disappearing from the planet, which is extremely worrying for all of us. We cannot sit back and let this happen. »

Saving grey partridges in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques is urgent!

The Pyrénées-Atlantiques Prefecture has not spared any effort in pleasing hunters. The order that we are contesting and trying to get urgently suspended currently allows them to slaughter four partridges each in the mountain ranges in the 2022-2023 season. But what the Prefecture omits to mention in its decree is, neither more or less, the number of hunters and the maximum number of slaughtered partridges permitted.

If we therefore take the decree at face value, and despite the species being protected on a European level by the Birds Directive, it would theoretically be possible to eradicate these animals from the department, if there are a ‘sufficient’ amount of hunters! An even bigger scandal when we know that the population of these birds is already in constant decline in the Pyrenees mountains, and classified as ‘near-threatened’. The slightest gunshot on one of these grey partridges is therefore also a fatal shot on the entire species.

To the rescue of black grouse on borrowed time…

As for the black grouse in the Alpes de Haute-Provence, the Prefecture has authorised, despite the species being ‘vulnerable’ in the Rhône-Alpes region and also having been ‘near-threatened’ in France since 2016, the slaughter of forty-two of them! An aberration, when we know that the reasons given for issuing this authorisation is the reproductive success of these birds in the current year. But… is this not the exact opposite of the effect expected from the constant conservation efforts implemented for the species? As in many other case files, we are facing prefectural services who are completely disconnected from the climate emergency and, in this context, also from the protection necessary for wildlife.

Animals are dying from the inactivity and short-term vision of our civil service, being reinforced in its conservative habits by a hunting lobby well-rooted in local networks. To promote animal rights and defend birds and all other animals, One Voice will not move an inch.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Official opening of the Chatipis in Marignane (13) and Valbonne (06)

Official opening of the Chatipis in Marignane (13) and Valbonne (06)
30.09.2022
France
Official opening of the Chatipis in Marignane (13) on 2 October and Valbonne (06) on 4 October for stray cats
Domestic animals

One Voice, which has been fighting against stray cats for years, has set up three-way partnerships with municipalities or residential areas and local associations to raise awareness among the population, identify and sterilize homeless cats, and release them with a wooden shelter where they can drink, eat, and rest. This is what happened in Marignane (Bouches-du-Rhône) and Valbonne (Alpes-Maritimes), where the municipalities and local associations, respectively “La Paix entre les bêtes” “ and ”Extrême sauvetage, » signed an agreement with One Voice to take charge of the stray cat problem in both localities.

The Chatipi program helps cats without human families escape misery and, above all, educates people about cats and stray cats.
The Marignane and Valbonne chatipis will be inaugurated on Sunday, October 2, at 5:30 p.m. and Tuesday, October 4, at 5 p.m., respectively.

In Marignane, the inauguration will take place in front of the chatipi on Sunday, October 2 at 5:30 p.m., on Rue Fabre near the green spaces, in the presence of the mayor of the city, Eric le Dissès, as well as Véronique Tardy, 5th deputy mayor in charge of animal welfare and president of the local association “La Paix entre les bêtes” (Peace Among Animals). Finally, Sylviane Réau, One Voice activist and member of the municipal council for animal welfare in the neighboring town of Les Pennes-Mirabeau, will represent the association.

In Valbonne, the inauguration will take place in front of the chatipi on Tuesday, October 4, at 5 p.m., on Rue Émile Pourcel, at the back of the Anciens Combattants parking lot, during the celebration of World Animal Day, in the presence of Mayor Joseph Cesaro and his municipal councilors, as well as the local association “Extrême sauvetage” and its volunteers. Finally, Corinne Bouvot, One Voice’s national field coordinator, will represent the association.

Chatipi, a sustainable solution to the vicious cycle of stray cats

Chatipi is an ethical initiative that aims to create spaces for stray cats in order to rescue them while raising public awareness of their plight and needs. Around twenty projects are already in place and almost as many are currently being developed. Just recently, on September 26, the Chatipi in Laroque-de-Fa opened its doors in the Aude department. The Association Protection Animale Hautes-Corbières (APAHC) and the municipality are the two other stakeholders involved in the project. Several chatipis have been set up near nursing homes, health centers, and other hospitals to bring comfort to residents, as well as near schools, as One Voice’s fundamental goal is to educate people about cats.

All too often, these small felines are mistakenly described as independent animals, when in fact they are very affectionate, loyal, and dependent, which makes them vulnerable if abandoned.

However, abandonment is not the only reason cats end up wandering the streets.

This vicious cycle stems from misconceptions about cats, particularly that they have an intrinsic need to reproduce in order to be happy, which leads their human families to not always have them spayed or neutered. As a result, many cats are born in the wild. These kittens, when they survive, are in any case affected by hunger, cold, and disease. They are neither identified nor spayed or neutered, as their humans are sometimes not even aware that these kittens exist. Under these circumstances, litters simply multiply. Municipalities and communities must manage these individuals facing misery, which also affects biodiversity.

Distribution of tasks and responsibilities in Marignane and Valbonne

One Voice, which invented the Chatipi concept, provides the shelter and generally covers the veterinary and food costs for around fifteen cats at the start of the operation (sterilization, identification, tests) as well as the educational sign. The municipalities are responsible for laying the concrete slab and assembling the chalet. The local association in each town manages the feeding and health monitoring of the cats, as well as the interior layout of the chalets.

In Marignane, the town hall, which has been very committed to animals for several years (the cleaning products used at the town hall are not tested on animals, there are municipal beehives, a guide to animals in the city, campaigns to prevent abandonment are carried out, etc.), took the first step towards One Voice for the installation of the chatipi. The project concerns around thirty cats on the site, all of which have been sterilized and identified.

Similarly, the municipality of Valbonne is also behind the project located in its historic center. In this specific case, One Voice only had to sterilize and identify three cats, as the other twelve had already been done.

The website dedicated to the Chatipi program was launched in early March 2022 and provides a wealth of information about this educational program on cats.

* Edit of October 4, 2022: The date of the Valbonne launch is not October 5 but October 4, 2022, so we have changed the corresponding dates.

Maybe not the ‘Pablo Escobar of Rigaous*’, but this pensioner has killed and sold thousands of robins

Maybe not the ‘Pablo Escobar of Rigaous*’, but this pensioner has killed and sold thousands of robins
27.09.2022
France
Maybe not the ‘Pablo Escobar of Rigaous*’, but this pensioner has killed and sold thousands of robins
Wildlife

On 26 September, the Toulon Legal Tribunal ruled: a poacher receives a heavy sentence after trapping, killing, and selling thousands of robins. One Voice is delighted with this decision that puts an end to years of abuse against a protected species.

« But where were the hunters on Monday, to defend biodiversity, those who have received millions of euros for this task? Clearly, we did not see or hear them. Without the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB) and our associations, the already fragile robins would have continued to perish by being poached or glue trapped. Make no mistake about it, the only people defending biodiversity are us! » Muriel Arnal, President of One Voice

The hearing for us against a retired farmer was held on Tuesday 26 September 2022 for the destruction and sale of robins in Revest-les-Eaux, as well as possession of a weapon without a licence.

One Voice as well as ASPAS, France Nature Environnement PACA, and the LPO all filed civil cases in this bleak case incriminating this man who had regularly engaged in illegal activities capturing and killing robins in a phenomenal quantity.

To perpetrate his crimes, the defendant had several traps, as ‘traditional’ as they are cruel, and for which the use was in fact suspended by the State Council following our appeal in 2021. In this case, they were steel traps that close around the necks of their victims. Once decapitated, he consumed them or froze them to sell on the black market.

According to his own statement, he therefore poached 20 to 25 robins a day; according to an estimation by the French Office for Biodiversity, that is 5000 birds killed each annual season.

On allegations from a witness having bought robins from him for 8 euros a dozen, we discovered that the poacher carried out this abuse for a long time and was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of additional robins.

Faced with such crimes and after a very intense hearing, the prosecutor requested a 5000 euro fine, a ban on keeping a weapon, and that the ruling be published in French hunting magazine, Le Chasseur français.

The magistrates’ court went much further. He sentenced him to a 6 month suspended sentence, a 25,000 euro fine, the confiscation of all of his seals, a ban on keeping a weapon, compensation for all civil parties up to 3,000 euros each in moral damages, as well as the publication of his decision as soon as it is final in Le Chasseur français magazine.

*Rigaous: Provençal name for robins.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Petition against digging out at the Senate: we are asking for neutrality and transparency!

Petition against digging out at the Senate: we are asking for neutrality and transparency!
27.09.2022
France
Petition against digging out at the Senate: we are asking for neutrality and transparency!
Wildlife

On 21 September, the Senate noted the success of the ‘for a ban on badger digging’ petition filed by ASPAS last March and signed by 104,745 citizens. The ball is now in the Commission of Economic Affair’s court, which is in charge of putting the action together and designating a public reporter in the coming months.

This is only the fourth petition to reach the target of 100,000 signatures in less than six months, and the second to demand a radical change to the ways and practices in hunting in France: proof that it is a very strong attempt by the French people, to whom our political representatives must respond. At a time when animal rights concern more and more citizens, our associations welcome a response being given regarding the ban on underground hunting with hounds, a brutal hunting practice that is a source of great suffering for badgers, but also foxes, another of the animals affected by this bloody hobby that is still legal in France.

We regret that the Senate did not choose to study the issue of digging out in a plenary session, which would have allowed a quicker result on a parliamentary law. However, the implementation of a mission at the centre of the Commission of Economic Affairs will at least allow our associations to show how the practice of digging out should be given up, as they already have in the majority of our neighbouring countries.

However, our associations wish to affirm our very great vigilance when it comes to arranging the future mission, its scientific reliability, and its impartiality. We have not forgotten to condemn loud and clear any attempt of democratic stifling by the intrusion of the hunting lobby. It would be inconceivable that the designated reporter has any connection with the subject criticised by the petition, as was the case for the securing mission for hunting, and for which certain conclusions in the report scandalously went in favour of the weapon and hunting lobbies.

Without waiting for the implementation of the parliamentary mission, our associations are today pursuing the fight against digging out before the tribunals, on the ground, in the media, and wherever we can, so that as many French people as possible are alerted to the existence and legality of this unjustifiable practice from a scientific, economic, and ethical point of view.

Release co-signed by ADH, Animal Cross, APRAD, ASPAS, AVES, Collectif Renard Blaireau, Education Ethique Animale, Fondation Brigitte Bardot, Mille Traces, One Voice, Un Jour Un Chasseur, as well as Catherine Le Troquier, the Valaire Councillor.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

There are 240 Indonesian monkeys currently in the hold of Maleth Aero flight DB3004

There are 240 Indonesian monkeys currently in the hold of Maleth Aero flight DB3004
24.09.2022
International
There are 240 Indonesian monkeys currently in the hold of Maleth Aero flight DB3004
Animal testing

We were telling you about it yesterday: Maleth Aero flight DB3004 has now left Indonesia for the United States. On board, 240 long-tailed macaques can be found shut in small travel carriers, shipped as freight. Transported as cargo, from Jakarta to Houston with a stopover in Tbilisi, in Georgia, these monkeys will never see their families or homes again. They are destined to suffer and die in a laboratory. According to a source from the airport who alerted our partner, Action for Primates, the exporting company is CV Primaco in Jakarta and the final destination is the well-known Charles River, a global testing company under contract.

In 2020, Indonesia exported 2,913 long-tailed macaques for research purposes and for toxicity testing (poisoning), mainly to China but also to the United States.

This imprisonment and continuous transportation of primates is terrible and must stop. These sensitive beings, victims of global trade, are subjected to stress, distress, and trauma from separation, imprisonment, and the terror of an unknown environment, with suffering and inevitable death at their destination.

Several airline companies who were significant transporters of primates have put an end to their involvement in this trade this year. Unfortunately, Maleth Aero, whose parent company is AELF FlightService, got involved to resume a part of this trade in monkeys’ lives. The airline company continues to ignore the warnings expressed by Action for Primates, One Voice, and StopCamarles in Europe, and PETA in the United States, as well as the thousands of voices throughout the whole world on the cruelty and inhumanity of this trade resulting from animal testing. You can continue to urge them to put an end to their involvement.

Send an email to:

Stephen Haire, Head of the Sales Department at Maleth Aero, email stephen.haire@maleth-aero.com

You can copy in: Lee Jones, Maleth Aero Chief Executive, and Michael O’Brien, Maleth Aero Founder & Managing Director, emails: admin@maleth-aero.com, charter@maleth-aero.com

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Animal testing management: a Maleth Aero flight is going to transport monkeys from Indonesia to the United States

Animal testing management: a Maleth Aero flight is going to transport monkeys from Indonesia to the United States
23.09.2022
International
Animal testing management: a Maleth Aero flight is going to transport monkeys from Indonesia to the United States
Animal testing

Maleth Aero, an airline company based in Malta, has a flight currently en route to Jakarta in Indonesia. We are worried that it has just collected monkeys destined to be used for research and toxicity testing (poisoning). In recent weeks, Maleth Aero has already transported several hundred long-tailed macaques from Cambodia and Vietnam to laboratories in the United States.

This year, Action for Primates has published poignant images revealing the cruel capture of wild macaques in Indonesia for the global animal testing trade. Wild monkeys who, a few hours earlier, were living freely with their familial group in the Indonesian forests. They were brutally captured, the babies taken away from their mothers, and the ‘”undesirable” alpha males beaten and killed.

Maleth Aero, whose parent company is AELF FlightService, is the latest airline company to date to be implicated in the brutal global transport of monkeys. It is a terrifying and traumatising ordeal for sensitive and intelligent animals, and it is harrowing to know the horrendous fate that awaits them on arrival.

Action for Primates (UK), One Voice (France), and Stop Camarles (Spain) in Europe and PETA in the United States are calling on Maleth Aero to stop transporting these endangered macaques for laboratories, and to join the numerous other airline companies who refuse to play a role in this cruel and immoral trade. To date, we have not had a response to our previous messages; we are therefore chasing it up. Add your voice to ours to put an end to this cruel trade in monkeys’ lives by sending an email:

Stephen Haire, Head of the Sales Department at Maleth Aero, email Stephen.Haire@maleth-aero.com
You can copy in: Lee Jones, Maleth Aero Chief Executive, and Michael O’Brien, Maleth Aero Founder & Managing Director admin@maleth-aero.com, charter@maleth-aero.com

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

6 NGOs are going to court against badger digging in the AURA region!

6 NGOs are going to court against badger digging in the AURA region!
20.09.2022
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
6 NGOs are going to court against badger digging in the AURA region!
Wildlife

Pressure has gone up a notch regarding underground badger hunting with hounds in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Several animal and environmental protection associations: ANIMAL CROSS, ASPAS, AVES France, FNE AURA and its departmental federations, LPO AURA, and ONE VOICE, have joined forces and have just filed no less than 8 appeals against the opening of the additional digging out period, a barbaric hunting practice already authorised from September to the end of February, in the Spring. A step further in the long-term fight towards a total ban on hunting badgers.

Ain, Allier, Cantal, Drôme, Loire, Haute-Loire, Puy-de-Dôme, Rhône, Savoie, Haute-Savoie… The list of departments whose prefects continue to authorise additional periods for digging out badgers in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region is still far too long.

This medieval hunting practice consists of sending dogs into the badgers’ setts to corner them, digging out the earth with the help of shovels, pickaxes, and lead bars, often for hours, then dragging the terrorised animals out of their shelter with the help of large pincers to then slaughter them with a firearm or knife (see the images that speak for themselves on this subject from the infiltration investigation led by One Voice at jaimelesblaireaux.fr).

As unbelievable as it may seem, this practice is still authorised in France, from 15 May on the simple decision of the prefect. Yet in this period, the baby badgers are still dependent on their mothers, defenceless and destined for certain death. When they have not simply been torn to pieces by dogs in battle… these extensions of the hunting period are all the more unacceptable since the damage caused by the badgers supposed to justify such barbarism has never been proven. Incidentally, 83% of French people are in favour of a ban on hunting animals inside their burrows, whatever species they may be, and up to 91% during the breeding period (IPSOS/One Voice survey, September 2021, https://www.ipsos.com/fr-fr/seul-1-francais-sur-5-est-favorable-la-chasse).

Our associations have therefore gone to court to contest the prefectural decrees allowing additional periods of underground hunting with hounds in the Ain, Allier, Cantal, Haute-Loire, Puy-de-Dôme, Rhône, and Savoie departments. These legal actions are in addition to the many others that have been initiated for several years in the AURA region, as they have elsewhere in France. And this long-term rallying is starting to pay off: more and more jurisdictions are cancelling these additional badger hunting periods, to the point where the prefects are quite simply giving up on authorising them, as in the Ardèche or Isère departments in 2022. No doubt that the newly appointed judges will themselves respect baby badgers’ rights and will cancel the contested decrees.

These appeals are only one step in a long fight for associations opposing underground badger hunting with hounds. Because it is this cruel practice of recreational hunting that we hope will be banned in the long-term. In very localised places where badgers are susceptible to causing damage or interfering with human infrastructures, there are alternative solutions to move the animals away without massacring them. Badger hunting is not effective in the fight against bovine tuberculosis (even counter-productive in this matter). Underground hunting with hounds is cruel and barbaric. It is about time this outdated practice be abolished, as nothing really justifies it other than it being the hobby of a few people who enjoy making defenceless animals suffer unnecessarily.

Hope is possible as changes are happening. On 10 September, the ASPAS petition — supported by all of our associations — for abolishing badger digging passed the 100,000 signatures needed for it to be considered by the Senate. The hope is therefore that our country is finally entering into the twenty-first century and will leave barbaric underground hunting with hounds behind.

Prefectural decrees attacked:

Ain: FNE AURA, FNE Ain, LPO AURA.
Allier: FNE AURA, FNE Allier, LPO AURA, One Voice.
Cantal: FNE AURA, FNE Cantal, LPO AURA.
Loire: FNE AURA, FNE Loire, LPO AURA, ASPAS, AVES France.
Haute-Loire: FNE AURA, FNE Haute-Loire, LPO AURA, ASPAS, AVES France, One Voice.
Puy-de-Dôme: FNE AURA, FNE Puy-de-Dôme, LPO AURA, One Voice.
Rhône: FNE AURA, FNE Rhône, LPO AURA, One Voice.
Savoie: FNE AURA, FNE Savoie, LPO AURA, Animal Cross, One Voice.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

The ethical short-sightedness of animal testing

The ethical short-sightedness of animal testing
19.09.2022
France
The ethical short-sightedness of animal testing
Animal testing

Last June in Marseille, the FELASA 2022 congress assembled many people together who practice animal testing. Between a fish angling, an international accreditation association that assesses laboratories “by feeling”, and an ethicist who especially does not want to think beyond regulations, the animals are not out of the woods.

Thursday 16 June in Marseille. Lynn Sneddon is one of the main speakers at the international congress dedicated to communication in animal testing. Sneddon has led profound research on analgesics for fish. She recognises the importance of their ‘welfare’ and has even written to her government and spoken with the aquaculture industry to try to improve practices.

She goes so far as to quote Gandhi: “Greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Will someone opposing animal testing therefore be able to push boundaries to put an end to these practices? Unfortunately, no.

Animals suffer—but each to their own

When it comes to talking about political and moral decisions, there is no one left. While she herself has participated in the discovery of the existence of pain in fish, Sneddon complains that the media have said that line fishing should be banned. After all, she has fishing friends who do not want to stop. In short, each to their own—and never mind the fish.

If the irony was not obvious enough so far, the photographs of the congress shared on Twitter allows a better measure as to what extent these people can be disconnected from the bad things that they do to animals: on one side, Lynn Sneddon with Florence the Fish (the congress mascot); on the other, Florence the Fish… angling.

Ethical evaluation in question

We can therefore legitimately ask if the ‘ethical’ evaluation, regularly alluded to by public authorities to defend animal testing, rests on a solid foundation.

Even the representative from AAALAC International (an association that accredits animal laboratories worldwide) recognises that the evaluation process is varied and that its result cannot be estimated. The evaluation is therefore done “by feeling”, on the basis of what is seen on the day of the inspection (planned well in advance).

Cost-benefit analysis at the heart of the rhetoric…

However, this same representative underlines the importance of the ‘cost-benefit’ analysis, comparing the true cost for the animals (stress, suffering…) and the potential benefits (generally for the human species). But when we ask them how to evaluate if this analysis has been done well by ethical committees, they evade the issue: “we do what we can”, “we need a more holistic view”.

To the more specific questions on the verification on possible benefits, another speaker responded that the funding of a project signifies in itself that the project will have benefits. It is a beautiful utopia to believe that funding is only based on the scientific merits of the projects… unless it is still a rhetorical fallacy.

The ethical committees’ evaluation methods and the results exist, however. A study published in 2001 even systematically compared the results of the evaluation with the same project by several US committees… leading to the conclusion that the evaluation is not reliable. This perhaps explains why such attempts have never been reproduced—either in the United States or in France, where the function of ethical committees in animal testing must be reformed in a radical way.

Ethics or regulations?

To finish, we remember a nice surprise during this congress: a contribution by Penny Hawkins from the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), who dared to challenge the very notion of ‘ethical consideration’. Hawkins also reminded everyone that ethics must go further than applying regulations and the eternal 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement), ‘animal welfare’, or cost-benefit analysis to guide the way in which we should lead our lives.

According to her, “an ethical committee must be able to decide that a technique should not be used, or that a research domain should not be explored”. Unfortunately, the only response to this proposition came from an Austrian ethics professor who felt the need to state that ethics should never go further than the law in order not to encroach on academic freedom.

A freedom in which Penny Hawkins does not believe, particularly when the research teams are funded by public money. We can easily follow her on this point.

This article is the penultimate in a series which will present different aspects of the FELASA 2022 congress:

Transparency and communication strategies in animal testing
Language elements and rhetorical fallacies in animal testing
The animal testing industry makes propaganda
The ethical short-sightedness of animal testing
Will there soon be more primates in laboratories?

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Tigers belonging to a cirque trainer: Hearing in September

Tigers belonging to a cirque trainer: Hearing in September
16.09.2022
Beauvais
Tigers belonging to a cirque trainer: Hearing in September
Exploitation for shows

One Voice will be present at the hearing at the Beauvais Tribunal on 20 September to obtain the definitive placement of the ten tigers seized from Mario Masson following the investigation and complaint by the association in 2019-2020. The circus trainer is accused in particular of mistreatment of animals by a professional, non-authorised opening, and the illegal operation of an establishment (undeclared work, forgery and use of forgery, fraud) — crimes — and of the illegal transfer, keeping, and marking of animals.

An investigation by One Voice of almost two years before the justice system ordered the seizure of the ten tigers

One Voice’s investigation started at the beginning of 2019. At the beginning, we only had a few of the elements, the layout of the places not allowing us to film them accurately; the first case file was therefore dismissed due to lack of evidence. We had to go further. For One Voice to fulfil its function as a whistleblower, the investigators had to take all of the risks and provide irrefutable proof to the justice system.

We therefore gave a constant flow of videos covering six days and nights to the justice system so that our complaint would be taken into consideration. With the investigation by the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) and Parquet having completed our complaint and our first pieces of information, enough irregularities had been noted for the seizure of ten tigers to be ordered. That is how, on 16 December 2020, we organised the biggest seizure of tigers kept in captivity in Europe in the last ten years.

Since, the tigers have been living at Tonga Terre d’Accueil, our partner. They have gone from their lives in a lorry-cage, to one allowing them access to an outdoor space with grass, woody headlands, varied enrichment, and a caring team.

Twelve indictments from animal mistreatment to fraud via undeclared work, with animal trafficking in the background…

The investigation also revealed multiple shortcomings. Here are the indictments for which Mario Masson will appear on 20 September at the Beauvais Legal Tribunal:

mistreatment of an animal by a professional or a refuge (criminal offence);
unauthorised opening of an establishment for non-domestic animals — breeding, sale, rental, transit (criminal offence);
illegal exploitation of an establishment keeping non-domestic animals (lack of facilities and equipment needed to ensure the welfare of the animals housed, to meet their physiological and behavioural needs) (criminal offence);
illegal exploitation of an establishment keeping non-domestic animals (maintenance unsuitable for the species and number of animals in order for them to be kept in a good state of health and upkeep (criminal offence);
illegal exploitation of an establishment keeping non-domestic animals (lack of devices intended to prevent risks relating to safety as well as the safety and peacefulness of third parties) (criminal offence);
illegal exploitation of an establishment keeping non-domestic animals (not keeping the records of entry and departure up to date for the animals) (criminal offence);
illegal exploitation of an establishment keeping non-domestic animals (sporadic keeping of the veterinary care book) (criminal offence);
unauthorised sale of non-domestic animals or their products — special protection (criminal offence);

and

keeping a non-domestic animal of a protected or controlled species in captivity without having marked them;
marking a non-domestic animal of a protected or controlled species with an illegal method;
marking a non-domestic animal of a protected or controlled species without dispatching the marking certificate to the administrator of the national record within the deadline;
transfer of a non-domestic animal of a protected or controlled species that is unmarked;

We can read between the lines that all of the elements to traffic wild animals are listed, in addition to the mistreatment that permanent imprisonment represents for the tigers, with the aggravated condition of being a professional…

We are waiting for an exemplary sanction, but most of all for the tigers not to be returned to the Massons and for them to finally be placed permanently in a sanctuary.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Safety project by the Senate Hunt — Associations that are victims of hunting and animal advocates report on a shameless link and ask for fast governmental action

Safety project by the Senate Hunt — Associations that are victims of hunting and animal advocates report on a shameless link and ask for fast governmental action
14.09.2022
France
Safety project by the Senate Hunt — Associations that are victims of hunting and animal advocates report on a shameless link and ask for fast governmental action
Wildlife

In December 2021, the success of the ‘deaths, violence, and abuse linked to hunting: never again!” petition filed by the ‘Un jour un chasseur’ collective on an online platform for citizen petitions on the Senate’s site led to the creation of a monitoring project for safety in hunting. In the framework of this monitoring project, the Commission of Economic Affairs and Commission of Law senators heard from many participants linked with the hunting world, including several signatory associations of this press release.

The Senate’s report on the monitoring project on safety in hunting has just been released. It dismisses almost all of the measures requested in the official petition at the start of this project.

This petition, which obtained 122,424 signatures in just two months, proposed five reasonable measures to guarantee the safety of everyone and to fight against the violence and abuse linked to hunting:

Wednesdays and Sundays without hunting;
more strict training and follow-up for hunters and reinforcement of the safety rules in place;
real control over hunting weapons in circulation in the country and an awareness of the danger they represent for public safety;
more discouraging sanctions against hunters having caused incidents, physical accidents, or fatal accidents;
and an awareness of ‘hunting accidents’ for what they are: condemnable acts, intolerable violence, and in no way unremarkable or insignificant.

These measures, despite being requested and supported by a huge majority of country people, have, almost all, been ignored by the Senate’s task force. The few efforts requested of hunters are the pretext for the establishment of measures limiting freedom of circulation and expression of 98% of non-hunters, without actually ensuring their safety. The irony: the commission has just agreed to new tax benefits for certain categories of hunters, without any link to safety.

This report does not take into account the very strong constraints that hunting has on the 98% of non-hunters, up to 7 days a week and 10 months a year in a large part of France.

The associations that are victims of hunting and protect animals have reported on the commission’s bias having worked on this report, while even the measures needed have been developed from testimonies of victims and those close to the people who have disappeared. This indecency shocks us.

We can only regret the choice by senators to ignore the very strong demand by public opinion for better safety in hunting: on a recurring basis, the surveys show that more than 80% of French people are favourable to a ban on hunting for at least two days a week and during the entirety of the school holidays (IPSOS/One Voice surveys in October 2018 and September 2021).

After having appealed to elected representatives for a result which goes against the tide of societal expectations, the associations that are victims of hunting and for animal protection deem it necessary to appeal directly to democracy so that the wishes of the vast majority of citizens be respected.

We are therefore asking for a referendum on establishing non-hunting Sundays and Wednesdays, safety areas around houses, and a limitation on the range of weapons.

We are also urgently asking for a meeting between the Interior and Ecological Ministries.

Signatory associations:

Animal Cross
AOC
ASPAS
AVA
Fondation Brigitte Bardot
LPO
LFDA
One Voice
RAC
Ruraux en colère
Stéphane Lamart
Un jour un chasseur

Translated from the French by Joely Justice