A deliberation in Marineland’s favour: a representation of the road still to be travelled to defend the orcas at the dolphinarium

A deliberation in Marineland’s favour: a representation of the road still to be travelled to defend the orcas at the dolphinarium
30.06.2022
A deliberation in Marineland’s favour: a representation of the road still to be travelled to defend the orcas at the dolphinarium

We are not asking for the impossible, just for the justice system to agree that an independent study will be carried out on Marineland for the orcas…

We suspect that our request for an independent expert has been refused by the Grasse Administrative Tribunal. However, we are not asking for the impossible, just for the justice system to agree that a study will be carried out that is not done by, or to serve the interests of, those who have exploited Inouk, Moana, and the other orcas and dolphins at the dolphinarium.

Apparently, principles count very little in administrative justice. Above all, it must be shown that the necessary steps have not been taken by the parties concerned. And unfortunately, even if we consider the fact that the case file presented by Marineland at the hearing on 25 May 2022 is clearly biased in favour of the dolphinarium, its mere existence is enough to have convinced the judges that another independent expert is not useful…

The last straw, knowing that we were not asking that they entrust the orcas to us, just that the justice system can objectively recognise the facts regarding the state of the water and the infrastructures (which we contest in view of the images that we have published) and the orcas’ follow-up medical care, which is not done by a veterinarian that has been paid by the dolphinarium…

The reports from Ingrid Visser on Inouk and Moana, are, in this respect, shouting about how urgent it is to get them out of there. We are wondering how the urgent applications judge could decide that the images and reports were not sufficient to establish that an interim period had to be set up between the documents from the dolphinarium and ours.

They preferred to only hear the opinions of a land-based wildlife veterinarian not specialising in orcas and a Marineland employee.

«We are not asking for the impossible but for an independent expert whose specialist would have been appointed by the tribunal and whose work would have been invoiced to One Voice. Therefore, this will not impact either the taxpayer or anyone else, all while being entirely directed by the court. We are studying the possibility of appealing this decision.»Muriel Arnal, President of One Voice

With the law against animal mistreatment, voted in in November 2021, dolphinariums (Planète Sauvage [Wild Planet] and Marineland Antibes) will be able to continue to exploit cetaceans, provided that the experiments are carried out on animals… a gift from parliamentarians to captivity lobbies. Just like Wikie was already subjected to: a researcher ‘taught’ him to repeat English words, giving the illusion of speaking and understanding the language. But orcas already have ultra-developed ways of communicating. It is us who are still incapable of understanding them…

We will stop at nothing, of course, in our fight for the orcas kept at Marineland: Wikie, Moana, Keijo, and Inouk. We are also continuing to lead our sanctuary project with our partner, Whale Sanctuary Project.

We have other ongoing complaints against the park and we are looking into the possibility of appealing this decision due to the fact that the tribunal has ignored orca specialists’ opinions and has only followed up on the opinion of a veterinarian who has no expertise in orcas and does not even work in the region where Marineland is, and a Marineland employee who is not a scientist. Impartiality is rearing its head again.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

SIVU 47: The pound and the authorities prefer to attack whistle-blowers than to resolve the problems highlighted

SIVU 47: The pound and the authorities prefer to attack whistle-blowers than to resolve the problems highlighted
24.06.2022
SIVU 47: The pound and the authorities prefer to attack whistle-blowers than to resolve the problems highlighted

We are responding point by point to the SIVU 47 pound in Lot-et-Garonne that downplays its responsibilities.

Reading the reactions from the pound and the authorities, we can only be left gobsmacked. Their responsibilities are totally side-lined by their own interests; their motto is to refute problems and to blame those who are absent. All while attacking those who have reported on the serious problems in the way they treat the animals. We cannot allow them to diminish their role in this way.

After the publication of our survey at the Lot-et-Garonne dog pound and our work in Paris with euthanised cats, responses have increased.

Tous ces chats ont été euthanasiés car errants… D’autres solutions existent que les abattages en masse: identifier, stériliser, vacciner. @MFesneau @Agri_Gouv, il faut un plan d’urgence nationale contre l’errance féline! #UrgenceErranceFéline pic.twitter.com/jRK83JOP5C

— One Voice (@onevoiceanimal) June 23, 2022

In the press, those in charge of the pound and the authorities have refuted the problems or tried to hide them with excuses that are not true (the absence of a veterinarian or images that were out of context), including directly on their Facebook page.

New damning descriptions

At the same time, numerous people came forward to let us know or to confirm that the problems date back at least five years. Some of our supporters even telephoned the authorities who responded to them that “the images [could be] misinterpreted”, that there is “a difference between reality and what we see”. The only difference is that our investigators only stayed for a few days… What would it have been like if they had stayed for a month or more?!

Regulations make no distinction between stray cats and others

for them, there is a distinction between wild cats and others. Are we expected to understand that the wild ones can be tormented without being affected? If this is the Prefecture’s discourse, it is a serious problem because cats, free, stray, or at home, are all called ‘domestic’ cats in the eyes of the law and must be protected in the same way.

A ‘healthcare’ organisation which can give animals back to their humans… except…

The elected official in charge of communication for the pound states: “We are retrieving stray animals at the request of the town halls (Editor’s note: members of SIVU), and our primary mission is to identify them and reunite them with their owners. If they are not found once eight days have passed, we vaccinate the animals and offer them to charities to be placed.” Is this really the case for cats? Given the difference in treatment between cats and dogs, we are able to ask ourselves the question, mainly when we hear the words of the staff who, in one clip, doubt the sincerity of a lady who says that she recognises her cat and would like it back. We will never know if it was returned to her…

Upon leaving the pound, cats are condemned to death and risk amputation

Several weeks after our investigation, the cats were given away to a shelter. They were not unwell according to the pound’s claims, but the FIV test for one of them was positive upon arrival. And, as they are all enclosed together and this one likes to mate with all of the others, it is a certain death sentence for any cat sent there and potentially for all those in the shelter. Add to this that one of their paws was in a catastrophic state, to the point that it had to be amputated.

No really… and even if our images are difficult to endure for those who are sensitive, they only reveal a tiny part of the problem. In what ‘context’ can we get away from this mistreatment that justifies it?

Kind staff? Words have meaning!

The person in charge of communication at SIVU 47 defends the staff: “Those who work here are kind” and “I can testify that our technical agents take the animals out, play with them” all while explaining the absence of enrichment and comfort in quarantine by the fact that a pound’s function is solely for healthcare reasons.

That is all you need to know! Either it is a healthcare organisation or the staff play with the animals… knowing that in one week at least, none of the dogs were taken out of their cages to go for a walk and that our cameras recorded almost all of the time what was happening in the cats’ quarantine.

Mistreatment made commonplace

Why push the cat clinging to the fence to clean the floor? How did it get in the way of cleaning the floor? Two violent acts: pushing him when he is already frightened and getting him wet once he is on the ground… and this is not permitted in a ‘healthcare’ organisation. One more instance that confirms to us that the cats are treated as rubbish, as inanimate objects, as unfeeling, as if they can be treated with no respect. When the lifeless body of cat 162 is thrown in a bin bag on the ground to clean the cage and clear up, it is no different.

The problems are in particular attributed to the overall situation of straying in France (by the President of SIVU 47) or off the back of circumstances, as always deemed exceptional when we reveal an investigation. In the present case, their veterinarian is absent. But it would almost be worse, according to those who reported to us, when this director-veterinarian is present!

We are convinced of the importance of this fight for neglected, mistreated, abandoned, poorly treated animals… The information in our possession against this place has been sent to the legal system. But the problem does not end there.

We are still calling for an end to the mass euthanasia of stray cats, as we did in Paris on Thursday 23 June, and to put in place a major national emergency plan against feline straying. Continue to sign our petition to close the pound in its current state (leading to the resignation of the management team and doing the necessary compliance work), and write to the authorities.

In any case, we are of course calling on all of our supporters to show restraint and to remain in absolute non-violence, as we have always done. Insults, threats, and injuries never help the animals or the fights that we are leading together.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Jackdaws are being spared in Brittany!

Jackdaws are being spared in Brittany!
14.06.2022
Jackdaws are being spared in Brittany!

One Voice has gone to the Rennes Administrative Tribunal for Western Jackdaws. They have just suspended the Côtes-d’Armor, Finistère, and Morbihan prefectural decrees, thus sparing these birds.

Joy and relief. That was what we felt after hearing the decision that has just been made by the Rennes Administrative Tribunal. The hearing took place on 25 May 2022 and related to One Voice’s emergency interim proceedings in the Côtes-d’Armor, Finistère, and Morbihan departments: the three prefectural decrees have been urgently suspended. Some have unfortunately already been killed due to the delay between the publication date of the orders and their implementation being shorter than before, and not allowing the procedure to happen as quickly as we would like. Jackdaws will therefore be spared from today!

During the hearing dealing with the three cases concerning the Breton departments involved in our emergency interim proceeding suspensions, the president wanted us to address the prefectural decrees one after the other because the prefectures each had two representatives who wished to speak. She asked them several questions and was surprised by how vague their responses were.

She wanted to know in particular, in very concrete terms, the methods for implementing alternative solutions and of slaughtering jackdaws and, among other things, the election of the points of contact in each department in charge of observing the damage.

Her surprise that the prefectures could not give objective criteria of the ‘insurmountable’ character of the damage noted, which could ‘justify’ (in the name of the law in any case) the plea to massacre jackdaws, gave us hope.

But this did not end here! She also learnt on this occasion that the points of contact did not follow up, little by little, year after year, on their responses and the demolitions. Classic. The Crow Life Association, also present, also spoke to support these corvids, supposedly protected by law.

Côtes d’Armor:

«1st Article: The execution of the Côtes d’Armor Prefect’s decree of 6 May 2022 derogating from article L. 411-1 of the Environmental Code and the authorisation of the destruction of 8000 Western jackdaws (Corvus Monedula) by shooting or trapping is suspended until 30 September 2022, until the merits of its legality have been decided by a collegial formation of the court.»

Finistère:

«1st Article: The execution of the Finistère Prefect’s decree of 3 May 2022 derogating from article L. 411-1 of the Environmental Code and the authorisation of the destruction of 16,000 Western jackdaws (Corvus Monedula) by shooting or trapping is suspended until 31 March 2023, until the merits of its legality have been decided by a collegial formation of the court.»

Morbihan:

«1st Article: The execution of the Morbihan Prefect’s decree of 26 April 2022 derogating from article L. 411-1 of the Environmental Code and the authorisation of the destruction of 1800 Western jackdaws (Corvus Monedula) by shooting or trapping in the year 2022 is suspended until the merits of its legality have been decided by a collegial formation of the court.»

After years of jackdaws being repeatedly shot down for deceptive reasons, we are delighted that once again the prefectures’ arguments that do not seek animal-friendly solutions will be ruled out by our proceedings. In Brittany, jackdaws will therefore be spared from today. Unfortunately, they did not get this chance in Maine-et-Loire.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice