News Archive - Page 7 of 122

Second condemnation of the National Museum of Natural History: One Voice obtains transparency on the breeding of gray mouse lemurs!

Second condemnation of the National Museum of Natural History: One Voice obtains transparency on the breeding of gray mouse lemurs!
05.06.2024
Second condemnation of the National Museum of Natural History: One Voice obtains transparency on the breeding of gray mouse lemurs!
Animal testing

In Brunoy laboratory, part of the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN), small lemurs are euthanized and decapitated. All of this is carried out with a great deal of very convenient opacity. However, in a decision handed down on May 31, 2024, the Versailles administrative court ordered the MNHN to provide One Voice with all the documents requested concerning the conditions of detention and experiments to which the gray mouse lemurs are subjected.

An institution said to protect species reoffends with opacity and the torture of gray mouse lemurs

Since 2021, we’ve been calling on the MNHN to close the world’s largest breeding facility for gray mouse lemurs intended for experimentation, where 500 of these animals are kept to end up in laboratories. In order to reveal what was happening there, we demanded transparency from the Museum.

In February 2023, the Versailles administrative court had already ordered that we receive the inspection reports of the DDPP veterinary services carried out between 2014 and 2021, as well as statistical information on the use of animals, including information on the actual severity of the procedures.

Shedding light on the exploitation of these primates

Today, the court has ruled in our favor once again! The Museum now has two months to provide us with the ethical and retrospective assessments carried out since 2013 on projects exploiting these small, wide-eyed animals.

Prefectures, Inserm, the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research… In the space of just a few months, dozens of decisions have been in agreement with us and gave us access to hundreds of documents, allowing us to reveal the reality of the laboratories!

To put an end to the ordeal of experiments on gray mouse lemurs, sign the petition!

Mice who “boil” and life-size attempts at forced swimming in an Inserm laboratory

Mice who “boil” and life-size attempts at forced swimming in an Inserm laboratory
04.06.2024
Mice who “boil” and life-size attempts at forced swimming in an Inserm laboratory
Animal testing

Between sessions of forced swimming, mice at the Magendie Neurocenter have to endure tropical temperatures, extreme humidity levels and serial failures. Serious problems have recently affected this Inserm-affiliated laboratory at the University of Bordeaux. We are alerting the relevant authorities and demanding an immediate inspection!

Repeated tropical temperatures, faulty alarms, flooding… A real ordeal for the mice!

Locked up in temperatures of almost 40 degrees, with humidity levels reaching 75%: this is the hell experienced by the animals used in the Magendie Neurocenter. In 2022 and 2023, temperatures exceeded 30 degrees on several occasions! Mice and employees alike literally “boiled” for hours on end…

As if that weren’t enough, twice in recent months, flooding has affected the areas where the animals are kept. Are these specialists in forced swimming, a practice we’ve been fighting for years – especially as there are alternatives that don’t involve mice – trying to carry out life-size tests? Water has also damaged the fire monitoring system, endangering animals and employees alike.

We demand an immediate inspection of the laboratory!

When it comes to the Magendie Neurocenter, opacity is an understatement. In 2023, we met with the University of Bordeaux to express our incomprehension at their persistence, without obtaining the slightest change… More recently, Inserm refused to send us the images of the forced swim tests in the name of protecting its “copyright”… The courts rejected these arguments and ruled in our favor!

Today, we are writing to the laboratory, Inserm and the University to ensure that the mice do not suffer between experiments too! We are also writing to the Gironde Prefecture and the Ministry of Research to request an inspection as soon as possible.

We call on laboratories to systematically favor alternatives that avoid all animal suffering. So sign our petition to demand an end to forced swim tests and an end to animal experimentation by writing to the Minister of Higher Education and Research:

Download the model letter

Supplementary underground hunting period: 3 new victories and 1,500 badgers saved!

Supplementary underground hunting period: 3 new victories and 1,500 badgers saved!
03.06.2024
Supplementary underground hunting period: 3 new victories and 1,500 badgers saved!
Hunting

From one department to the next, badger parents and their young can relax! Together with AVES, One Voice attacked the decrees issued by the prefects of Morbihan and Côtes-d’Armor. In the Eure department, we joined forces with AVES, FNE Normandie and LPO Normandie. The Rouen and Rennes administrative tribunals ruled in our favor: the diggers will be leaving their shovels and picks in the garage this spring! However, the battle is far from over, and new hearings are already scheduled: summary proceedings in Nantes on June 6 (for the Vendée department), and final hearings in Rennes on June 17 (for the Finistère department).

Photo : Tiago Cabral – cc by-nc-nd 4.0 deed

Since May 15, 5 suspensions and thousands of lives saved!

After our victories in the Aveyron, Cher and Finistère departments, which saved 800 individuals, the courts have just suspended the digging of badgers in the Eure, Morbihan and Côtes-d’Armor departments! A carnage narrowly avoided, since nearly 1,500 badgers are killed there every year after hours of underground tracking.

As hunters were getting ready for action, judges recognized everywhere that this “hobby” was unjustified and endangered newborn badgers. All in all, almost 2300 badgers will be able to spend spring and summer in peace!

A marathon for the animals: new hearings to come!

Opposition to underground hunting is a long-term battle. Prefectures everywhere use strategies to make our task more difficult. But we’re not giving up, and we’ll be back in court in the coming days.

On June 6 at 10am, with AVES and ASPAS, we will be in Nantes to obtain the suspension of the supplementary period in the Vendée department. And on June 17 at 10.30am, just a few days after suspending it as an emergency measure, the administrative court in Rennes, which we appealed to with the LPO Finistère, will rule definitively on badger hunting in this department.

More than ever, badgers need your support. For their sake, sign our petitions to ban underground hunting and obtain protection for badgers, and for a radical reform of hunting!

Suspensions already obtained for spring 2024 to date (June 3, 2024): Finistère, Aveyron, Morbihan, Cher, Côtes-d’Armor, Eure.

Stray dog culling campaign in the Haute-Vienne department, One Voice attacks the decree

Stray dog culling campaign in the Haute-Vienne department, One Voice attacks the decree
03.06.2024
Stray dog culling campaign in the Haute-Vienne department, One Voice attacks the decree
Zoe Cell

Is the killing of stray dogs becoming the new “national sport” in France? Less than two months after the Aveyron prefecture’s decision to authorize lieutenants of louveterie and pests to kill stray dogs approaching flocks, the Haute-Vienne department has decided to do the same in the villages of Saint-Paul and Saint-Genest-sur-Roselle. We have just lodged an application with the Limoges administrative court for urgent suspension of this decree.

From “destruction” to “neutralization”, different names, same objective

While the Aveyron prefecture clearly referred to the “destruction of stray, wandering or evil dogs”, the Haute-Vienne prefecture prefers the term “neutralization of stray dogs”. A more polished name, which might suggest a different purpose… However, once again, it’s a question of slaughter.

What’s new: this time, the decree is in force “until further notice” and with no specific timetable. Lost or abandoned dogs, or dogs walking more than 100 meters from their families and approaching flocks, can therefore be shot at – even in the middle of the day! So much for human safety…

Dogs or wolves, the gun at the end of the road

The farming and hunting lobbies are no longer satisfied with being allowed to kill several hundred wolves a year. In the Haute-Vienne department in early May, the Coordination Rurale trade union even threatened to resort to poaching: “Prefect, please act quickly, or we’ll get organized”. French anti-wolf/pro-ranching politicians are bending over backwards to pander to their electorate, now issuing permits to kill dogs.

Train farmers to implement protection measures effectively and efficiently? Make the protection of all farm animals compulsory and subsidize it? Use non-lethal methods to capture and rescue dogs who were abandoned on the eve of the vacations? Why would the State bother to protect sheep, cows and horses destined for the slaughterhouse when it can simply have wolves and dogs killed?

As we did with the decree issued by the Aveyron prefecture, we’re attacking the Haute-Vienne decree to protect dogs. And we are keeping up the fight for wolves, victims of shooting all year round. Join us and sign our petition!

Inauguration of the Chatipi at Cadillac Hospital Center on Friday, June 14, 2024

Inauguration of the Chatipi at Cadillac Hospital Center on Friday, June 14, 2024
02.06.2024
Inauguration of the Chatipi at Cadillac Hospital Center on Friday, June 14, 2024
Zoe Cell
Press release

One Voice, which has been fighting feline straying for many years, has set up three-way partnerships with municipalities or lively facilities, and local associations, to identify, sterilize and release homeless cats, providing them with a wooden chalet for hydration, food and shelter. The Chatipi program enables cats without a human family to reduce the suffering associated with their wandering.

To achieve this, the Cadillac Hospital Center in Gironde contacted One Voice.

The inauguration will take place at 11:30 a.m., in the presence of Mr. Luc Durand, Director of the Hospital Center, Dr. Nathalie Messer, President of the Establishment medical commission, and Mrs. Pascale Chevalier, Secretary-general of One Voice.

Chatipi, a lasting solution to the vicious circle of feline straying

Chatipi is not a cottage. It’s an ethically-driven plan designed to create spaces for stray cats in order to help them, while raising public awareness of their distress and needs.

Several Chatipis have already been set up near nursing homes, health centers and hospitals to provide comfort to residents. It was with this in mind that the Cadillac Hospital Center contacted One Voice. Since 2015, the structure has regularly carried out sterilization campaigns on its premises. While some cats have been able to be placed in families, several have died as a result of their precarious living conditions, despite the good care and food provided by hospital staff.

Indeed, life outdoors remains a painful experience for our feline companions, who fall ill far more often than those living with families, have to cope with the cold and bad weather, and sometimes even with human malevolence.

Without premises, it was difficult for the volunteers to centralize the cats, monitor their health and feed them. This is where Chatipi comes into its own.

Distribution of tasks and responsibilities

At present, around ten cats are still living on the hospital grounds.

One Voice, which invented the Chatipi concept, supplies the chalet and cat flaps, and pays for several kilos of kibble and veterinary expenses (sterilizations, identifications, tests) for 12 cats at the start of the project, as well as for the educational panel.

For its part, the Hospital Center laid the concrete slab and proceeded to assemble the chalet and decorate it in the form of activities with its patients.

For many years, the center’s staff have been responsible for feeding, trapping and transporting the cats to the veterinary clinic for treatment and sterilization.

Cats as a means of soothing patients

To soothe and enhance patients’ skills, the hospital has developed a number of projects involving animals. They were involved in setting up the chalet and feeding the animals. Patients in the ergotherapy workshop enthusiastically created crates to serve as shelters. They also made a CHATIPI wooden sign, which now hangs at the entrance to the chalet. Other patients from the FALRET unit created scratching posts. Other projects will gradually be proposed to patients.

The One Voice website dedicated to the Chatipi program provides a wealth of information about this educational program about cats.

Sign our petition calling for an emergency plan on feline straying.

To defend wolves, FNE Ain and One Voice appeal to the administrative judge in Lyon on June 10

To defend wolves, FNE Ain and One Voice appeal to the administrative judge in Lyon on June 10
02.06.2024
To defend wolves, FNE Ain and One Voice appeal to the administrative judge in Lyon on June 10
Wildlife

In the Ain department, where wolves have only just re-established themselves, a few months ago, a birth was observed for the first time in 100 years! Instead of rejoicing in the return of this species, so important for biodiversity, the prefecture is starting to hand out permits to kill. A decree issued on May 6 authorizes the farmers from one farm to shoot wolves. Before this, unsurprisingly, nothing had been done to protect the herd in question. Electric parks have since been installed, but not efficiently. This is why we have decided, alongside our partner FNE Ain, to lodge an appeal to request the urgent suspension of the decree. An initial hearing has been set for June 10 at 10:30 am at the Lyon Administrative Court.

Update as of June 5, 16:25: Victory by forfeit for FNE Ain and One Voice!

The contested decree has been repealed by the prefecture, even before the hearing scheduled for June 10!

We are continuing to fight for a total halt to wolf shooting. In the meantime, the State has a duty to comply with regulations, and cannot hand out shooting permits when flocks are not properly protected.

We remain vigilant to ensure that a new decree is not published in the coming weeks.

Fewer wolves, but still more shooting

As we learned last week, the wolf population has fallen by 9% in one year, from 1,096 in 2022 to 1,003 in 2023. This is hardly surprising, given that the slaughter quota increases year after year. Although this species is strictly protected, it can be the subject of numerous derogations, authorizing its killing throughout the year, even during the breeding and cub-rearing periods.

Effective protection : a sine qua non

On the farm in question, electric fencing has been installed. But the photographs in our possession show a completely different reality: on some plots, the fences are not fitted with electricity; while on others, if they are on, they are in places badly stretched, inclined or lying on the ground. An animal as agile as a wolf will have no difficulty in jumping or slipping through. And yet, to benefit from a shooting authorization, farmers must have installed effective and proportionate protection measures. This is clearly not the case here. In the press, the people concerned are shouting loud and clear that they don’t want to cohabit with wolves.

On June 10, we will be present at the Lyon administrative court to defend the wolves alongside FNE Ain and request the emergency suspension of this decree, pending its definitive annulment. Join our fight and sign our petition to demand real protection for wolves.

Animal experimentation: guinea pigs killed to manufacture homeopathy, the State condemned to transparency!

Animal experimentation: guinea pigs killed to manufacture homeopathy, the State condemned to transparency!
31.05.2024
Animal experimentation: guinea pigs killed to manufacture homeopathy, the State condemned to transparency!
Animal testing

Sugared pills infused with guinea pig lungs? We couldn’t let this project, considered by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research as animal experimentation, pass without knowing more. Faced with the authorities’ reluctance to provide us with documents that were supposed to be public as soon as 2022 when we requested them, we won our case before the Paris Administrative Court.

After a hearing on May 16, 2024 and a two-week wait, the Paris Administrative Court ruled in our favor. We now look forward to the prompt communication of all data in its possession!

Killing guinea pigs to manufacture homeopathy

94 guinea pigs are involved in this project. First, they are tied on their backs by their legs. They then undergo an injection into the abdominal cavity, followed by an intravenous injection. Then their necks are broken to remove their lungs. All to produce homeopathic treatments.

As always when it comes to animal experimentation, the authorities refuse to be transparent. To obtain the precise files submitted for this experiment and the opinion of the ethics committee, we were forced to take legal action.

One Voice, a real counterweight according to the government commissioner

“I’d like to pay tribute to the One Voice association, whose work is truly of public interest and a real counterweight.” These were the words with which the government commissioner for the Paris Administrative Court began reading her conclusions on May 16.

The Ministry argued that we should have made do with the minimal data available online. The court rejected this argument, pointing out that the information available to the public is far from complete. From now on, the State has three months to send us all its data!

Another victory, a few weeks after INSERM was condemned to hand over the forced-swimming images of rats and mice, after a pitiful attempt to argue that automatic camera recordings should be considered artistic and covered by copyright.

More and more companies are abandoning these practices, and three quarters of French people are opposed to animal experimentation. Despite this, dozens of similar projects are authorized every day. So join us in calling for an end to these outdated methods, and write to the Minister:

Download the standard letter

Updated on June 2, 2024 at 9:15 pm with the addition of a link to the project under attack.

Val d’Oise: fox massacre in 75 villages, we go to court

Val d’Oise: fox massacre in 75 villages, we go to court
29.05.2024
Val d’Oise: fox massacre in 75 villages, we go to court
Hunting

The lieutenants of louveterie and pests in Val-d’Oise can rub their hands: at the end of April, the prefect authorized them to kill an unlimited number of foxes in almost 75 villages. The reasons given? To protect pheasants and gray partridges… bred in captivity to die under hunter fire. To add insult to injury, the decree was published several days after it came into force, which is of course forbidden! Even if this won’t bring the killed foxes back to life, we are attacking this decree and denouncing this intolerable scheme.

A relentless assault on foxes everywhere

To please the hunters, in the Val-d’Oise department, the hunting season is longer for foxes than for other species: from June to February, that’s nine months instead of six! Then there are traps of all kinds, veritable torture tools authorized under the Ministry of Ecology’s “ESOD” classification, which we have challenged at the Conseil d’État. And underground hunting, which lasts several hours and leaves cornered animals no chance.

A scheme to circumvent the law and allow the killing of red foxes

As if that weren’t enough, the prefect ordered the lieutenants of louveterie and pests – a kind of chief hunter under the authority of the State – to shoot an unlimited number of foxes at night in 75 villages of the department for almost three weeks. A hecatomb when the fox cubs have just been born. And to ensure that no one could take the matter to court in time, the State representative took care to sign his decree on April 29 and publish it on the 30th, for operations starting… on the 24th!

A scheme to replace foxes and hunt pheasants and partridges.

How can such massacres be justified? If pheasants and partridges are endangered, then they should be protected from hunters! A few months ago, judges in Dijon dismissed these fallacious arguments out of hand, and annulled beats ordered in the Nièvre department. Today, we are taking these three decisions, whose illegality is beyond doubt, to the administrative court in Cergy-Pontoise.

To speak up for the foxes, sign our petitions against the relentlessness of which they are victims, and for a radical reform of hunting!

Monkeys used in laboratories infected with tuberculosis? We call on the authorities!

Monkeys used in laboratories infected with tuberculosis? We call on the authorities!
27.05.2024
Monkeys used in laboratories infected with tuberculosis? We call on the authorities!
Animal testing

According to information gathered by our international collective, made up of Abolición Vivisección, Action for Primates, Cheshire Animal Rights Campaigns, Monkey Massacre in Mauritius, One Voice and PeTA, in April 2023, France alerted the Dutch authorities to a case of tuberculosis in a monkey imported into Europe via the Netherlands. Several dozen macaques subsequently tested positive… In addition to the health risks this situation poses for humans, it illustrates once again the terrible fate of animals exploited in experimentation centers. We formally call on the authorities to shed full light on the risk of the disease spreading!

In France, how many macaques are contaminated by tuberculosis in laboratories?

Every year, almost 10,000 individuals are shipped from Mauritius to be exploited in centers from which they will never leave. From capture to death, their lives are a living hell, as we showed in our investigation of the island’s breeding farms, which are partly financed with public money. At the end of 2023, a Mauritian farm won a CNRS invitation to tender for no less than 10 million euros.

Disastrous living conditions are compounded by disease. We alerted public opinion to the tuberculosis epidemic – which had spread as far as Michigan (USA) in the Charles River laboratories and was rampant in the Mauritian breeding farm BioCulture Ltd, leading to mass slaughtering of up to 200 animals a day. These inhumane practices failed to halt the spread of the bacterium – quite the contrary.

In April 2023, the French government sent a report to the NVWA (Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority) on a tuberculosis infection in macaques. Tests subsequently confirmed that several dozen macaques were infected…

Suffering for monkeys … and tuberculosis for humans?

The risk of a domino effect is high, as the disease is extremely contagious and can be transmitted from animals to humans. All this is facilitated by overcrowded conditions that encourage contamination. We have contacted the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Research to obtain full information on the current state of the disease. Over and above what the monkeys are suffering in the laboratories, public health is at stake!

At a time when more than 8 out of 10 French people are in favor of developing alternatives to animal experimentation (IPSOS/One Voice poll, April 2023), help us say stop to the import, trade and use of long-tailed macaques in French laboratories by signing our petition!

Two hearings in Besançon and Toulon to defend wolves against shooting

Two hearings in Besançon and Toulon to defend wolves against shooting
25.05.2024
Two hearings in Besançon and Toulon to defend wolves against shooting
Wildlife

Faced with the growing persecution of wolves, whose population has fallen by 9% in 2023, we are taking drastic steps. At the end of 2022, the Doubs authorities gave the go-ahead for “simple defense shooting” of wolves. With our partners – FERUS and the Pôle Grands Prédateurs – we have asked for this text to be annulled. The hearing takes place on Tuesday May 28, at 10:45 am, at the Besançon administrative court. At the same time, we called, on our own (and without being heard), for an emergency suspension of “reinforced defense shootings” in the Var department. On Monday June 3, at 9:45 am, at the Toulon administrative court, the merits of the case will be debated.

Update June 24, 2024:

Third victory in a week for the wolves! Following on from the Besançon administrative court a few days ago, the Toulon administrative court ruled in our favor today, annulling a decree issued by the Var prefecture authorizing reinforced defense shots, granted in 2022.

The judge admitted that the herd was not protected in an effective and proportionate manner, and that the administration had not provided any proof of the contrary. Worse still: a “diagnosis of vulnerability to wolf predation” had been drawn up by an agent from the Mediterranean Alps pastoral studies and projects center (C.E.R.P.A.M) as early as 2021 (i.e. a year and a half before the shooting authorization was granted). The study recommended several angles for improvement, considered by the author to be essential for the defense of the herd.

The Prefect of the Var department has not provided any details as to why these measures were not taken, nor has he demonstrated that their implementation was impossible.

It’s high time that the State finally took responsibility by supporting and training breeders to protect their animals, instead of handing out shooting permits at will! Wolves are not an adjustment variable for the irresponsibility of some, or even their manifest incompetence.

Derogations from flock protection measures out of principle…..

Leaving sometimes young and vulnerable bovines unguarded, while at the same time handing out permits to shoot wolves? For the public authorities, this means less aid to pay to protect herds of cows, horses or donkeys… Why bother ensuring the safety of animals that will end up in the slaughterhouse anyway? Their breeders will just have to terrorize the wolves instead.

Because, in agreement with the State, it has chosen to consider bovine herds as unprotectable to kill wolves rather than seek peaceful solutions, we have, hand in hand with FERUS and the Pôle Grands Prédateurs, attacked the Doubs prefecture at the end of 2022.

….. and wolf kills granted with eyes closed

A month later, the Var authorities did no better, authorizing reinforced defense shootings with very flimsy justifications… The lack of verification is blatant, with the State contenting itself with farmers’ declarations rather than offering them training or support… The judges ruled that there was no urgency to suspend the shootings. We’ll be at the hearing this time to discuss the substance of the problem.

As if the State’s hostility to wolves wasn’t blatant enough in the new 2024-2029 action plan, and even though 7 out of 10 French people want derogations authorizing lethal shooting to be banned (Ipsos/One Voice poll, September 2023), a ministerial decree published a few weeks ago makes it even easier to slaughter these cousins of dogs, our lifelong companions. Together with Animal Cross and AVES, we have lodged an appeal with the French Conseil d’Etat to have the decree annulled.

On Tuesday May 28, at 10:45 am, we will be at the Besançon administrative court with our partners the Pôle Grands Prédateurs and FERUS to defend the wolves killed in the Doubs department, then on Monday June 3, at 9:45 am at the Toulon administrative court for those in the Var department.

Support our fight by signing our petition so that wolves are finally respected.