News Archive - Page 7 of 141

The return of the Gartner family’s elephants to Valence d’Agen? We say no, for them

The return of the Gartner family’s elephants to Valence d’Agen? We say no, for them
12.06.2025
Valence d’Agen, Tarn-et-Garonne
The return of the Gartner family’s elephants to Valence d’Agen? We say no, for them
Exploitation for shows

At a time when France has committed to banning wild animals from traveling circuses by 2028, we are dismayed to learn that a show featuring elephants is scheduled to take place in Valence d’Agen from November 29 to December 14, 2025 at Cirque en 2 Rives. Three elderly elephants, their dignity mocked, will be exhibited by the infamous Gartner family. Together, let’s demand the cancellation of their coming to France.

Belinda, Pira and Thai. Three elephants, each around sixty years old, whom we know well. Three lives marked by captivity, coercion and the mechanical repetition of gestures learned in fear. These animals, endowed with exceptional intelligence, are doomed to get back on the road, locked in trucks, moved from town to town in the name of an outdated entertainment -an entertainment built on their suffering.

Our country has committed to banning these shows. The vast majority of the public rejects and shuns them. And yet, in Valence d’Agen, in 2025, a step back in time is coming, orchestrated by trainers known for their brutality.

This show, if it takes place, will be an insult to collective intelligence, to ethics and to the animals themselves.

We will not allow these elephants to grow old on asphalt and under a big top.

A long history of mistreatment

The Gartner family, who perform all over Europe, are not newcomers. Already convicted of animal abuse abroad in the early 2000s, several elephants have already been seized from them, including in France. At the end of 2005, when four of them were to be rescued in Germany following the conviction of their trainer for mistreatment, they “disappeared”. A few days later, One Voice found them, before they were moved again. In early 2006, we managed to rescue Vicky. She had been hidden and abandoned in a closed trailer, without care, chained 24 hours a day, alone, in a critical state of health. Her trunk had been paralyzed by pike blows.

In the 1980s and 1990s, humans were twice killed by Gartner elephants. These tragedies reveal the extreme psychological and physical suffering of these animals, to the point of rupture. And the calamitous management of these trainers.

In 2018, Diana, Vicky’s former companion, died in tragic circumstances. A road accident that should have been avoided, since elephants are not supposed to be in trucks! Do we have to wait for another tragedy before reacting?

2028, an empty promise

Since 2021, the French government has been promising a ban on wild animals in traveling circuses by 2028. In reality, this is nothing of the sort: the government is encouraging trainers to settle down and keep their animals, and is even promising them thousands of euros in order for them to do so!

From now on, it’s the hypocrites’ ball! Is this what we want for the future? Circuses that bring in animals from abroad as they please and send them back once the tour is over? That’s an empty law, easily circumvented, that lets animals suffer in silence…

We must act now!

We call on everyone to mobilize to prevent this disgraceful spectacle from taking place.

Write to your elected representatives: Write today to the Tarn-et-Garonne prefecture and the Valence d’Agen town hall to demand the cancellation of this event (model letters are available by clicking on the links).
Contact the prefect on social networks:
- On X (formerly Twitter): @Prefet_82 In support of One Voice’s action, I ask you to cancel the visit to Valence d’Agen of the Gartner trainers and the three elephants they are holding. Animals are not objects of entertainment. #CirquesSansAnimaux
- On Instagram: @prefet82 Animals are not objects of entertainment! The law will soon ban their presence in circuses, it’s not to bring them in from abroad! With @onevoiceanimal I call for the cancellation of the visit of the Gartner trainers and their three elephants in Valence d’Agen #CirquesSansAnimaux
Sign our petition

Today, Samba, for whom we have been fighting since 2002, is the last elephant held by a circus in France. We will do everything we can to ensure that she spends her retirement in a sanctuary where there is a place for her, and to prevent trainers from importing others from abroad, as if they were merchandise.

Elephants, and animals in general, have no place in circuses. Not in 2025, not in 2028, not ever. Their suffering is not a spectacle.

Lien vers la publication annonçant la venue des éléphantes

Animal experimentation: France buys, locks up and tortures primates -and intends to continue

Animal experimentation: France buys, locks up and tortures primates -and intends to continue
12.06.2025
France
Animal experimentation: France buys, locks up and tortures primates -and intends to continue
Animal testing

In 2025, while public opinion overwhelmingly rejects primate testing (Ipsos/One Voice poll, April 2023), France persists.

Tripling of breeding capacity at Rousset, macaque imports at Silabe, extension of the mouse lemurs breeding farm at Brunoy: behind the hushed words of researchers, the lives of hundreds of individuals are being shattered.

No respite. No alternatives seriously considered. Just a well-oiled machine, turning living beings into laboratory raw material. This policy is a disgrace. One Voice continues to request administrative documents to shed light on what is happening far from the public eye.

Let’s be clear: in France, the future of primate experimentation is being planned, financed and built in the same way as an industry. Nothing is changing. Worse: everything is accelerating.

At a time when millions of citizens are calling for an end to these cruel practices and the real, tangible arrival of animal-free methods, the State is allowing and even encouraging the opposite to happen.

Meanwhile, animals continue to be born to suffer and die on lab benches.

Rousset: triple the confinement, triple the horror

In the Bouches-du-Rhône region, a discreet site in Rousset plans to increase the number of macaques from 600 to 1,740. The aim is to “feed” the needs of French and European laboratories.

These monkeys are not there by chance: they are programmed to serve. From birth, their lives are mapped out: cages, stress, isolation, then syringes, scalpels, invasive tests. They will never see the forest. They will never know freedom. They will be used to exhaustion, then euthanized. A lucrative business, subsidized by the taxpayer.

Is this France’s scientific ambition? To triple suffering?

Silabe: ordered, delivered, broken

At Silabe, near Strasbourg, despite our revelations, despite the withdrawal of approval for opacity, the infernal machine continues.

A new invitation to tender has been published to import macaques from Mauritius.

Behind the postcards of paradisiacal landscapes, our on-site investigations revealed the scandalous capture and breeding conditions of these individuals. Torn away from their world, from their own, they spend hours locked in crates, tossed about, stressed, the weakest dying before they arrive. Once in France, the survivors become objects of experimentation.

It’s as easy as ordering pens. A budget line, an order form.

Their intelligence, their sensitivity? Denied by the logic of the protocols.

Brunoy: behind the bars of excellence, maximum suffering for mouse lemurs

In Brunoy, in the Essonne region, the National Museum of Natural History is home to the world’s largest breeding facility for mouse lemurs, with 470 mouse-sized primates.

Behind this institution’s image of respectability lies a harsh reality: captivity, isolation, repeated use for experimental purposes.

It’s said to be a “science campus”. It is praised for its “French excellence”. According to the town’s mayor, “the extraordinary work carried out on lemurs deserves to be developed and studied further on our territory”.

Our investigations reveal negligence, grey areas and silences. Once again, our cousins are paying the price. In silence.

Politics and science without conscience

What the State and laboratories are building today is not cutting-edge research: it’s a production line of suffering.

France remains Europe’s biggest user of primates, and clearly has no intention of changing course. Substitute methods? Barely mentioned. Financing ideas? Swept under the carpet. The European directive calling for a reduction? Ignored.

We say it loud and clear: animals are not laboratory material. We remain mobilized and continue to request further documentation on these projects. If, like eight out of ten French people, you are against the breeding of primates in France (Ipsos/One Voice poll), sign and share our petition!

The Millevaches plateau deserves better than a deadly face-off

The Millevaches plateau deserves better than a deadly face-off
12.06.2025
Corrèze
The Millevaches plateau deserves better than a deadly face-off
Wildlife

In the spring, nine predations were recorded on the Millevaches plateau, possibly caused by wolves, angering livestock farmers. In response, the Corrèze prefecture deployed a Wolf Brigade to shoot them. Our associations for the protection of nature and the environment are proposing a different approach.

On March 4, the Carduelis association revealed the presence of two wolves with extremely rare genetic capital on the Millevaches plateau, a male of German-Polish lineage and a young female of Italian-Alpine lineage, a unique event in France. This duo was – and still is – threatened by lethal shootings authorized by the Corrèze prefecture.

Since then, the Prefect of Corrèze has remained deaf to requests from Carduelis and One Voice for a meeting. The aim was to open a dialogue in an attempt to establish measures for coexistence between human activities and the presence of wolves.

All the more so as Carduelis monitoring indicates that other wolves are currently present and/or passing through the Millevaches plateau.

Today, all the associations* are concerned about the situation. We question the delay in classifying certain villages as “circle 1”, a status allowing the opening of specific protection aids such as shepherding… which the FDSEA initially refused – and which we believe could have prevented the damage suffered. In this respect, we deplore the prefecture’s lack of foresight.

We also contest the systematic lethal approach adopted by this very prefecture, and call for the application of alternative measures, such as the scaring measures put in place by the Ardennes prefect under a prefectoral decree published on May 21.

On May 24, the Prefect of Corrèze openly declared to the press: “I don’t think we should learn to live with the wolf”. And his successive decisions – as well as those of the Minister of Agriculture – only serve to inflame tensions and radicalize positions. We recall that the National Action Plan to ensure coexistence between the wolf and livestock farming activities also applies in Corrèze, and we call on the Prefect of Corrèze to show restraint in his comments as a representative of the State, and courage in his dealings with livestock farmers’ unions, in order to initiate a constructive dialogue that will help preserve our biodiversity and human activities.

Rather than fuelling confrontation, we wish to offer a sincere listening ear and concrete help, particularly in terms of prevention, cohabitation and support for the implementation of protection measures adapted to local realities. This is why our national and local animal and nature protection associations (*see below) are mobilizing to propose a way out of this crisis.

In support of the work carried out over the years by the Millevaches Regional Nature Park (PNR), the PastoraLoup program can be deployed on an emergency basis, thanks to volunteers already trained in the Alps in herd surveillance and construction site assistance. Every year, this assistance proves its effectiveness in drastically limiting predation on sheep and cattle herds.

In 2024, with 1171 nights and days of surveillance carried out by more than 150 volunteers, only the loss of one baby goat and one lamb are to be deplored on the 30 farms benefiting from the program in the Alps, Jura and Doubs.

Finally, the presence of a large predator such as the wolf, in addition to the benefits it brings to ecosystems, could ultimately be the source of an eco-agro-touristic activity bringing numerous economic spin-offs to the area. Breeders/producers would be the primary beneficiaries, through the promotion and direct sale of quality products in a wild and protected area.

Born in France, 1,600 beagles on borrowed time risk hell in Italian laboratories

Born in France, 1,600 beagles on borrowed time risk hell in Italian laboratories
09.06.2025
Italy
Born in France, 1,600 beagles on borrowed time risk hell in Italian laboratories
Animal testing

While Italy prohibits the breeding of dogs for animal testing, 1,600 beagles born in France are at risk of being transferred to the Aptuit laboratories in Verona to undergo painful tests. The Administrative Court in Rome is set to decide their fate on 10 June.

One Voice is taking action to raise awareness about this situation and the hypocrisy of the system.

A ban deliberately circumvented with the help of Marshall BioResources

Following the adoption of the directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes, Italy has introduced more protective mechanisms. For example, since 2014, it has banned the breeding of dogs, cats and primates for experimentation by decree. However, this text does not apply to imports, creating a legal loophole that has been exploited by the industry.

As a result, Italy is sourcing their animals from France… France, one of the leading users in Europe, welcomes the breeding facilities of the American giant Marshall BioResources (MBR) with open arms in Gannat and Mézilles.

One Voice has long fought against these places where beagles and golden retrievers grow up on cold tiles without any affection. Naturally docile and raised from an early age to accept anything, no matter what is inflicted on them: wearing a gas mask and being subjected to smoke, being injected, ingesting toxic substances…

Once their preparation is complete, they leave the cages where the law of the strongest prevails, to join those of the laboratories. There, they will die alone, under the worst tortures, in the name of a science that refuses to evolve.

Although this practice remains unacceptable to 85% of French people (Ipsos/One Voice survey, 2023), MBR is preparing to sell 1,600 new dogs to the multinational company Aptuit, part of the Evotech group, where they will endure years of testing and suffering before being put to death.

The pharmaceutical company Aptuit has already been convicted of mistreatment

Our Italian partner, LAV, part of the ECEAE and Cruelty Free Europe coalitions, has been working for years to close the multinational company Aptuit down. In 2021, their complaint led to the largest seizure of animals ever carried out in a laboratory in the country, where their conditions of detention were absolutely unacceptable. The investigation revealed serious violations: beagles and primates kept in cages for months or even years, without adequate veterinary care, and subjected to experiments causing severe levels of pain.

We cannot remain silent while 1,600 new beagles are destined for the same hell. We must act to prevent them from being sent there!

Support the petition (in Italian) calling for:

The immediate release of the animals already present at Aptuit.
A permanent ban on the arrival and use of these 1,600 animals.
A review of the legal loophole that allows the importation of animals for experimental purposes.
A clear and binding commitment to support alternative methods.
The creation of an institutional and scientific working group to reform research in an ethical and modern way.

In France, you can also call for an end to the use of dogs in laboratories by signing our petition!

In Brittany, 21,000 jackdaws are being targeted: we demand an end to the shooting

In Brittany, 21,000 jackdaws are being targeted: we demand an end to the shooting
06.06.2025
Brittany
In Brittany, 21,000 jackdaws are being targeted: we demand an end to the shooting
Wildlife

In the regions of Côtes d’Armor, Finistère, Ille-et-Vilaine and Morbihan, the prefects are once again this year undertaking campaigns to kill large numbers of jackdaws, even though they are a protected species. The reason given? To prevent damage to agriculture… even though alternatives exist, and shooting is completely ineffective! We at One Voice, together with Bretagne Vivante and LPO Bretagne, are calling for the urgent suspension of these authorisations. See you at the Administrative Court in Rennes on 17 June at 2.30pm.

Protected birds, but slaughtered by the thousands

Every year, the prefectures of Brittany authorise the slaughter of jackdaws during the nesting season. In 2025, 7,000 individuals are targeted in the Côtes-d’Armor, 6,000 in Finistère, 1,500 in Morbihan and 500 in Ille-et-Vilaine. This is the last straw for these cousins of rooks and black crows, which we recently succeeded in having removed from the scandalous ESOD classification in certain regions.

While protected, they already face a daily struggle against climate change, the scarcity of insects due to the proliferation of pesticides, and the destruction of their habitats. Not to mention poaching, as in the case of the hunt at the authorities’ initiative in Riom against which we filed a complaint after jackdaws were shot and discreetly collected by the shooters under the gaze of stunned witnesses.

We call for massive investment in alternatives to killing!

Year after year, our campaign is gathering momentum. In 2022, our legal actions helped to save 27,000 birds at the last minute. Since then, and despite the mixed decisions in 2023 and 2024, quotas have been decreasing, as in the Morbihan region, where they have fallen from 3,000 in 2022 to 1,500 in 2025. But the prefects continue to choose slaughter, against the animals and against science.

These methods are all the more absurd given that shooting is not effective in reducing damage, as scientists have confirmed. However, rather than investing heavily in the implementation of effective alternative solutions such as chimney grating, the State is once again opting for the easy way out in order to appease angry farmers.

Together with Bretagne Vivante and LPO Bretagne, we will be present at the Administrative Court in Rennes on 17 June at 2.30pm to seek an immediate halt to the operations. While waiting for the next suspensions, sign our petition to demand a radical reform of hunting!

Suspension in the Allier region and upcoming hearings: underground badger hunting under scrutiny?

Suspension in the Allier region and upcoming hearings: underground badger hunting under scrutiny?
06.06.2025
France
Suspension in the Allier region and upcoming hearings: underground badger hunting under scrutiny?
Wildlife

Every spring, badgers are targeted by prefects. And guns are replaced by pickaxes: hunters track the animals to the bottom of their burrows before killing them… The youngest among them have no chance of survival. Thanks to our first wave of appeals, the Court in Clermont-Ferrand has just put a stop to additional hunting periods in the Allier region. This is a strong signal that has not been followed by neighbouring departments in the Auvergne region. It is only the beginning: against the order in the Eure region, the next hearing at the Court in Rouen will be held on 26 June at 3.30pm* for One Voice with ASPAS, AVES, FNE Normandie and GMN (Groupe Mammalogique Normand).

A mixed respite for hundreds of badgers…

In the Allier region, the judge has put an end to the mass underground culling from 15 May to 30 June. This is a crucial period for young badgers who are still dependent on their mothers for survival. Of course, the Prefect has already hastened to open a second period from 1 July until the general opening of the hunting season in mid-September. We are not letting this pass and are once again taking up the fight by initiating a new emergency suspension procedure! And just like in 2024, fate is relentless for badgers in the Puy-de-Dôme and Cantal regions. Without any justification, the courts are only protecting some of these animals, which is a complete nonsense.

The momentum against unearthing intensifies

As the opening dates are pushed back year after year, underground hunting is more than ever being questioned. In the Eure region, it is open from 28 May to 15 September… Fifteen days less will not be enough! Especially when it is easy for diggers to slaughter these black and white-furred mustelids when they least expect it, i.e. while they are asleep. Many hunters accuse them of causing damage to crops, while others consider them, in complete bad faith, to be killers of farm animals. But what about the suffering of these families caught by force with claw traps? And what about the consequences for the crops, largely trampled and destroyed by the passage of these men in boots?

Our legal action continues. Together with ASPAS, AVES, FNE Normandie and GMN, we will be present at the hearing at the Court in Rouen on 26 June at 3.30pm* to suspend the order in the Eure region. Every voice counts in the fight against this cruel pastime: sign our petition!

* Updated on 23/06/2025

The animal pound in Betton: an open letter in response to SACPA’s press release

The animal pound in Betton: an open letter in response to SACPA’s press release
05.06.2025
Brittany
The animal pound in Betton: an open letter in response to SACPA’s press release
Domestic animals

At the beginning of May 2025, we filed a complaint and released images filmed at the SACPA animal pound in Betton, revealing situations of mistreatment, lack of care for suffering animals, and appalling conditions of detention, exposing the animals to injury and obvious distress.

On 14 May, this private organisation published a statement claiming to “set the record straight”, refuting any problems and attempting to discredit our work by producing a series of documents intended to justify its management of the animals. However, careful analysis of these documents —which SACPA itself made public— only confirms the seriousness of the facts denounced in our videos.

Two days of avoidable suffering for a dog with a tumour

Among the most heartbreaking cases was that of a griffon basset hound suffering from a massive, raw anal tumour. The SACPA claims to have reacted quickly. However, their own documents contradict these statements: the little dog went without any care for two whole days between her arrival on 28 January 2025 and her first veterinary consultation on the 30th. For nearly fifty hours, she endured unbearable suffering, without respite or relief. And despite her obvious pain, the teams were forbidden from taking her to see a vet. Yet SACPA acknowledges the extent of the damage: a “bloody” tumour “obstructing the passage of faeces”. How can one watch a living being suffer like this and choose to wait? Where is the humanity in this decision? Where is the ethics in this delay?

Another case: even thinner after two months at the SACPA

Another shocking example is that of Prada, a young Malinois. She entered the pound on 14 January 2025, frail and emaciated, as noted in the examination on 17/01. Two months later, when she finally left the facility, her condition had dramatically worsened: on 25 March, the vet estimated that she was ‘very thin’. Her body also bore other marks: lick sores, a sign of deep stress and discomfort that she could only express through these repetitive, desperate gestures. After ten long weeks at the Betton facility, Prada emerged neither treated nor comforted, but weaker than when she arrived. No improvement. Just a slow and cruel deterioration.

Codey, victim of a system that reverses the roles

Regarding a dog that the SACPA claims to have classified as a “biter”, it had nevertheless described him as “sociable” when he entered the pound on 17 July 2023. Moreover, Codey had undergone tests with the police dog brigade… which he failed due to his refusal to bite. The consistent testimonies we have gathered mention violence, deprivation and strangulation with a lasso. It was the violent treatment he suffered that led him to bite as a last resort.

Dogs mentioned without proof

The pound also mentions the dogs Mika, Jazz and Rocky. However, no evidence has been produced concerning them, contrary to what has been claimed. These names are used to divert attention, without providing any answers to the concrete facts presented by us.

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Old images? Persistent abuse

Finally, while some videos date back to 2023, they show the continuity of a system: past events do not become any less reprehensible with the passage of time. Abuse does not vanish with the passing years. Is hitting dogs in the pound excusable on the pretext that they are no longer there today? This is illogical and unacceptable.

We have filed a complaint, supported by images and testimonies describing the refusal of veterinary care to seriously injured animals, abusive euthanasia, litters of kittens killed for no reason, cats placed alive in freezers, animals left to die in agony or infected due to a lack of basic sanitary precautions: acts constituting cruelty, mistreatment and wilful harm to an animal’s life.

SACPA’s statement only confirms its inability to assume its responsibilities. Behind the facade, the facts are there. Inexcusable. Unjustifiable.

We will continue to hold animal pounds accountable and to denounce the systemic abuses perpetrated by certain organisations. Animals deserve better than defensive press releases and empty files. They deserve our consideration, care and real protection.

Sign our petition to demand an end to these massacres and to obtain reforms that will put an end to abandonment.

No to the slaughter of animals in pounds! No to the slaughter of animals in pounds! No to the slaughter of animals in pounds! No to the slaughter of animals in pounds! No to the slaughter of animals in pounds! No to the slaughter of animals in pounds! No to the slaughter of animals in pounds! No to the slaughter of animals in pounds! No to the slaughter of animals in pounds! No to the slaughter of animals in pounds!

Tony Zavatta circus: the same suffering for “domestic” and wild animals

Tony Zavatta circus: the same suffering for “domestic” and wild animals
05.06.2025
France
Tony Zavatta circus: the same suffering for “domestic” and wild animals
Exploitation for shows

After receiving several reports in April of the very worrying condition of a camel at Tony Zavatta Circus (Gougeon production), and dispatching investigators to the site in May, One Voice lodged a complaint of mistreatment, which was closed almost immediately, which is a disgrace. These practices involving animals considered domestic will continue for a long time to come, as they are not affected by the legal ban on traveling circuses scheduled for December 2028. And yet, as their suffering is the same, we defend them too.

On May 7, we posted images from a whistle-blower showing a camel held by Tony Zavatta Circus, then based in Luçon (85). Constrained to three meters of chain as its only radius of movement, without water or shelter, with humps in very poor condition, he moved on the spot, displaying abnormal and stereotyped behavior, a clear sign of malaise among captive animals. But he’s not the only one affected by the deleterious conditions of detention in this circus.

Endless detention with appalling consequences

A few days later, in La Chaize-le-Vicomte (85), we filmed the same camelid, still tethered. Lacking sufficient freedom of movement, he tramples aimlessly for hours on end, as if lost in a mirage where he’s crossing vast lands, as his nature predestined him to do, or circling his post, reproducing his training routine ad nauseam. At times, he explodes, struggles, desperately trying to free himself.

A little further on, a younger camel is restless, clearly having nervous breakdowns. Full of the energy peculiar to his age, he would certainly prefer to leap and gambol, but that’s impossible for him as it is, as his makeshift cage isn’t twice his size. His only possible stimuli: licking a knotted cord or chewing on a billboard, hung on one of his prison’s metal gates.

Surrounding him on this construction site are llamas, ponies and dromedaries, kept in scandalously similar conditions. These other companions are also chained very tightly, confined among stocks of materials or along a path accessible to anyone. When some of these captives have the “luxury” of having a household bucket as a water source, their tie, the length of which is decided by the circus workers, systematically prevents them from drinking from it!

How difficult it is to have such suffering legally recorded…

On May 16, One Voice filed a complaint for mistreatment of animals by professionals, which constitutes an aggravating circumstance. We have also requested an urgent inspection by the local authorities of the owner of Tony Zavatta Circus, one of the members of the indescribable Gougeon family.

This is not the first time (far from it!) that the brothers and cousins, who are also at the head of the circuses Italiano and Idéal, as well as of Nouveau Cirque Triomphe – the list goes on – have found themselves concerned by our complaints. Among the most recent cases to date, we’ve already had those of the Paris Circus convicted of abusing Jon as well as Patty, Céleste, Marly and Hannah.

Following up on our alert, the Vendée prefecture replied, assuring us of their “vigilance in this matter”. While we were pleasantly surprised that the gendarmerie and municipal police were dispatched to the site for “administrative checks and an inspection of the animals”, we regret that no institutional service trained to analyze animal behavior was also asked to carry out ethological observations. What immediate corrective actions were ordered on site? A veterinary inspection? The seizure of camelids in poor health? No, the circus owners were simply asked to increase the length of their ties!

To add insult to injury, while dismissing our complaint, State officials confirmed the stereotypical behavior of certain captives. Worse still, this suffering is trivialized by invoking their fatal destiny, doomed to “circus exploitation”. An admission of insufficient human resources and institutional complacency towards abusive circus practices. The real distress of these sentient individuals is negated by lacunary legislation.

Even if our complaint was unsuccessful this time, we won’t give in!

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Non-wild animals, the great forgotten of the law

Let’s not forget that these living beings are, in the eyes of the legislation dated November 30, 2021, considered as domestic and will therefore not be affected by the forthcoming ban of December 1, 2028. So many lofty ambitions had taken seed, and now this law is missing its initial objectives, leaving room for a variety of interpretations to the detriment of those first concerned, many of whom will continue to be trained, exploited… or others simply forgotten, as here, due to a general lack of controls, or which are clearly only in name. Meanwhile, circus owners will even be compensated with public money to continue subjugating sentient individuals over and over again!

There’s only one solution: a total ban on animals in circuses. Help us change the law by signing our petition.

Traumatic flashball scare shots on wolves

Traumatic flashball scare shots on wolves
02.06.2025
Haute-Savoie
Traumatic flashball scare shots on wolves
Wildlife

We thought we’d seen it all, but now we’re stunned. Wolves are about to undergo a terrifying experiment. A pack in the Haute-Savoie region is to be disturbed and its individuals captured. And for what? To test the effects of a variant of shooting: “traumatic” scaring shots (TEFT) [sic]. Although this initiative is an attempt to find answers to the incessant culling of canids, questions remain as to the real interest of this experiment and its considerable impact.

In September 2024, a public consultation was opened on an experimental project to test a new, non-lethal method of scaring off wolves.

Spearheaded by two recognized organizations, Asters – Haute-Savoie Conservatory of Natural Spaces (CEN74) and the Institute for the Promotion and Research on Protection Animals (IPRA), the project involves capturing up to five individuals, fitting them with GPS collars and, once released, studying their reactions to flashball discharges when attempting to predate flocks. The captures were authorized by two orders issued by the Prefect of Haute-Savoie on March 17, 2025.

A good idea to combat lethal shooting… but nothing new

What’s hard to understand is that breeders can already carry out scare shots, so why inflict further trauma on wolves?

Is the aim to inflict further pain and fear? This remains unclear, all the more so as the project’s leads themselves acknowledge that this method is “promising but as yet poorly documented”. In other words, we’re about to test a form of increased violence on wolves, with no real guarantee of its effects or effectiveness.

Further persecution

In Passy, after the escaped goats in the prefect’s sights, the wolves are about to be subjected to severe psychological and physical shocks. Is it really necessary to capture five of them, who are already being hunted down relentlessly, in order to verify that these shots are more effective when they prove to be “traumatic”?

High-risk capture, trapping and sequestration for protected animals

The terms of the project’s non-technical summary (RNT) are unambiguous: this is a “non-lethal but painful scaring method”.

The TEFT project presents significant risks for wolves, both during capture and shooting. Trapping and anaesthetizing can lead to stress, motor disorders, injuries of varying degrees of severity, and disruption of social dynamics within the pack. The flashball shots themselves, although qualified as non-lethal, can nevertheless cause pain, behavioral alterations and, in the event of poor execution, potential handicaps. In fact, the aim of the project is to “subject [the wolf] to a painful experience, so that it learns to avoid herds as a result of this bad experience”. Serious consequences for members of a protected species…

The animals will – fortunately – be “returned to their natural habitat”, but at what cost to their lives and those of their families? A member of the Blaitière pack targeted by these measures was captured on April 6. Who is it? The father or the mother? Did the cubs witness it? The stability and equilibrium of the group help to channel and educate the youngsters.

To put an end to the persecution of wolves in all their forms, sign our petition.

Behind the official figures for animal experimentation, reality remains unchanged

Behind the official figures for animal experimentation, reality remains unchanged
27.05.2025
France
Behind the official figures for animal experimentation, reality remains unchanged
Animal testing

The Ministry congratulates itself for a slight drop in the number of animals used in experiments for the first time in 2023, but more than 2 million individuals were still involved that year. The official figures continue to exclude countless living beings, invisible in the reports. Not to mention the fact that 90% of experiments are not legally required.

Behind the coldness of technical terms such as « use » and so-called « moderate » suffering lie very real, painful experiences.

One Voice deciphers what the falsely transparent figures do not show.

In its 2023 statistical survey, the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MESR) congratulated itself for a slight drop in the number of living beings exploited for the first time in experiments during the year. However, the 2 million mark is still exceeded, whether we consider the total number of animals tested (2,030,513) or the number of first uses in 2023 (2,046,754). It is important to remember that the MESR only counts the first scalpel stroke given to an individual during the year: reuses during the same year are not taken into account.

What’s more, behind these overall figures, there are still major disparities between species: 20% of hamsters still undergo procedures classified as « severe », and although dogs account for just 0.2% of uses, the figures for them are on the rise.

Thousands of lives overlooked by ministerial reports

Every year, official data on animal experimentation remains largely underestimated… It doesn’t take into account animals used outside regulated procedures. These animals are only declared to the European Commission every five years. This is the case, for example, of individuals bred solely to reproduce genetically modified lines, or of those killed to remove their organs or tissues for in vitro research. These practices are sometimes referred to as « New Methodological Approaches » (NMAs), a term that leads to confusion: we’re not talking here about « Non-Animal Methods », but rather about the additional use of countless living beings! Rather than marking a break with in vivo experimentation, these practices add to it, as animals continue to be killed to satisfy the demands of a research system that is struggling to evolve.

Invisible in falsely transparent annual reports, all excluded from official data, they disappear in a persistent opacity.

When the category of « moderate » suffering is used to mask reality

The MESR points to a drop in the most unbearable experiments, described as « severe », from 11.5% in 2022 to 9.3% in 2023. It also claims that 87% of cases would fall into the « mild » or « moderate » severity category.

But these percentages mask an entirely different reality: of the 2,046,754 uses recorded in 2023, the moderate and severe categories alone account for almost half of all cases.

What does MESR consider moderate pain?

« mutant mice » killed because they had become ‘too old’ following a delay in delivery, then replaced by others to undergo multiple injections before being placed on a hot plate;
another 2,500 were injected with cancer cells into their bladders, developing weight loss, prostration, urinary pain and anorexia before being killed;
or 1,136 of these small rodents implanted with a tumor and subjected to repeated oral force-feeding with fecal matter…

To what extent has this « moderate » level of severity become the norm for procedures that are nonetheless profoundly invasive? Practices remain violent, only the indicators are adapting.

90% of animal experiments are not required by law

Of these 2,046,754 uses of living beings, only a quarter (449,790) fall into the category of « regulatory studies and routine production ». Less than half (206,987) respond to legislative or regulatory requirements, generally European. Consequently, barely 10% of experiments in 2023 are required by law.

The remaining 1,839,767 could be replaced by alternative methods.

If, like three quarters of French people, you support the end of animal experimentation (One Voice/Ipsos April 2023), and believe in alternative methods, join us in calling for an end to these outdated practices!