News Archive - Page 7 of 143

Hunting safety: repeated accidents, when will real measures be taken?

Hunting safety: repeated accidents, when will real measures be taken?
24.07.2025
France
Hunting safety: repeated accidents, when will real measures be taken?
Wildlife

The report of the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB) is worrying. For the 2024-2025 season, an increase in the number of accidents and incidents has been observed compared with previous years. Hunting amounts to killing wild animals, and injuring -sometimes very seriously- walkers and their four-legged companions. A great deal of material damage has also been reported. One Voice is more committed than ever to banning this outdated and deadly activity.

A spectacular rise in accidents… and deaths

The 2024-2025 season was marked by a record number of deaths: in addition to the tens of millions of animals killed, eleven people lost their lives, more than twice as many as in previous years. Out of nearly one hundred accidents, sixteen involved non-hunters. And even in the home, there are risks. The most striking increase concerned pets: fifty of them were targeted, sometimes deliberately, as in the case of Aslan, a dog shot at point-blank range by a hunter, against whom we have lodged a complaint.

These armed men are privatizing nature and, as always, it’s the silent majority who have to adapt to their hobby. How many walkers cut short their outings in the countryside under pressure from a visible and influential minority? In 2023, we took the matter to court to get the government to assume its responsibilities. To date, the response has been woefully inadequate.

An anachronistic and archaic pastime that must end

Hunting in all its forms – whether with hounds, by digging up badgers, slaughtering foxes or killing birds using traditional methods – is neither legitimate nor justified. Yet it enjoys the unfailing support of the prefects, who do not hesitate to use unfair maneuvers by publishing their decrees after the operations have begun to prevent us from attacking them.

With just a few weeks to go before the opening of the 2025-26 season, we are calling for the mobilization of all citizens to demand the immediate adoption of radical measures, including:

a ban on hunting on Sundays, public holidays and during school vacations;
a strict ban on hunting under the influence of alcohol or drugs;
tighter control on hunters’ physical fitness;
reinforcing the hunting license examination (which is a complete farce);
a ban on the use of certain weapons and ammunition.

In the meantime, call on the authorities and sign up to demand radical measures in response to this worrying situation.

Fish crammed together and an endangered environment: no to the expansion of the Aquafrais fish farm

Fish crammed together and an endangered environment: no to the expansion of the Aquafrais fish farm
23.07.2025
Alpes-Maritimes
Fish crammed together and an endangered environment: no to the expansion of the Aquafrais fish farm
Animaux sauvages

The silent suffering of sea bream in fish pens. This is what is revealed by our images of the fish farm run by the Cannes-based company Aquafrais which has been “producing” fish for over thirty years. In July 2023, the prefecture gave the green light to its subsidiary Azur Fish to set up a new sea bream and sea bass farm off the coast of Golfe-Juan. This will double the company’s production and the number of animals falling victim to its greed, while damaging precious natural areas. We oppose this destructive project and support the appeal that has been lodged!

Fish suffering in pens

Aquafrais’ plan is simple: to close some of its small farms in Cap d’Antibes and Théoule-sur-Mer and add a new sea bass and sea bream farm to its operations, which would cover no less than 24,000 square metres, or the equivalent of three football pitches. This is a huge expansion for this fish farm which already “produces” 600 tonnes of fish per year. Twice as many fish will now pass through its hands.

Although the company prides itself on working “sustainably, letting nature take its course”, it’s a safe bet that the version of the fish it catches at sea, fresh out of the egg, would be quite different… Transported by boat to their “production” site, they are then confined in aquatic enclosures with 40 to 50 fish per cubic metre. There they remain for three years, suffering from stress, parasites, disease and even depression. Once they reach adult size, they are taken out of the water using nets to be killed on the spot before being sent “fresh” to the four corners of France…

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Wildlife and flora under threat

As if the exploitation of these individuals were not enough, it also had to be established within the Natura 2000 site ‘Baie et Cap d’Antibes – Îles de Lérins’ and close to two marine areas of special interest for ecology, fauna and flora (ZNIEFF).

It is on this extremely rich coastline, home to numerous Posidonia plants, a flowering marine plant classified as a protected species, that the captive sea bream and sea bass will dump their waste… and with it all the drug molecules they will have been forced to ingest. Between this pollution and the risk of crossbreeding with wild sea bream, this is definitely a fine example of respect for nature!

A project that runs counter to all progress

With big money as their only horizon, the authorities have no intention of stopping there. In its program “Aquaculture for the Future 2021-2027”, the government plans to double the national production of sea bream and sea bass. There is no concern for the suffering of farmed fish. Nor for all those caught in the wild to be processed into fishmeal and fish oil (FMFO) to feed the former. Nor even for the humans in FMFO-producing regions, who are seeing the wild fish on which their diet depends disappear at an alarming rate, as is the case in West Africa.

And the worst is yet to come! With global warming, new pathogenic bacteria will develop, causing disease in aquaculture farms and thus an ever-increasing use of antibiotics. With the government, it’s always the same thing: when we’re heading straight for the wall, we speed up even more!

We support the request lodged by former MEP Caroline Roose against the expansion of Aquafrais’ activities, and we are ready to participate in the appeal if it is rejected by the administrative court. For the sake of fish and a sustainable future for all, we are calling for a strict and transparent control of existing fish farms, their prohibition in the vicinity of sensitive natural areas, and above all, a definitive ban on all new fish farms.

Take action by sharing our leaflet on the subject and signing the petition against factory fish farms!

Unfair tactics by the prefecture and relentless persecution of bears in Ariège: One Voice fights back

Unfair tactics by the prefecture and relentless persecution of bears in Ariège: One Voice fights back
22.07.2025
Ariège
Unfair tactics by the prefecture and relentless persecution of bears in Ariège: One Voice fights back
Animaux sauvages

In mid-July, within a few days, the Prefecture of Ariège signed four orders for scare shooting against bears in the summer pastures of the Arreau and Taus Espugues Pastoral Groupings (GP)… before waiting until the last moment to publish them. This is a common ploy by the authorities in this region, who are relentless in their persecution of bears and systematically block any attempts to defend these animals. One Voice is fighting back and has filed a petition for protection of fundamental liberties. The hearing will take place on 23 July at the Administrative Court in Toulouse with the aim of saving the individuals targeted by these shootings between 21 and 25 July.

On 15 July, the Prefecture of Ariège signed three orders for scare shootings concerning the summer pastures of the Arreau and Taus Espugues GP… allegedly published the same day. The reality is quite different, since the texts were only posted on its website on Friday 18 July, just before the courts closed for the weekend… and just as the scare shootings were ending after having terrorised the bears for the third consecutive day! The Prefecture deliberately prevented us from taking action against these outrageous measures by publishing the texts authorising the scare shooting only after it had ended. But it didn’t stop there! On Saturday 19 July, it once again took advantage of the weekend to give its green light to new scare measures on the Arreau summer pasture.

Constant harassment, even in the daytime…

On Monday 21 July from 5.30am to 9.30pm, and then every day at the same times until Friday 25 July, bears will be subjected to double-detonation shots with the aim of scaring them away… even though they have nowhere to go. Worse still, these operations, like the previous ones, are taking place in broad daylight, shamelessly flouting the ministerial decree governing scare shooting.

… and this is nothing new

We are not surprised: for years, the Prefecture of Ariège has stopped at nothing to torment the bears. In 2022, we managed to suspend nine prefectural orders concerning seven summer pastures. The following year, the authorities began to obstruct our work with last-minute publications. Once again, we responded, suspending five texts thanks to our petitions for protection of fundamental liberties. Unconcerned by the court decisions, the Prefecture has since continued its machinations, harassing the bears with gunshots, firing plastic bullets at the bear Barny to hurt him… not to mention the individuals killed illegally, such as Caramelles.

The Prefecture of Haute-Garonne is not to be outdone; in early July, it published a decree authorising scare shootings in the summer pastures of the Sengouagnet town council… the day before they were to be implemented. We immediately filed a request for interim relief, but the administrative court rejected it without even granting us a hearing. There is still a huge amount of awareness-raising work to be done before justice is on the side of bears, whose population in the Pyrenees has still not reached its viability threshold, even though nearly nine out of ten French people believe that these animals have their rightful place in nature (Ipsos/One Voice survey, November 2024).

In response to the shameful actions of the Prefecture of Ariège, we will be present at the Administrative Court in Toulouse on 23 July at 11am to seek an urgent suspension of the scare shootings still targeting bears on the Arreau GP summer pasture until 25 July. Sign up to defend them alongside us.

Animal experimentation: One Voice obtains new documents on the Mézilles dog farm

Animal experimentation: One Voice obtains new documents on the Mézilles dog farm
21.07.2025
Yonne
Animal experimentation: One Voice obtains new documents on the Mézilles dog farm
Animal testing

This is a new victory in One Voice’s fight for the dogs bred and used at the Breeding Centre for Biological Matter [Centre d’élevage des Souches (CEDS)] in Mézilles, Yonne. On June 5, the Dijon administrative court acceded to our requests, demanding that the CEDS provide us with its correspondence with the prefecture concerning applications for approval and inspections carried out between January 17, 2019 and February 9, 2022. These documents once again reveal the hell that the animals confined at Mézilles have to endure, and the repeated failings of the experimenters.

Among the documents we have received, there are no images, but information that is just as good.

Lives of suffering surrounded by opacity…

Through an individual follow-up sheet misplaced among some fifty other pages, we met a three-year-old Beagle female dog. Without a name, like all her companions in misery, she was exploited as a breeder. On August 14, 2019, she underwent a C-section to give birth to a litter of seven puppies. The same day, barely recovered from this ordeal, she was hysterectomized. What happened to her after she was removed from the list of valuable breeders? Has she been sent to the lab bench to be “recycled” as a punching-ball for drug tests? Or was she killed after her young were snatched from her…?

In this breeding facility, the fate of the pups is just as grim. On December 18, 2019, puppies less than five months old were crammed, two by two, into cramped crates for a long journey lasting several hours. Transported like simple parcels, with no regard for their fragility or well-being, in what condition were they to arrive? We can imagine their suffering, but we’ll never know everything: no details of their transport conditions, no trace of their destination. As if their lives had no value. As if these sentient beings were just products to be sold.

… and numerous shortcomings

In March 2019, the Yonne prefecture sent Marshall BioResources (MBR), the American giant that owns the farm, the inspection report on the control carried out earlier in the year. This is one of the documents to which we have had access… copiously redacted! Nevertheless, we learn that the storage of high-risk drugs was not adequately secured, and that the tutoring for new arrivals was not formalized. What other irregularities did the farm try to hide from us?

A few pages later, it does it again, completely erasing the number of individuals present on its premises and its maximum accommodation capacity. Could it be that it has done something wrong? Once again, the question is relevant.

Making animals profitable at all costs

This report also tells us that, during the Covid-19 epidemic, many orders for animals were cancelled or postponed, resulting in an increase in the number of dogs on site. These individuals that experimenters couldn’t invest in were, for the luckiest ones, offered for adoption. The others were assigned to breeding… before being put to death.

This is where the cynical cruelty of laboratories comes into its own: reducing animals to mere tools, sorting them shamelessly according to the profit to be made from them. Too old, too fat, or with abnormal biochemical results? To avoid them being counted as “surplus” animals, killed without ever having been “used”, they will undergo an experiment or reproduction before being discarded as if they were waste.

Not content with what it already inflicts on the dogs it keeps, MBR has obtained in 2022, for the Mézilles CEDS , an extension of the approval allowing it to carry out projects including surgical interventions. Join us in demanding the closure of this farm!

For Camille and the wolves of the Saône-et-Loire region, a new inter-association request

For Camille and the wolves of the Saône-et-Loire region, a new inter-association request
16.07.2025
Dijon
For Camille and the wolves of the Saône-et-Loire region, a new inter-association request
Wildlife

One Voice and its partners, ASPAS, FERUS, LPO Bourgogne Franche-Comté and Pôle Grands Prédateurs, are once again standing up for the wolves in the Saône-et-Loire region. We call for the immediate suspension of the umpteenth decree organizing the shooting of these animals. The hearing will take place on July 22 at 10 a.m. at the Dijon administrative court.

The Saône-et-Loire prefect signs shooting authorizations with a certain ease. Together with our partners, we are urgently challenging the latest one, dated May 15.

No cohabitation envisaged in the Saône-et-Loire region

In this region, the authorities’ only response is guns. Cohabitation? It’s not in their vocabulary.

In their eagerness to please the lobbies of hunting and a certain type of livestock farming, the authorities are handing out permits to kill a protected species at the drop of a hat. Every wolf unfortunate enough to pass through or settle in the Saône-et-Loire region ends up being killed. Camille, the most recent arrival, saw a torrent of hatred pour down on him. As for his predecessor, he was found dead in suspicious circumstances… We filed a complaint at the time.

We are taking legal action on behalf of the wolves in the Saône-et-Loire region

With regard to the decree we are contesting, the prefecture relies solely on the mention of a “significant risk of damage”, referring to 18 ovines attacked in neighboring villages, without providing any details on the protection devices used. This vagueness is unacceptable: the authorities cannot justify shooting when there is no guarantee that the flocks were effectively protected as required by law.

We reject this retrograde and destructive vision of wildlife. As well as being precious in their own right, wolves are essential to biodiversity and the proper functioning of ecosystems. Rather than trying to exterminate them, farmers should be encouraged and supported to set up electrified parks, and to monitor and guard their flocks.

It’s scandalous that some farmers are now lamenting the loss of ewes they refuse to protect, when they have no hesitation in sending thousands of them to slaughter without the slightest hint of compassion.

We’ve already achieved victories in the Alpes-Maritimes region last March. This time, we’ll be in the Dijon administrative court, as well as in front of it, on July 22 at 10 a.m. for Camille and all the other wolves in the Saône-et-Loire region. To show your support, sign the petition.

Sign to demand an end to the slaughter of wolves Sign to demand an end to the slaughter of wolves Sign to demand an end to the slaughter of wolves Sign to demand an end to the slaughter of wolves Sign to demand an end to the slaughter of wolves Sign to demand an end to the slaughter of wolves Sign to demand an end to the slaughter of wolves Sign to demand an end to the slaughter of wolves Sign to demand an end to the slaughter of wolves Sign to demand an end to the slaughter of wolves

Animal experimentation: the State seals the fate of thousands of monkeys in less than two months

Animal experimentation: the State seals the fate of thousands of monkeys in less than two months
16.07.2025
Animal experimentation: the State seals the fate of thousands of monkeys in less than two months
Animal testing

In less than two months, from March 27 to May 19, the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research approved six projects condemning 3,046 monkeys to endure all sorts of tests from virus inoculation to cranial implants. As always, there is no lack of stress and pain. We lift the veil on these cruel practices and their victims.

Harsh regulatory tests

To test the toxicology of drugs, no fewer than 1,120 marmosets and 1,120 long-tailed macaques will undergo experiments categorized as “moderate” and “severe”. What is merely a regulatory routine for the laboratories is a real ordeal for the animals. For months on end, they have to endure blood, urine and deep fluid samples… and even organ biopsies. And when it comes to sampling, this means restraint, sedation and several hours’ isolation in individual cages… These horribly invasive procedures generate intense stress, pain, lesions and infections, with risks of paralysis, lameness and arthritis. Not to mention the effects of the products tested, which can immediately cause neurological, immune, inflammatory or metabolic disorders in the animals. 2020 of the monkeys used in this way will be put to death after these procedures.

Hundreds of tormented individuals…

Not all toxicology tests are compulsory. For a non-regulatory study, 256 cynomolgus macaques and 46 rhesus macaques will be administered substances both orally and by injection every week, if not every day. They too will be immobilized for long periods, certainly in “restraint chairs”, including for infusions lasting up to four hours. And those who are not killed at the end of this ordeal will be kept alive only to relive similar torments…

Hundreds of other animals will be used:

400 macaques will be injected and sampled over a three-year period, and subjected to up to 10 vaccinations.
70 marmosets will be deliberately infected with the H1N1 influenza A virus, then subjected to repeated blood and nasal sampling. All will be put to death to prevent contamination of humans. The very people who made them sick, that is…
For tests on Alzheimer’s disease, scientists will operate on 13 long-tailed macaques to insert implants into their brains, which will remain there for weeks. This painful procedure will be supplemented by repeated injections of streptozotocin. And the misfortunes of these individuals don’t stop there, as they risk oedema, infections, inflammation and hallucinations… until they are slaughtered.

… and babies torn from their mothers

21 young rhesus monkeys will be “used” to study the consequences of early negative experiences on behavior. Half of them will be separated from their mothers at birth and raised without their social group. For a week, they will be deprived of their loved ones, disoriented, in a foreign environment, with, once again, restraint cages… An extremely stressful experience, since that’s the whole point of this “staging”. And their suffering will continue, since their return to their group will itself be a source of stress and potential injuries…

We will continue to shed light on what happens to the animals on the scientists’ cold benches. Sign to demand an end to these practices on primates!

Animal testing – No more pyrogenic testing on rabbits!

Animal testing – No more pyrogenic testing on rabbits!
15.07.2025
Union européenne
Animal testing – No more pyrogenic testing on rabbits!
Expérimentation animale

It was about time! The law passed in June 2024 by the European Pharmacopoeia Commission has just come into force this July: it bans pyrogenic testing on rabbits in all EU countries. This is a landmark victory for tens of thousands of these adorable mammals. But it has come very late.

These tests were developed in the early 20th century to verify the safety of injectable products (vaccines, antibiotics, etc.) by measuring their ability to induce fever. In EU member states, pyrogenic testing on rabbits has been used systematically since the late 1980s. This process, which we have long denounced, is lethal: the substance is injected into the rabbits’ ears, then their fever is measured before they are killed.

Challenged since the 1990s for their cruelty, unreliability and the existence of methods that do not cause suffering to animals, these tests have nevertheless become the norm in the European Pharmacopoeia.

Despite the existence of alternatives, and the entry into force in 2013 of the European Directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes, the number of rabbits subjected to these experiments has continued to rise. The figures are chilling: 17,638 pyrogenicity tests were carried out in Europe in 2022 alone. 400,000 individuals are exploited for this purpose worldwide.

A major change of direction

The decision voted in June 2024 during the 179th session of the European Pharmacopoeia Commission is consistent with the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) and complies with the European Convention ETS No. 123.

The consequences are now clear:

pyrogenic testing on rabbits is banned from the European Pharmacopoeia;
drug developers must now use in vitro methods, such as Monocyte Activation Tests (MAT). This method, which allows the reaction of human cells in culture to be assessed without the use of animals, has been validated by the European Medicines Agency since… 2010!

Ultimately, this vote could also herald a real change of direction, particularly in terms of ending the exploitation of horseshoe crabs, which is supposedly crucial in the development of vaccines.

One Voice welcomes this major development but remains vigilant. In Europe, rabbits are still being subjected to all kinds of experiments: 372,239 in 2022 alone. In France, they are the second most commonly used species in experimentation.

Sébastien Castella is going to massacre six bulls in Bayonne. Twenty associations* denounce this torture turned into a spectacle

Sébastien Castella is going to massacre six bulls in Bayonne. Twenty associations* denounce this torture turned into a spectacle
11.07.2025
Sébastien Castella is going to massacre six bulls in Bayonne. Twenty associations* denounce this torture turned into a spectacle
Exploitation pour le spectacle

On 11 July, Bayonne will host a bullfight to mark the 25th anniversary of bullfighter Sébastien Castella’s “career”, during which six bulls are going to be massacred. FLAC president Thierry Hely was present in the stands of the Béziers bullring on 12 August 2000, where he shot the film Juste pour le plaisir.

Today, One Voice and its partners* are releasing this film again to remind people of what bullfighting really is: the slow agony of animals wading through pools of blood. In a bullfight, everything must be shown! Otherwise, it’s too easy.

When culture and aesthetics serve as a pretext for the expression of sadistic impulses

On 12 August 2000, Sébastien Castella performed his “alternative”, his induction as a matador. To the cheers of the crowd, bulls were stabbed in the arena, agonising for long minutes, choking on their own blood before being finished off. Today, together with our partners, we are once again broadcasting Juste pour le plaisir (Just for Fun), which was filmed during this brutal ceremony.

Voir cette publication sur Instagram

Une publication partagée par FUTUR ASSOCIATION (@futur_asso)

To mark this sad anniversary, which was announced at the Town Hall, a new bullfight is planned in the Bayonne arena. Behind the pomp and the costumes, this time six animals will be harassed, weakened and then killed in front of an audience that sometimes includes very young spectators being subjected to the show of willful infliction of suffering. This torture, which is banned everywhere else, will inevitably leave lasting and harmful scars on the psyche of these children and adolescents.

Customs can never justify torture

Bullfighting is nothing more than a slowly orchestrated torture, a spectacular agony inflicted on sentient beings. On several occasions we have investigated this outdated practice which is based on concealment and denial, as well as the schools that teach children to kill from an early age.

Reduced to the role of objects of entertainment to satisfy the suspicious and perverse urges of a ruthless audience in search of thrills, the heifers and bulls used in these events are peaceful and frightened, seeking only to survive, not understanding that their fate has been sealed in advance.

Our commitment goes beyond the cause of animals, those who are used to inflict injury as well as those who are killed. It also concerns the development of empathy in the youngest members of society. We advocate that minors, and in particular children, should no longer be allowed to attend such atrocities, and that bullfighting schools should be closed. We also campaign for a ban on all proselytising outside of the areas that are exempt, particularly at the Lutèce bullring in the heart of Paris.

In Bayonne and everywhere else: the French say no to bullfighting

For years, we have been organising coordinated national and unified actions to denounce this practice which is still tolerated in a few municipalities in the name of a supposed tradition, a premise that has been challenged on numerous occasions. In our fight against the barbarism of these aficionados, we receive, in city after city and year after year, the support of an overwhelming majority of French people —including in the regions concerned— people who want to put an end to this type of spectacle (which, incidentally, is less and less popular and whose funding is questionable).

As this bullfight in Bayonne approaches, numerous organisations, including those of the FLAC, of which One Voice is a member, are calling for an online mobilisation of citizens. It is time to make a simple truth heard: torture cannot be an art, let alone a cause for celebration.

* List of participants and partners in this online mobilisation:

Associations, foundations, collectives:

ASPAS
AVA France
Code Animal
Collective of Veterinarians for the Abolition of Bullfighting (COVAC)
National Confederation for the Defence of Animals (CNDA)
National Council for Animal Protection (CNPA)
Convention of Life and Nature (CVN)
FLAC (Federation for the Abolition of Bullfighting)
Franz Weber Foundation
Futur Asso
The Animal Law, Ethics and Science Foundation (LFDA)
No Bullfighting
OABA
One Voice
PETA France
PROTEC (Child Protection)
National Society for the Defence of Animals (SNDA)
Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA)

And in support of animal welfare associations and collectives:

Political parties:

Les Écologistes [the Ecologists]
Le Parti Animaliste [the Animal Party]

Specialised media:

Savoir Animal [Animal Knowledge]

World Horse Day: let’s live up to the bond that unites us

World Horse Day: let’s live up to the bond that unites us
11.07.2025
France
World Horse Day: let’s live up to the bond that unites us
Domestic animals

For World Horse Day, One Voice is reminding us of the many forms of suffering that we humans, our society and our laws impose on these animals, which have been some of our oldest companions since prehistoric times. Shows, circuses, racing, experimentation, tourism, slaughterhouses, hunting with hounds… we are definitely not living up to the faithful and extraordinary partners they have been and continue to be for the development of our species.

The United Nations General Assembly declared July 11 “World Horse Day”, calling for a celebration of their role in the evolution of the human species: “Few animals have contributed to the progress of humankind as profoundly – and unobtrusively – as the horse”. Unfortunately, this historical link is a one-way street. In France, horses and ponies are still subjected to countless forms of mistreatment, and their final destination is almost invariably the slaughterhouse. These practices, disguised as habits, trivialize the unacceptable.

“Man is the horse’s poorest conquest”

This quotation from Belgian linguist Jules Feller sums up the failings of our species towards equines.

Regarded as disposable, interchangeable objects, some are subjected to nothing but programmed suffering and death in animal experimentation, despite the fact that these opaque practices maintained by laboratories are condemned by public opinion. Others are mistreated, dragged from town to town without respect or dignity in shows or circuses. When they’re not tied up, far from meadows of fresh grass and access to water, they’re forced to wander around in painful postures. Others are forced to give up their lives to the applause and laughter of spectators at bullfights, where the violence is so omnipresent that their eyes are masked.

Whatever their health or weather conditions, humans exploit them to entertain tourists or feed gambling addiction, pushing them to the limit on the racecourse. Let’s not forget the individuals exploited in horse-riding events, hunting with hounds, or those who figure among the many collateral victims of hunters.

Abuse is everywhere, including in equestrian centers that cater for children and teenagers, claiming to offer “experiences rich in sharing and emotion”. Behind the pretty signs, how many cramped, dirty, dark stalls, beatings, loneliness and lack of care? Acts of abuse are sometimes committed in front of the youngsters.

Equidae are also used by certain humans as a means of venting their frustrations, and are victims of acts of cruelty by some, often following on from ill-treatment inflicted in the privacy of people’s homes. One Voice has been working to have this link between animal mistreatment and domestic violence recognized since 2007.

Denounce to better defend them

There is no exploitation of equines by humans that is not unworthy of their sensitivity, empathy and intelligence, and motivated by money.

Long gone are the days when tarpans roamed the plains and forests of Eastern Europe. Today, Przewalski’s horses, galloping across the Kazakh steppes, and mustangs, returned to the wild in the American West, remain the last free horses on our planet.

For more than twenty years, One Voice has been fighting for them, defending them while revealing the unacceptable practices to which they are subjected, and which are deeply rooted in our daily lives.

Denouncing these cruelties also means calling attention to the urgent need for a paradigm shift. If we continue to slaughter our faithful friends for non-essential, commercial food purposes, how can we collectively move towards a world without violence towards animals? How can a law that claims to “combat animal abuse and strengthen the bond between animals and humans” still consider that a stall life fulfills their essential needs as long as it allows them to “lie down”? Where is the consideration we owe them in the legality of their captivity and exploitation in traveling circuses, or their live disembowelment in bullfighting arenas?…

Let’s fight for them, for the recognition of their fundamental rights in our society.

Join us in demanding that horses and ponies no longer be classified as livestock, and that they be granted pet status so that they enjoy the same protection as dogs and cats.

Pig races in Vabres-l’Abbaye: a spectacle of suffering that must be stopped urgently

Pig races in Vabres-l’Abbaye: a spectacle of suffering that must be stopped urgently
10.07.2025
Aveyron
Pig races in Vabres-l’Abbaye: a spectacle of suffering that must be stopped urgently
Exploitation pour le spectacle

On Sunday 6 July, One Voice attended the 49th edition of the pig races in Vabres-l’Abbaye. While the images speak for themselves, the mayor of the commune is completely indifferent to the suffering of the piglets: “Every year, we receive letters from associations that are not even from here. And on social media, under the cover of anonymity, people allow themselves to say many things”. He says he is ’open to dialogue,’ yet he does not respond to the letters sent to him. Clearly, animal suffering is not a priority for the local authorities, who prefer to turn a blind eye to this cruel tradition rather than listen to calls to stop these practices.

Behind this supposedly “friendly” entertainment lie fear, clawing, screaming and panicked pigs. We demand an immediate end to this practice.

“Benevolent rules”? A cruel illusion

The presenter stresses that “pigs are sacred, precious… we take care of them… we don’t stick our fingers in their arses… we don’t eat their ears… we are gentle”. These details are as strange as they are disturbing. An implicit admission that reveals the latent violence behind this supposed benevolence.

This hypocritical set-up fools no one: these young animals are only ‘sacred’ during the race. But as soon as one of them crosses the finish line, it is brutally grabbed, often by the ears, lifted or dragged towards the lorry, clearly showing the promised respect to be a sham.

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A scene of panic under the guise of “fun”

From the very first seconds of the race, thrown into an unfamiliar course, their first instinct is to flee. When they manage to do so, they are quickly caught and forcibly returned to the track. The crowd laughs, without seeing —or without wanting to see— the fear in their eyes.

Throughout the race, the piglets hesitate, back away, and collide with obstacles. Some refuse to move forward, others are pushed, patted, even spanked to make them obey. When one of them finishes the race, it is not received gently. It is taken to the lorry and returned to the farm where it will be fattened up before being taken to the slaughterhouse. Screams, agitation. Where are the sows, the exploited mothers from whom they were separated very soon after birth? This is not a game: it is a scene of panic accompanied by laughter and applause from the audience. Behind the so-called ‘tradition’ lies nothing but stress and brutality. These animals, who do not understand what is being imposed on them, are being used as entertainment.

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A “game”? But at what cost?

The pigs struggle, injure themselves as they flee under the wire fence, and scream when they are handled. There is no respect for animals in this abuse disguised as entertainment.

The argument of tradition does not excuse the violence inflicted on sentient beings.

The races at Vabres-l’Abbaye are not a mere game, they are trauma camouflaged as folklore. One Voice calls for an immediate end to these races.

We call on the public to open their eyes, to refuse to participate in this spectacle of suffering, and to support our fight for the respect and protection of all animals.