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An appeal to Air France: stop transporting monkeys to labs!

An appeal to Air France: stop transporting monkeys to labs!

An appeal to Air France: stop transporting monkeys to labs!
20.05.2022
An appeal to Air France: stop transporting monkeys to labs!
Animal testing

Air France is a major transporter of non-human primates for research and toxicity testing (poisoning). Each year, the airline transports thousands of monkeys around the world, from Mauritius to Vietnam, flying them to laboratories in Europe and the United States.

Air France is a major transporter of non-human primates for research and toxicity testing (poisoning). Each year, the airline transports thousands of monkeys around the world, from Mauritius to Vietnam, flying them to laboratories in Europe and the United States.

Photo: Air France shipping crates with monkeys inside – Credit Cruelty Free International

One month ago, Action for Primates (UK), One Voice (France) and Stop Camarles (Spain) revealed that on 14 April, on its 473 flight from Mauritius, Air France had transported 100 constrained ‘passengers’ under duress in its hold: monkeys. They had been torn away from their families and social groups before being imprisoned in small crates, heading to Labcorp in the United Kingdom, a research company…

The worldwide trade of non-human primates for research purposes is a cruel and brutal activity responsible for the shipping of tens of thousands of monkeys around the world every year.

A journey towards horror…

Air France flights from Vietnam and from the island of Mauritius to the United States involve flight times of 20 hours or more, plus a stopover in Paris. At the end of their nightmarish journeys, these monkeys, destined to spend their lives in a metal cage thousands of kilometres away from their families, are subjected to experiments and tests that make them suffer in an unimaginable way, with death as the only way out; far from their life of freedom in their homes in the jungle.

Many macaques transported by Air France are intended for European primate supply companies, including Silabe (Simian Laboratory Europe), Bioprim in France and Camarney S.L in Spain. The monkeys are then transferred to laboratories and contractual test facilities throughout Europe, particularly in France, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom, where they are intended to be used in toxicity testing, a scientific term meaning that they are poisoned. No more, no less.

Toxicity testing is carried out to evaluate undesirable reactions to medications or chemical products, mainly with the aim of developing commercial products for humans. Monkeys are immobilised and the medications are administered in different ways, including intravenously (directly into the blood stream) or by pumping it through a tube that is forced into their mouth to reach the stomach. Tests such as these involve immense suffering and can lead to vomiting, convulsions, weight loss, internal bleeding, organ failure, and even death. Those who do not die are all killed at the end of the tests to study their organs.

Some recent Air France flights…

On 12 September 2021, sixty long-tailed macaques were exported by Vietnam Monkey Breeding & Development Joint Venture and transported by Air France from Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh) to Paris (Charles de Gaulle). On 10 October 2021, once again sixty more took the same journey. On 13 February 2022, one hundred and twenty went and on 13 March 2022, another eighty.

American Airlines, British Airways, United Airlines, Eva Air, Air Canada, China Airlines, Kenya Airways…

Following international concern, many passenger airline companies put an end to their involvement in this trade by refusing to transport monkeys to laboratories. Other passenger and freight carriers have also declared their intention not to be implicated in this activity. But Air France continues these trips.

We are urging people to consider these monkeys, who could be imprisoned in the baggage hold beneath, terrified, alone, and far from their homes, before using Air France. Instead of this, choose an airline company that refuses to send monkeys thousands of kilometres around the world, for them to end their days suffering and dying in the cold metal cage of a laboratory.

Add your voice to that of Action for Primates, One Voice, and Stop Camarles in our appeal to Air France for them to stop transporting monkeys for research and to join many other airline companies who refuse to play a role in this trade.

Send a message to (download an example message here)
Anne Rigail, Managing Director: anne.rigail@airfrance.fr and copy in: Philippe Boronat: philippe.boronat@airfrance.fr and Guilhem Laurans: gulaurans@airfrance.fr

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Four emergency interim proceedings in Bretagne and Pays de la Loire to save western jackdaws

Four emergency interim proceedings in Bretagne and Pays de la Loire to save western jackdaws

Four emergency interim proceedings in Bretagne and Pays de la Loire to save western jackdaws
19.05.2022
Four emergency interim proceedings in Bretagne and Pays de la Loire to save western jackdaws

One Voice is fighting four prefectural orders authorising the slaughter of millions of jackdaws in Bretagne and Pays de la Loire.

This escalation of horror directed towards western jackdaws in numerous departments must stop. We are attacking four prefectoral decrees that once again authorise the massacres of these protected birds in their thousands. We have started an emergency interim proceeding and a plea submission in Morbihan, but also in Côtes-d’Armor, Finistère, and Maine-et-Loire. Several hearings have been set: three in Bretagne on 25 May at 10am at the Rennes Administrative Tribunal, and one in Maine-et-Loire on 23 May at 3pm in Nantes.

Edit from 23 May 2022:

The emergency interim judge decided to postpone the hearing set for today in Nantes.

Edit from 10 June 2022:

We have just received the ruling from the Nantes Administrative Tribunal who has rejected our request to suspend the Maine-et-Loire Prefectural decree. We hope that it will be annulled nevertheless when our plea is judged on its merits (we still do not have the date of the hearing).

The Prefects in the west of the country predicted that 16,000 western jackdaws would be slaughtered in Finistère, 8000 in Côtes-d’Armor, 3000 in Morbihan and 635 in Maine-et-Loire. It is unbearable! We condemn these mass cullings and the fact that the jackdaws that are injured can be dying in atrocious pain while their orphan babies die of hunger.

Let’s not forget that the birds concerned are corvids that benefit from a status intended to protect them, contrary to their cousins, rooks and crows, considered as pests or as a species that can be classified as ‘likely to cause damage’, throughout France.

The cherry on the cake of the State’s inhumanity: not only are the authorisations to kill birds (already in bad shape, given the 6th mass extinction that is taking place right now) published in their tens by Prefectures, but these birds are coincidentally not protected! With their exemptions for western jackdaws, each Prefecture therefore in reality more or less allows their extinction! It is always the same: as soon as we must act for the planet, climate, or animals, private human interests systematically come to the fore, ruining any effort to redress the balance and any hope of change.

Cullings boost reproduction

In several areas, we have too often observed that the attackers are totally unaware of the behaviour of jackdaws!

A recent study from DREAL Bretagne (Regional Directorate for the Environment, Planning and Housing), long awaited and finally published in Spring 2022, incidentally shows that these massive annual cullings do not make it possible to reduce damage and that the fixed quotas of birds to kill are not based on any scientific justification. The study also brings up lines of thought surrounding the evolution of agricultural practices. We should add that this damage is debatable and is not necessarily a result of jackdaws…

We will stop at nothing and will start our work again as many times as necessary to defend jackdaws, crows, or ravens, who are such intelligent birds. We are therefore requesting the cancellation and urgent suspension of these four decrees authorising the massive and imminent culling of thousands of birds from a protected species. Nothing justifies these legalised killings that occur right in the middle of the nesting and rearing period of the young!

In Maine-et-Loire, the urgent applications judge has set the hearing in Nantes at 3pm on 23 May. In Morbihan, Côtes-d’Armor, and Finistère, the hearing date is grouped and finally set for 25 May at 10am at the Rennes Administrative Tribunal.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

The ECI For a Fur Free Europe: put an end to the fur industry in Europe

The ECI For a Fur Free Europe: put an end to the fur industry in Europe

The ECI For a Fur Free Europe: put an end to the fur industry in Europe
18.05.2022
Europe
The ECI For a Fur Free Europe: put an end to the fur industry in Europe
Fashion

Today, One Voice, the French representative for the international coalition Fur Free Alliance, has joined Eurogroup for Animals to celebrate the launch of the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) For a Fur Free Europe. In one year, we will have to collect a million signatures from within the European Union member countries to finally put an end to fur in Europe.

The Fur Free Europe ECI has asked the EU to forbid the breeding of animals for fur as well as marketing of products coming from fur farms, because fur is against ethics, dangerous, and not sustainable:

  • The complex behavioural needs of wild animals cannot be met in fur farms: locking them up in small cages for the sole purpose of killing them, or primarily for the value of their fur, cannot be made legal for domestic species either.
  • Fur farms represent a risk to human and animal health, as proven by the COVID-19 pandemic, when hundreds of mink farms were affected by the coronavirus outbreak and new variants of the virus were passed from animals to humans.
  • Breeding animals for fur has a significant environmental impact as the treatment and dying of fur requires the use of toxic chemical products. In terms of soil pollution from toxic metals, fur production is classified among the five most polluting industries.
  • The fur industry also constitutes a serious threat for native biodiversity. Certain farmed species, such as American mink and raccoon dogs, have escaped fur farms and are now considered as an exotic invasive species causing significant damage to native European wildlife.

During a meeting of the European Union Council (Agriculture and Fisheries), the Netherlands and Austria filed an information note, supported by Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, and Slovakia, requesting that the European Commission forbids breeding animals for fur. The appeal to put an end to breeding animals for fur in the EU for animal welfare, public health, and ethical consideration reasons has been supported by a total of twelve member states during deliberations on the document.

The Fur Free Europe ECI was officially registered by the European Commission on 16/03/2022 and will run from 18/05/2022 for one year.

« For years One Voice kept showing the true face of the fur industry. The images from the investigation that we led in France to condemn the prison conditions of minks and the devastating effects on the environment have of course shocked the public, French parliamentarians, and even members of the European Parliament.
Our legal proceedings have allowed us to apply pressure on farms and to prevent them from growing, making their business model impossible to maintain.

Fur no longer pleases consumers, because the reality of what it involves is blindingly obvious. In France, wild animal fur farms are now banned by law. Let’s make sure that this great victory is spread everywhere among our neighbours in Europe!
European citizens must join and sign the For a Fur Free Europe ECI. »

Muriel Arnal, Founding President of One Voice

“There has never been a more urgent need for Europe to make the cruel and unnecessary fur trade history. The fur industry not only treats animals inhumanely for a product no one needs, but has also been shown to be a breeding ground for outbreaks of infectious diseases such as COVID-19, as well as having a serious negative environmental impact. We know that public opinion in Europe opposes the fur industry and we need European citizens to act now by signing this ECI”, said Joh Vinding, President of Fur Free Alliance.

“We have an unprecedented opportunity to finally put an end to this cruel and unnecessary practice. European citizens have been asking for it for a long time, and their wishes started changing the fashion system, with many historic brands going fur free. Last year’s AGRIFISH Council proved that now there is also a political will. We call on the public to help us make history and ban fur once and for all, and on the European Institutions to support the public demand”, said Reineke Hameleers, CEO of Eurogroup for Animals.

Sign the For a Fur Free Europe ECI

Notes

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Act now for a fur free Europe

Act now for a fur free Europe

Act now for a fur free Europe
18.05.2022
Europe
Act now for a fur free Europe
Fashion

Fur farm animals are subjected to intense confinement, arranged in rows in small cages. They suffer from self-mutilation, infected wounds, missing limbs, and cannibalism. Breeding animals for fur goes against the most basic concept of animal welfare.

The European Citizens’ Initiative “Fur Free Europe” is asking the EU to:

  • Ban fur farms
  • Ban products from fur farms on the European market

Be an active part of this historic event! Act now by signing your name on the Initiative (at the bottom of the page). It is not just a simple petition. Once we have reached 1 million valid signatures, the European Commission will have to react and take action.

Why ban fur farming and products from fur farms?

IMMORAL

The complex behavioural needs of wild animal species, such as foxes and mink, that are bred for their fur, are unable to be fulfilled on fur farms. Shutting animals inside small cages only to kill them, or primarily, so that the value of their fur will also no longer be legal, as is the case for domestic species such as rabbits and chinchillas. Breeding animals for fur is immoral, no matter where it takes place, and that is why we are also asking for a ban on the sale of fur that comes from intensive fur production.

DANGEROUS

Fur farms present a risk to animal and human health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of mink farms were affected by coronavirus outbreaks, and we discovered that animals had transmitted new variants of the virus, SARS-CoV-2, to humans.

UNSUSTAINABLE

Fur farming introduces a significant environmental impact and poses a serious threat to native biodiversity. Since it escaped breeding farms, the American mink is present all over the European Union and has led to significant damage to native European wildlife. The treatment and dying of fur requires the use of toxic chemical products. The treatment and dying of furs is among the five most polluting industries in terms of soil pollution by toxic metals.

Why now?

Fur farming and its by-products should belong in the past: the time has come to create a fur-free Europe. The European Union has a unique opportunity to achieve this:

  • The fur industry is facing an economic and health crisis due to COVID-19.
  • Twelve EU countries have recently asked the European Commission to reflect on the possibility of permanently banning animals for fur in the EU and to submit a legal proposal to achieve this.
  • The European Commission is currently reviewing EU legislation relating to animal welfare. This review constitutes an opportunity to put a ban in place on the production and selling of fur at the same time.
  • Hundreds of brands have stopped using fur, thus answering to the ethical demands of their clients.

We have a unique opportunity to succeed. Act now so that we can get there together.

What is a European Citizens’ Initiative?

A European Citizens’ Initiative is a unique and effective way for EU citizens to contribute to the shape of our future by asking the European Commission to propose new laws.

It is not just a simple petition. Once we have reached 1 million valid signatures, the European Commission will have to react and take action.

To achieve this, the Initiative requires citizens to provide their personal data to confirm their support. Be reassured that your information can only be used for the purpose of supporting this Initiative, and not for any other purpose. Fur Free Europe is conformant with all legal requirements, with GDPR, and with data protection regulations.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Egyptair: yet more miserable flights

Egyptair: yet more miserable flights

Egyptair: yet more miserable flights
17.05.2022
International
Egyptair: yet more miserable flights
Animal testing

The airline company Egyptair is back in Cambodia… We suspect them once again of picking up monkeys to send to the United States to research laboratories where they will be poisoned (toxicity testing).

Edit from 18 May

576 monkeys are on board @EgyptAir flight MS5052 which will land in New York. They will then be taken to Charles River Laboratories…

Egyptair is henceforth playing a major role in the global trade of non-human primates for research purposes. The airline transports thousands of individuals from Cambodia and Mauritius to their death in American laboratories. Thanks to an employee at JFK airport in New York, we have been warned about these wretched transportations. Not much later than last week, on 12 May, Egyptair transported 462 long-tailed macaques, exported for Bioculture and Noveprim, from Mauritius to JFK for the Charles River account.

Each imprisoned on their sides in a small travel carrier, the monkeys travelled in the hold. They endured an approximately 22-hour flight, with one stopover in Cairo and many additional hours on the road in a lorry to and from the airports. A gruelling journey before certain death in atrocious suffering at the laboratories. What a horrendous way to treat these sensitive and intelligent animals!

Add your voice to that of Action for Primates, One Voice, and Stop Camarles by sending an email urging Egyptair to join the many airline companies who have refused to be implicated in this cruel global trade of monkeys:

Photo: juvenile long-tailed macaques in a breeding farm in Cambodia, Cruelty Free International

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Let’s stop scaring off bears that have been reintroduced in the Pyrenees!

Let’s stop scaring off bears that have been reintroduced in the Pyrenees!

Let’s stop scaring off bears that have been reintroduced in the Pyrenees!
17.05.2022
Pyrénées
Let’s stop scaring off bears that have been reintroduced in the Pyrenees!
Wildlife

You are a female bear in the ancestral forests of Slovenia. You live your life in complete freedom, you have a family, and you are respected by communities. With ‘Saviour Syndrome’ having reached French leaders, it was decided that you would be captured, torn from your territory and your loved ones, transported and then released in a place that you would have to discover and in which the majority of humans around you are hostile and armed…Ministerial decrees have been issued every year since 2019 allowing the scaring of bears on a trial basis, but a draft decree plans to make this system permanent. Participate in the public consultation with us to avoid this!

The protection of animals called into question

In France, we protect species that have disappeared or nearly disappeared. Just like wolves, bears are part of a species whose members are not supposed to be hunted (Berne Convention, Washington Convention, European Directive ‘Habitats’, and the decrees of 23 April 2007 and 9 July 1999). Well that is the theory; the reality is quite different. Their species is not kept safe because their members are non-existent on French soil. As soon as one of them arrives, either naturally for the wolves, or by being ‘reintroduced’, farmers and hunters wait for them no matter what, weapons in hand. How absurd to tear these animals away from their homes to release them in a country that is hostile towards them!

We can legitimately question the government’s logic, who arrange for warning shots on the bears that they themselves uprooted… The aim was however that they reproduce and settle in long-term, with all of the risks that this brings.

Warning shots authorised

Yes, you read that right. Since 2019, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food have authorised the cancellation of scaring measures ‘on a trial basis’. These measures can be ‘simple’ (sound, olfactory, visual scaring) or ‘intense’ (double detonation cartridges, plastic bullet cartridges). These decrees are said to be ‘executive’. They then let the Prefects issue additional decrees, authorising scaring when they consider the regular conditions set by the executive decrees to have been met and therefore to be insufficient. The interests of the farmers, who send their herds of animals to the abattoir, always come before wildlife.

A battle waged for years!

The decree of 27 June 2019, which put in place scaring measures for brown bears in the Pyrenees on a trial basis to prevent damage to herds, as well as that of 12 June 2002, have been attacked by many associations who defend the environment and animals and have both been partially annulled by the State Council, respectively on 4 February 2021 and 25 April 2022. This second partial annulment is explained by the fact that when the 2019 decree was partially annulled, the 2020 one had already been issued. These are therefore two similar decrees, with measures relating to intense scaring not having been revised…

We therefore hope that this year, the decree of 31 May 2021 will be completely annulled. We have filed a plea and still do not have the date of the hearing. At the same time, a public consultation opened on 19/05/2022, for a decree proposal

that plans to make bear scaring a success. Join us in rejecting this proposal!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Western jackdaws: a massacre to be suspended in Morbihan. The hearing is on 25 May in Rennes

Western jackdaws: a massacre to be suspended in Morbihan. The hearing is on 25 May in Rennes

Western jackdaws: a massacre to be suspended in Morbihan. The hearing is on 25 May in Rennes
13.05.2022
Morbihan
Western jackdaws: a massacre to be suspended in Morbihan. The hearing is on 25 May in Rennes
Wildlife

We were still wondering not long ago what France could have against these birds, and against corvids in particular. The saga continues… This time, it is the western jackdaws who are the Morbihan Prefect’s target. The Prefect has just authorised the massacre of 1800 of these birds from a protected species, from 26 April until mid-December 2022. And he is not holding back on the possibility of raising this limit to 3000 individuals! One Voice is requesting the annulment and urgent suspension of this decree. The emergency interim proceeding hearing is set for 25 May at 10am at the Rennes Administrative Tribunal.

As usual — you would think the prefectural decrees were copied and pasted from each other regardless of the department — the reasons cited are “significant harm to crops”. However, this damage is in strong decline in relation to last year and nothing indicates that western jackdaws are responsible for it. To support these arguments, we have a study that opposes the Prefecture.

Change agricultural practices, understand the species better, and find alternatives to killing

In this study, two components are equally highlighted.
On one hand, the need to find alternative solutions to slaughtering animals. The relevance of this ‘solution’ must be called into question (many studies have in fact highlighted the ineffective or even counter-productive character of these massacres carried out by humans). On the other hand, that it is vital to better understand the species to provide responses to fight against any potential damage, before it happens.
She also mentions several possibilities of evolving agricultural practices.

A sizeable ally

These components are taken up by the Regional Scientific Council for Natural Heritage [CSRPN] who gave an unfavourable opinion of this decree. We are therefore not alone in supporting this point of view.

Distorting the study according to one’s own interests: the end for justifying means?

The Prefecture only refers to the estimate of the population in the Department appearing in the March 2022 study to justify the limit of 1800 birds, while the study clearly indicates that this estimate cannot be used as a basis to define a ‘harvest’ quota!

Fledglings risk agony!

Additionally, these demolitions are going to occur right in the middle of the nesting and rearing period of the young. We recall that according to the European Union Court of Justice, animal welfare must be taken into account by the authority who grants the exemption… so, by the Prefecture. Indeed, in the framework of these ‘demolitions’ by shooting, the jackdaws who will not be killed by a shot will be in agony, just like the babies whose parents will be killed are condemned to die of hunger.

All of these reasons have led us to request the urgent suspension of this decree authorising the massive and imminent culling of thousands of birds from — what is more! — a protected species and which launches a serious attack on their welfare! We are also asking for the annulment of this decree via a fundamental appeal which will be judged later. The emergency interim proceeding judge has set the hearing date for 25 May at the Rennes Administrative Tribunal.

Photo: hedera.baltica – CC BY-SA 2.0

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

One Voice is taking part in the first International Badger Day on 15 May throughout France!

One Voice is taking part in the first International Badger Day on 15 May throughout France!

One Voice is taking part in the first International Badger Day on 15 May throughout France!
12.05.2022
France
One Voice is taking part in the first International Badger Day on 15 May throughout France!
Wildlife

On the weekend of 15 May, the first International Badger Day will take place. One Voice is joining its partners to lead awareness campaigns in around ten French towns on these little mustelids, so poorly known and cruelly hunted in our country.

(Petitions, locations, and dates at the end of the report).

With their black and white coats, badgers are easily recognisable. But rare are those who have a chance to observe these reserved mustelids. These sensitive and social animals are accused of all sorts of wrongdoings. However, enthusiastic workers, solitary and peaceful, they deserve all of our respect rather than being massacred at the bottoms of their burrows. One Voice is calling for them to be defended and protected. On the weekend of 15 May, there will be a chance for the Association to join ASPAS [Association for the Protection of Wild Animals] and other partners to celebrate badgers and to show the public who they really are.

An unprecedented investigation of badger diggers

When it comes to cruelty, hunters have never lacked inspiration. And among their inventions is a particular monstrosity: underground hunting with hounds. This perfectly legal practice consists of hassling an animal at the bottom of its burrow by making it submit to hours of terror and pain before its last gasp. Those who are adept at this ‘hobby’ love to carry out frenzied attacks on badgers particularly…

What better in fact than persecuting defenceless beings to enjoy the pleasure of watching them suffer and congratulating oneself as being the strongest? Badger digging is a barbaric ‘hobby’, disguised as so-called useful and necessary hunting. The terrible footage from our infiltration investigation shows all of the violence of this practice, which not only kills animals but also damages forests.

France’s cruel exception

Their existence in nature is in no way an obstacle to cultivation. Incidentally, badgers are protected animals in England and Wales as well as in the Netherlands, Denmark, Greece, and Hungary. France is therefore an exception in Europe and this exception is not cultural but cruel. These false arguments allow hunters to persecute and massacre them in their burrows, be it adults or juveniles, from mid-May to mid-January every year with the timely help of the prefects who have passed numerous decrees. Hunters are even looking to have badgers added to the list of animals likely to cause damage (previously referred to as pests).

I love badgers!

Words are fundamental to the way in which we imagine the world. In French slang, the word for badger is derogatory. In the Robert dictionary, they are referred to as “an unsympathetic, stubborn, and petty character.” In the Larousse dictionary: “a conformist, stubborn, silly individual”. Changing attitudes is as necessary as changing regulations. Also, on the occasion of this first International Badger Day, let’s claim this term for ourselves. On 15 May, we are inviting everyone to claim to be a badger by using the campaign imagery and the hashtag #CEstQuiLeBlaireau (#WhoIsABadger) as well as the usual #JAimeLesBlaireaux (#ILoveBadgers).

The French want hunters to leave badgers alone

More than eight in ten French people demand a ban on underground hunting with hounds (Ipsos/One Voice survey in September 2021). Together, let’s get this abomination banned!

With our various petitions, let’s demand a ban on underground hunting with hounds, the protection of badgers throughout France (and that the term for ‘badger’, when used as an insult, is removed from the dictionary).

We invite you to also sign the petition launched on the Senate’s website, allowing guaranteed integrity of the signatures, to protect badgers. https://petitions.senat.fr/ini…

One Voice will be present in the following towns:

Note: before going, consider verifying that the location and date have not been changed.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Animal testing: what do we choose when we are being lied to?

Animal testing: what do we choose when we are being lied to?

Animal testing: what do we choose when we are being lied to?
04.05.2022
France
Animal testing: what do we choose when we are being lied to?
Animal testing

On 28 April, a few days after World Day for Animals in Laboratories, the UFC-Que Choisir Association published a ‘decoding’ of animal testing entitled “Things are moving in labs [Ça bouge dans les labos]”. But between unacceptable estimations and a very conspicuous complacency towards laboratories, the copy needs to be reviewed. We are reviewing it.

“We could not stop naming situations where this model is irreplaceable.” While the article started fairly well with the interview of a researcher who works on organoids to carry out advanced biomedical research, the ‘decoding’ by UFC-Que Choisir quickly shows its limits. No mention of the capturing of primates abroad to feed the farms that supply French laboratories, nor of the general obscurity of the civil service on these issues. However, One Voice was contacted for this article and provided responses and precise data and sources.

Always the same old tune

While the general public do not generally know what the ‘3 Rs’[1] are, those who defend animal testing have succeeded in imposing their views on journalists and even in the regulations, which nowadays they boast as being based on this ‘ethical’ principle that consists of using the least animals possible, in the best possible conditions, and only while there is no alternative.

However, it is sufficient to look at the progression of the figures over the last few years to observe that the ‘reduction’ is hardly convincing. And we gave a forced laugh when UFC-Que Choisir said that they had seen rodents at the Institute of Psychiatry and Neuroscience of Paris “as well cared for as possible”, specifying that there was cotton and wood in their cages and the fact that “the law sets the rules” on the dimensions of these cages. If they were interested in the details of these regulations, they could perhaps explain to the public how a plastic box that is hardly bigger than an A4 sheet, caging up to four rats who spend their life in there, constitutes treatment that is as good as possible for these animals.

But no, “only the killing practices make them cringe” — not because they would be harmful to the animals as individuals (why would being killed bother them, after all?), but because it is “unlikely to be insignificant for the person that does it”. Still as always, humans come before other animals. We can imagine that if the journalist had been able to see the killings using gas, it would have seemed trivial to him as well.

The limits of ‘Replacement’

When it comes to ‘Replacement’ with non-animal methods, mentioned at the beginning of the article in relation to organoids[2], we can actually be glad for small advances and recommend (as UFC-Que Choisir have) “a significant budget given to replacement methods”. But the underlying problem remains, which reveals the hypocrisy of the 3Rs when they help to justify words such as ‘irreplaceable’ or ‘necessary’.

In fact, if we cannot find the same results with another method, Replacement will go down the drain. No one is responsible for evaluating the possibility of redirecting money intended for this research towards prevention campaigns, epidemiological or clinical[3] research, better reimbursements for known treatments, or socio-economic support for people at risk.

Without pretending that it is possible to model using a computer or in cell cultures of behavioural or complex cognitive problems, we can ask what is looking to be replaced: do we want to know what motivates rats to inject themselves with doses of cocaine, or do we want to try to understand and help people suffering from addiction? Do we want to see how rodents recognise their fellow rodents in different situations, or do we want to help people with degenerative memory disorders?

Unfortunately, if money has been set aside for experimental research, then it will remain in experimental research, even if it would be better spent elsewhere.

Why are there so many errors in the media?

Even beyond these technical or ethical aspects and the implicit contempt for the animals’ interests, it is difficult to understand how the media continues to repeat errors that we have explained long ago.

When the Ministry of Agriculture themselves published lies on their website concerning the results of inspection, we can better understand the problem and we have to restore the truth again: no, the inspections by veterinary services did not lead “in more than 80% of cases to a glowing result”. Quite simply because the establishments that achieved A and B grades during inspections most of the time displayed at least a few minor or mid-level non-conformities, of which some were to be penalised according to article R. 215-10 of the Environmental Code.

In other cases, it is the journalists who show complacency towards public services that are difficult to understand: how can one explain in this article by UFC-Que Choisir the proportion of unexpected inspections in 2019 in France (25%) in comparison to the European average from 2013 to 2017 (40%), a period during which France went from 6 to 17% of unexpected inspections?

Finally, the subjects are sometimes too complex, or the information too hidden to be found without specifically asking the specialists for it. When UFC-Que Choisir claimed that it is “unknown” whether the European Chemicals Agency’s requirement for testing cosmetic ingredients on animals “remains to be the exception”, it was in fact the journalist who was unaware that an article published in 2021 had already answered this question. Out of the 419 exclusively cosmetic ingredients registered by this agency, 63 were involved in live animal testing since the bans in 2009 and 2013. And let’s not forget the thousands of multi-use ingredients that are tested in other settings, or international marketing, which largely justify the existence of ‘cruelty free’ certifications and the “Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics” European Citizens’ Initiative (which we invite you to sign to reach one million signatures between now and August).

The beginning of a solution…

We already know: animal testing still receives far too superficial a treatment in the media, who reiterate each others’ statements without ever giving space to in-depth discussions on specific points.

We must recognise that even in consulting different sides of a discussion, even by trying to assemble as much information as possible and cross-referencing sources, writing an article that is a few paragraphs long without losing the substance of the discussion nor risking misinterpretation is a difficult task. And once again, although One Voice has been questioned for the UFC-Que Choisir article, clearly that is not enough.

We imagine that the articles being proofread by the various people questioned would allow them to verify that the most important elements have been well-understood and taken into account. This would also give the possibility for each of these people to respond to the remarks and ideas of others. This would be a much longer and more difficult task, but we could logically think that the result would be much better, that many biases would be avoided, and that the public would be better informed.

If you would like to look deeper into the subject of animal testing or set up discussions, do not hesitate to contact us.

[1] “Replacement” (with methods that do not use animals), “Reduce” (the number of animals used, thanks in particular to statistical methods), “Refine” (the conditions the animals are kept in by giving them something to keep them occupied, and experimental procedures using analgesics and less invasive methods).

[2] Organoids are miniature models of human organs made thanks to three-dimensional cell cultures to reproduce the functions of the organs, making it one of the most prolific ways to replace animal testing.

[3] Epidemiology is a basic tool in public health research which consists of studying the distribution of health problems in the population and using statistical modelling to better understand how to find preventative or curative solutions to these problems. Clinical research brings together scientific studies involving volunteer human beings, having given their free and clear consent for supervised research under bioethics rules, specifically guaranteeing respect for the integrity of each person.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

One Voice is filing emergency interim proceedings for corvids against the Jura department. The hearing is on 4 May in Besançon

One Voice is filing emergency interim proceedings for corvids against the Jura department. The hearing is on 4 May in Besançon

One Voice is filing emergency interim proceedings for corvids against the Jura department. The hearing is on 4 May in Besançon
30.04.2022
Jura
One Voice is filing emergency interim proceedings for corvids against the Jura department. The hearing is on 4 May in Besançon
Wildlife

One voice is fighting against the prefectural decree of 24 March 2022 allowing carrion crows and rooks to be killed in Jura. The hearing is on 4 May in Besançon.

On 24 March, the Jura Prefect decided — as they do every year — to issue a permanent decree to capture and kill carrion crows and rooks and to do so until 31 July. Authorisation has been given to the FREDON 39 [The Jura Department Federation of Groups Protecting Against Pest Organisms] in partnership with local hunters. The hearing to get this urgently suspended has been set for 4 May at 3pm at the Besançon Administrative Tribunal.

Birds: the first victims of the current sixth mass extinction

The last descendants of dinosaurs do not have an easy life unfortunately… the environment is less and less welcoming. In towns, food can be plentiful, but the noise and permanent lighting are problems that restrict reproduction. In the countryside, pesticides have ended up starving them.

The sixth mass extinction that is happening does not go easy on birds; quite the contrary. They bear the brunt of the denaturation of the planet by humans. In Jura, the Prefecture considers corvids to be pests to be killed… Even though animals interfere with some human activities, the answer to our problems should not lead to killing them!

Carrion crows and rooks: exceptional beings hunted down in Jura

Corvids are incredibly intelligent individuals and even have their own cultures. However, for years, the Prefect has organised the hunting of them in 239 communes in their department. They can be captured from the date of the signature on the decree until 31 July and can be killed by shooting from the closing of the hunting season until the same date.

We are urgently contesting this decree on various points, among other things because these birds do not harm the health of plants, public health, or the protection of the environment — the only justifications authorised by law — but because of the alleged need to fight against crop damage (which the Prefect does not even have any proof of!)… This is therefore unauthorised.

But also, because each year, and for many years, the Prefect issues identical decrees, ordering for these black birds to be massacred in an unrestricted way outside of the hunting season. It is therefore not about an exceptional measure, but a genuine transfer of power given to hunters.

Finally, the decree has not been submitted for public consultation even though its effects have an impact on the environment.

This is urgent!

Since the end of February, ravens and crows have been mercilessly hunted by hunters in the mountains of Jura. On the day of the hearing, it will be more than two months of them dying every week, with no consideration that the authorisation delivered by the Prefecture does not limit their number to the half of the Department where hunters have been given ‘corvid’ training delivered by FREDON (whose legitimacy we refute on many levels).

The cherry on the cake: the breeding period is therefore open to hunting… something that we have been asking for a reform on for more than four years, through our petition for a radical reform on hunting.

We will not let the Jura Prefecture allow hunters to dictate the law and continue to massacre birds without doing anything! The hearing to get the Prefectural decree urgently suspended has been set for 4 May at the Besançon Administrative Tribunal.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice