News Archive - Page 81 of 148

Corridas, Novilladas, in Beaucaire as elsewhere in the South of France, bulls die in front of children

Corridas, Novilladas, in Beaucaire as elsewhere in the South of France, bulls die in front of children
07.08.2021
Gard
Corridas, Novilladas, in Beaucaire as elsewhere in the South of France, bulls die in front of children
Exploitation for shows

Having received images of the July 25 Beaucaire novillada from whistle-blowers, we are publishing these damning images. With these photographs of these six young bulls’ last moments before being put to death by teenage bullfighters, one of these one-day spectators gave us his testimony.

The bulls die, as they always do in French arenas, in immeasurable suffering, under the cheers of their torturers and without understanding what is happening to them. Very young children attend these spectacles, which are deleterious to their psychological development, and are trained to do so. Others, barely of age, even take part in executions of extreme brutality and violence. From now on, our society should be putting up safeguards for young people, until these unjustifiable and barbaric practices are banned outright.

Investigations and images that continue to denounce these barbaric practices

We have never ceased to condemn bullfighting. From the first demonstrations in the 1990s alongside Théodore Monod, when the association was still called Aequalis and Talis, to the long partnership with Jean-Pierre Garrigues, to today, in the face of this novillada, a rite of passage for young bullfighters, which took place in Beaucaire. So, on July 25, our activists were raising public awareness with images from our investigations, both the one entitled “Bullfighters in the making”, and the 2019 one at the Nîmes bullfighting school, both conducted undercover.

And we won’t stop until it’s a thing of the past. In reality, bullfighting is torture for the animals concerned, even if legally it benefits from a “cultural” exception, and constitutes a harmful spectacle for everyone, first and foremost children, a particularly vulnerable audience.

Ennui, dégout et pitié

For this whistleblower, who was attending a show of this type for the very first time:

“Convinced that we shouldn’t allow ourselves to judge what we haven’t experienced, I took the plunge and went to the Beaucaire arena with a friend. […]

My predominant feelings could be defined as follows: boredom, disgust and pity. Pity for the animals, who were obviously wondering what they were doing there, but also pity for the spectators, who applauded with ridiculous gravity at every sword stroke that signed the agony of a young bull. Couldn’t they hear the chilling cries of pain from the animals? Didn’t they see, after the picador’s work, the gaping wounds from which blood gushed in geysers?

I remembered the aesthetic discourses of people I knew who were bullfighting enthusiasts: tragedy, beauty, philosophy. I even read up on the aesthetics of bullfighting… But all I saw was a disgusting, nauseating butchery, repeated six times at factory speed. As soon as one poor beast was killed, another would make their entrance, just as bewildered as the previous one.”

Children don’t have the reflex to protect themselves

“I was surprised to see, as soon as I arrived, the presence of children, some of them very young, with their parents. […] I thought that the emotional charge described by bullfighters was not suitable for children. I’m now convinced of it. However, what I saw was still below what I had sensed about the issue.

Barely a few minutes after the first bull entered the arena, he sent four men who were harassing him flying. Some adults hid their faces in their hands. The children received this vision in all its brutality. They had no reflex to protect themselves. What did they understand? What did they feel? I don’t know, but it questions and bothers me.

One of the bullfighters ended up in his tights on the sand, his ballet flats flying off on impact. […] It was grotesque and terrible.”

Apart from the bull, who bled to death under the sharp points of the weapons, none of the participants was seriously injured.

“Embellishing this slaughter with quasi-mystical philosophical considerations reminds me of Napoleon’s remark to Talleyrand: “Here, sir, you’re nothing but shit in a silk stocking.””

Our 2009 report is sadly still relevant.

We’ll be present again this summer at the Béziers Feria on the afternoon of August 14, alongside Colbac, our partners in FLAC. Join us!

A historic victory! No more nets, cages or hanging – the end of traditional methods of trapping songbirds!

A historic victory! No more nets, cages or hanging – the end of traditional methods of trapping songbirds!
06.08.2021
France
A historic victory! No more nets, cages or hanging – the end of traditional methods of trapping songbirds!
Wildlife

This is a great victory for songbirds killed by hanging, or trapped in small cages or hunters’ nets! Our lawyer stood alone against the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Fédération des Chasseurs at the Council of State (Conseil d’État, the highest administrative law court in France) on 8 July when the reporting judge announced: ‘Cancellation [of the decree] is inevitable.’ And the Council of State has now confirmed the judge’s findings.

Birds cruelly targeted in the Ardennes and South West France

In 24 applications at first instance (19 brought by us and five by the Ligue de Protection des Oiseaux) the Fédération Nationale des Chasseurs and the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, singing from the same hymn sheet, rejected all our claims.

One Voice was attacking every Ministerial decree issued since 2018 permitting traditional methods of killing songbirds. We were fighting tooth and nail to protect skylarks, lapwings, golden plovers, blackbirds and thrushes, in the departments of Ardennes, Gironde, Landes, Lot-et Garonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Tarn-et-Garonne.

We also applied to the courts to simply revoke the decree of 1989 permitting these methods. The decision of the Council of State represents implicit acceptance of our case.

From 2018 on, the Council of State refused to save the birds

The Council of State did not want to listen in 2018, 2019 or 2020, when we systematically brought urgent applications for the suspension of dozens of annual decrees permitting horizontal nets (pantes), small cages (matoles) and hanging (tenderies). The LPO got the same response when it applied for the suspension of the amending decree of 2018 and four decrees in 2020 in the South West.

A historic victory following on from success achieved against glue traps

This victory is the crowning achievement in a titanic struggle by our legal team. We could not just stand by after the announcement of the sixth mass extinction, with bird populations among the first victims. We won the battle against glue traps when our case led to a decision in our favour by the Court of Justice of the European Union on the ‘Birds’ Directive. And it was precisely this decision which was followed by the Council of State in finding for us on 6 August 2021 in our case against traditional methods of trapping birds.

Arielle Moreau, One Voice’s lawyer, said: « Tradition is no longer a sufficient reason to permit attacks on biodiversity. We should welcome this new recognition by the courts and hope that the same will soon be true of other traditions causing suffering to animals. »

The figures are astronomic, whatever the hunters say

The annual number of individual birds destined to be trapped or killed under these cruel conditions is astronomic (see the lists below), not counting the numbers caught in the same way by mistake, as the traps are not selective. Non-selectivity was in fact one our angles of attack against these hunting methods at the Council of State.

In South West France, over 100,000 birds die in this way every year

Every year: 38,600 skylarks were caught in Gironde, 61,600 in Landes, 4,100 in Lot-et-Garonne, 2,200 in Pyrénées-Atlantiques. And the list goes on…

DECREE CHALLENGED	PERIOD	DEPARTMENT	SPECIES	NUMBER
Decree of 24 09 2018	2018-2019	Gironde	skylarks	38600
Decree of 24 09 2018	2018-2019	Landes	skylarks	61600
Decree of 24 09 2018	2018-2019	Lot-et-Garonne	skylarks	4100
Decree of 24 09 2018	2018-2019	Pyrénées-Atlantiques	skylarks	2200
Decree of 2.09.2019	2019-2020	Gironde	skylarks	38600
Decree of 2.09.2019	2019-2020	Landes	skylarks	61600
Decree of 2.09.2019	2019-2020	Lot-et-Garonne	skylarks	4100
Decree of 2.09.2019	2019-2020	Pyrénées-Atlantiques	skylarks	2200
Decree of 27 07 2020	2020-2021	Gironde	skylarks	38600
Decree of 27 07 2020	2020-2021	Landes	skylarks	61600
Decree of 27 07 2020	2020-2021	Lot-et-Garonne	skylarks	4100
Decree of 27 07 2020	2020-2021	Pyrénées-Atlantiques	skylarks	2200

The Ardennes, where birds are hung

In the Ardennes, 5,800 thrushes and blackbirds were ‘captured’ every year by hanging. In 2018, there was permission for 200 skylarks and ten golden plovers to suffer the same fate. A few months later, the quota was multiplied, to 1,200 and 30 respectively.

We were sickened by it. The fact that permission was given for over thirty years for tens of thousands of birds to be captured, killed and eaten year after year, and that it has only now been judged unlawful, leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. It had to be brought to a final end.

Just to denounce the horror was not enough. We needed to tackle the root of the problem, using the only effective lever, while continuing to raise awareness This is a great victory for birds. A historic victory.

DECREE CHALLENGED	PERIOD	DEPARTMENT	SPECIES	NUMBER
Decree of 24 09 2018	2018-2019	Ardennes	lapwings and golden plovers	200 lapwings / 10 golden plovers
Decree of 2 11 18 amending decree of 24 09 18	2018-2019	Ardennes	lapwings and golden plovers	Change to quotas September 2018 1,200 lapwings / 30 golden plovers
Decree of 02 09 19	2019-2020	Ardennes	lapwings and golden plovers	1,200 lapwings / 30 golden plovers
Decree of 27 07 2020	2020-2021	Ardennes	lapwings and golden plovers	1,200 lapwings / 30 golden plovers
Decree of 24 09 2018	2018-2019	Ardennes	thrushes and blackbirds	5800
Decree of 02 09 19	2019-2020	Ardennes	thrushes and blackbirds	5800
Decree of 27 07 2020	2020-2021	Ardennes	thrushes and blackbirds	5800

Muriel Arnal, founding president of One Voice: « How could the Ministry for Ecology make these decrees year after year, devastating bird populations? We took cases as far as the ECJ in Luxembourg and the Council of State, with over ten urgent applications and as many cases on the merits every year. This victory has given us a real boost. No-one can hunt birds legally any more in France! If necessary, we will go back to the Council of State in September. »

If necessary, we will challenge new decrees as soon as they are promulgated. Public consultations are already under way on the website of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, for Ardennes and departments in the South West. We might ask why Barbara Pompili talks of the prohibition of glue traps as progress for biodiversity, while she has nothing to say about these other forms of hunting, which are just as cruel and deadly. Contrary to what is claimed, behind the fine words there is no political will either to safeguard biodiversity or to abolish cruelty.

Translated from the French by Jo Durning

Police custody for filming in the Sobeval calf slaughterhouse

Police custody for filming in the Sobeval calf slaughterhouse
02.08.2021
France
Police custody for filming in the Sobeval calf slaughterhouse
Fashion

After receiving a report of maltreatment, One Voice reveals videos of the biggest French luxury leather production company, specialising in calfskins: Sobeval, in the Dordogne. The investigator sent to the scene by our organisation has just come out of 36 hours in custody… For wanting to show as many people as possible what no-one ever sees: the production line where leather handbags come from which are sold for a small fortune by French luxury brands, and the animal suffering resulting from it. We are filing a complaint for maltreatment carried out by professionals for offences, duly recorded and documented.

No, our investigator will not be the scapegoat of the agri-food industry!

With this investigation, we highlight one of the problems of commitment to the laws relating to animals in France. A few weeks ago, a journalist informed us about maltreatment at Sobeval and One Voice once again decided to play the part of the whistleblower and stand in for the public services, as we often do and have done with others (L214’s investigation condemned the agony of calves for their flesh in this same slaughterhouse, with videos as evidence). It’s a disgrace.

Our investigator has just come out of custody after two exhausting nights and a day. Without causing any damage and without interfering, he filmed the Sobeval death factory line and recorded the offences for which we are filing a complaint.. In a slaughterhouse though, slaughterhouses in which Emmanuel Macron had promised to get cameras installed during his presidential campaign in 2017 to control law enforcement regarding animal maltreatment. A promise which was not kept.

Muriel Arnal, the president of One Voice, announced: « What are we supposed to do when the authorities don’t respect the feeble words of the law which exist to protect animals? Keep quiet? Let it happen? While the ones who mistreat animals can carry on without being troubled, our investigator spent 36 hours in custody. The day the law will be respected, where this cruelty is punished, then there will no longer be a need for whistleblowers. But we are still very far away from that day… »

The videos we publish are unbearable: the exhausting steps of the workers and the coldness of this industry do not care about the hundreds of individuals that it kills every day and converts into tons of carcasses. In this sector, only money reigns, at the cost of the animals put into this endless cycle, purely considered as prime and very profitable pre-materials.

The horror of French style luxury

The result of artificial insemination, born into a world with nothing natural, snatched from your mother and sent to die… In the Sobeval slaughterhouse, in the south-west, 500 to 600 babies just a few months old are killed every day.

Babies? Yes, calves. Just calves, French ones. The skin of calves, much finer and softer than that of their elders, is sold at a much higher price. It is ‘French quality’, they brag to us. The French style luxury, for fashion houses such as “Vuitton, Hermès, Chanel and LVMH”, reported Gilles Gauthier, the Managing Director of the Boulazac area. For eight years, the company has made investments to expand and the calfskins, products derived from these young bovines, will be damaged as little as possible and sold to these tanneries which supply brands that make a French style leather shop a national pride. But the underlying facts about these ‘luxury’ calfskins are not a pretty sight.

The Sobeval slaughterhouse factory, a death carousel for calves

These babies and all young bovines arrive in trucks, squashed in, sometimes injured or ill. They still have to wait for the slaughterhouse to open. At daybreak, men make them enter the slaughter line, by force if necessary, struck by some. The offences filmed for which we are going to file a complaint. Then, it is the diabolical carousel. They move forward by the hundreds in a maze-like queue with only death as the destination. Stunned or not, depending on the type of slaughter, spasms, suspended by a hoof pierced with a hook, head down, they appear to regain consciousness before their throat is slit. Blood spurts out and spreads onto the ground and everywhere around. Their skin is removed, then their body is cut methodically into pieces.

The skins are then piled up on top of one other and the first salting treatment begins. These dozens of piles, of around one metre high, from which liquids gradually trickle, remain in situ for a while before being sent elsewhere for the next stage of tanning. And one day they become a pair of gloves or shoes, a bag, the cover of a steering wheel, sports gear, the cover of a bound book…

The leather of calves is, contrary to numerous assumptions on the matter, a lucrative product, a pollutant and the result of animal suffering.

Sign our petition! We are demanding the immediate closure of this slaughterhouse which contravenes the law in many ways and we call for the luxury goods companies to turn to fashion without suffering. We are filing a complaint against Sobeval for offences committed and recorded.

Translated from the French by Sophie Martin

Calfskin is a lucrative product, a pollutant and the result of animal suffering

Calfskin is a lucrative product, a pollutant and the result of animal suffering
02.08.2021
France
Calfskin is a lucrative product, a pollutant and the result of animal suffering
Fashion

As we reported in our investigation at the Sobeval slaughterhouse in the Dordogne, French calfskins are converted into leather and sold at a very high price, at the expense of these conscious beings. Yet this issue, which is the result of animal suffering, is relatively unknown. The agri-food and luxury goods industries, if not vague on their origin, at least only focus on the quality of the finished product. Yet leather is not an eco-friendly product. It is neither green nor anti-waste. And the calves, in all of this, are only considered as prime and very high added value pre-materials. However, high quality alternatives exist. We call for luxury brands to turn to these instead.

Leather as a green product?

Just like fur, leather has nothing to offer as an eco-friendly product. It is a skin, which disintegrates over time. Yet to become resistant to rotting, it has to undergo numerous changes, all as pollutant as one other.

It is thought that the total number of animals killed for their skin every year in the world, 1.4 billion, have been bred or captured. However, the leather industry remains impenetrable and difficult to track down due to the virtually non-existent trading laws.

To convert raw hide into leather, whatever species it may be, the fur, flesh and sebaceous glands of the animals are removed during the tanning process by mechanical and chemical methods. Tannic acids, chromium, aluminium… Sulphides are used to break down the fur, chlorides for scraping and preservation. They are dyed with tannic acid and other chemical substances, which prevents rot and makes them water resistant. The use of chromium salts in the stabilising process is particularly concerning… “Tanning is an industry which has the potential to produce a high amount of pollution”, as the European Commission recognised in 2003. It is even one of the five most polluting industries in the world.

All parts of the calf are the best–or are they? Pretences and lies surrounding this luxury leather

Some think that leather is an anti-waste product which would go to waste if it wasn’t “priced” alongside meat, notably beef. Incorrect. It is the message spread by the meat and leather lobby groups which go hand in hand. But what is the ‘anti-waste’ by-product? The intensive farming industry also breeds calves, which are essential to the production of milk and other by-products.

On the one hand, when litres and litres of cows’ milk is sold off by the supermarkets to quench the thirst of families cradled to the tunes of the dairy products lobby group, the skins of these little ones are torn off at a very high price by luxury brands and increase their profits considerably. A disgusting higher bid.

What are you wanting us to believe? It’s not an anti-waste product but in fact a highly lucrative product.

Plant-based materials to replace leather!

In France, according to the National Leather Council, the sector comprises 12,800 companies, from breeding to the distribution of the finished products, hundreds of thousands of jobs, generating a turnover of more than 25 billion Euros (of which 13 billion Euros is from export). Our country is one of the leaders in calfskins and exotic skins. When you know that the French bovine population is the most important in Europe, with 19 million animals, of which more than a quarter are calves, you go pale: so much pollution created by agriculture from breeding (deforestation, use of water…) and the methanation of the planet which comes from it… So many lives sacrificed…

Generating just as much suffering before and on the slaughter lines as profits, this industry would be well advised to move on to the next stage of its development. We cannot believe that these big luxury brands are going to support these atrocities any longer. Because these times are in urgent need of another model. More and more brands and consumers are turning to refined and also versatile alternatives to leather. Derived from fruits and vegetables or as a result of recycling, these materials need little treatment and leave the animals unharmed. They are therefore beneficial for wildlife, plants and our existence on earth in the long term.

Sign our petition to close the Sobeval calf slaughterhouse, which supplies tanneries of the luxury goods industry! We are also calling for luxury goods companies to turn to alternatives to leather.

Translated from the French by Sophie Martin

Animal experiments: the figures of shame

Animal experiments: the figures of shame
30.07.2021
European Union
Animal experiments: the figures of shame
Animal testing

The European Union has just published the latest statistics relating to animal experiments undertaken in 2018. The unconvincing report of almost 400 pages boasts about accountability and announces a fall in the number of animals being killed. In reality: nothing has changed. The animals continue to suffer terribly during these cruel and more often than not replaceable experiments.

Photo : Peta

In the introduction, the EU publishes its vague desires for accountability–accountability requested by law and by the citizens–and announces the difference between the number of animals used in laboratories and that used for genetically modified lines.

The latter is more than 1.5 million. 16% of those suffer with illnesses from birth, appear weaker and are more exposed to stress and pain. Ethical progress is measured from the outset…

Experiments which continue despite the law

The EU announced that 8,921,758 animals were used for the first time in 2018 (to which it is necessary to add those already in the laboratories which are reused): a figure which has fallen below 9 million individuals for the first time. But the statistics previously given did not take Norway into account. With this country, 10,572,305 animals have in fact been used (still for the first time) in 2018 in European laboratories. We had reported almost identical statistics last year. It is clear to see: nothing has changed. Experiments carried out on animals, both cruel and archaic, remain commonplace, despite the European directive which provides for alternative and replacement methods to be implemented, with a commitment to the total replacement of animals in tests.

More dogs and primates

As we know, primates are protected species. However, they are being used more and more in European laboratories (+4% in 2018). Dogs are also more likely to be exposed to experimental torture: the sad statistics indicate an increase of 29%. Amongst the species most imported into the European Union from non-EU countries, there were also cats (38%) as well as dogs (46%). We do not stop raising the alarm on this despicable trafficking and the conditions in which the dogs are raised.

1.9 million animals used in France

In this sombre list, France occupies a prominent position. Our country is the third highest user of dogs in Europe: 4,219 dogs were used in our labs in 2018 (+3% compared to 2017) and the highest user of primates (3,510). France also occupies third place on the European podium when it comes to the number of animals used, standing at 1.9 million. We could continue to reel off the France’s sad records on the subject of animal experiments. Suffice to say that our country is one of the six EU countries which still uses the ascites method on mice to produce monoclonal antibodies, despite the availability of non-animal methods of production.

Animals remain cannon fodder in our country, as they do in Europe.

Translated from the French by Sophie Martin

No, Bovine Tuberculosis does not spread more when we spare badgers’ lives

No, Bovine Tuberculosis does not spread more when we spare badgers’ lives
22.07.2021
France
No, Bovine Tuberculosis does not spread more when we spare badgers’ lives
Wildlife

While it is true that badgers feature among wild animals that are susceptible to being a host for Bovine Tuberculosis, incidentally in the same way as wild boar or deer for example, it is indeed a disease which originates from cattle herds. Therefore, when farmers and hunters claim in the media that sparing the lives of badgers is the cause of the disease spreading, and that the withdrawal of the decree that we criticised contributes to it, we can only counter them with the facts. We cannot let them say whatever they like to the public and trick them with their deceptive arguments.

Digging out: a dangerous hunt for dogs who can catch diseases

Underground hunting with hounds is a dangerous practice in terms of Bovine Tuberculosis because it puts hunting dogs in contact with badgers and with tunnels where badger urine can be found, which increases the risk of Tuberculosis spreading. Incidentally, this is the reason for the ministerial ruling of 7 December 2016 which orders that, in areas at risk, the Prefect can forbid the practice of underground hunting with hounds for all species for which hunting is permitted, owing to the risk of contamination for the teams of dogs. The Prefect knows this all the more since he actually had it banned in one part of this area precisely for that reason!

It is therefore completely contradictory and counter-productive to practice digging out to fight against Bovine Tuberculosis! We have highlighted this in the plea that we won against the Prefect of Lot-et-Garonne’s decree.

Divide and rule: when hunters make a game out of Bovine Tuberculosis

Unfortunately, killing badgers remains permitted from September to mid-January, in particular for hunting with guns. Now, many scientific studies have shown that indistinguishable badger culling results in an increase of Tuberculosis in bovines and the risk of transmission into adjoining areas owing to spreading machinery and the social and territorial reorganisation of surviving individuals.

The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) has produced two reports on this issue, in 2011 and 2019, in which they consider that culling is not justified as a preventative measure in badger populations that are not yet affected by Tuberculosis. Indeed, this seems logical: you don’t cull individuals in good health to avoid transmitting a disease!

The withdrawal of the decree that we contested does not mean the disease will spread!

The diggers actually complained about the cancellation of their favourite summer hobby for completely disingenuous reasons. On one hand, they pinned the blame of bovine herd culling – destined for the slaughterhouse by farmers, need I remind you? – on badgers and on us, their advocates, while it is these farms that are the source of the transmission of the disease to wild animals.

On the other hand, the hunt isn’t used to fighting against the spread of Bovine Tuberculosis. Specific administrative demolition decrees have been issued for this within the framework of the Sylvatub system. The withdrawal of the decree that we obtained changes nothing on this point.

Equally, concerning the damage attributable to badgers and duly observed in farming, it is possible to put alternative (repulsive: filling in the setts so that the badgers “move out”, as the case may be) solutions in place. And the Prefect, unfortunately, has the possibility year-round and every time he deems it necessary to order these administrative badger “demolitions”. Even then, the withdrawal of the Lot-et Garonne Prefect’s decree that we contested doesn’t change anything.

Therefore, badger culling largely remains possible (something which we deplore); the misleading argument of hunter-farmers doesn’t hold up for a minute. We have obtained the withdrawal of the decree because the Prefect hadn’t carried out a public consultation beforehand. But he also allows the practise of a hobby that either way isn’t linked to the presence of damage or to a health risk.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Coitus interruptus for badger diggers in Lot-et-Garonne

Coitus interruptus for badger diggers in Lot-et-Garonne
19.07.2021
Lot-et-Garonne
Coitus interruptus for badger diggers in Lot-et-Garonne
Wildlife

The hearing at the Administrative Court in Bordeaux concerning our appeal to defend badgers took place on 29 June 2021. For the rapporteur public, the decree ordered by the Prefect of Lot-et-Garonne on 11 December 2021 that permits the allowed period of underground badger hunting with hounds to be kept from mid-May to Mid-September 2021 should be totally or partially withdrawn. We were therefore optimistic, and the good news broke this evening on 19 July 2021: the decree has been withdrawn!

Amongst the grievances that we have against this decree, there was the fact that the Prefect hadn’t preceded the publication with a public consultation.

For us, the decree was equally “tarnished by an obvious error of judgement”, it “was/is unaware of the precautionary approach” and was “tarnished by misuse of power”.

For Muriel Arnal, founding president of One Voice: « Badgers are peaceful animals who are protected in most European countries. And for a reason! Their population remains relatively stable and they don’t cause any damage. The only reason for authorising allowed periods for digging them out is simply for hunters’ pleasure! »

The Bordeaux Administrative Court has now decided to agree with the rapporteur public’s outcome. This is great news for badgers in Lot-et-Garonne. Effectively, badger diggers, who are allowed to carry out their sinister task from autumn to spring, will no longer be able to do so this summer. So, admittedly, from mid-May to now, it had been possible for them to kill badgers by digging the soft soil of the setts but that is where their gruesome game ends. We are extremely happy with this positive conclusion.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

One Voice against bullfighting: coordinated action in thirteen regions!

One Voice against bullfighting: coordinated action in thirteen regions!
07.07.2021
France
One Voice against bullfighting: coordinated action in thirteen regions!
Exploitation for shows

For the past twenty-five years, One Voice has been campaigning against bullfighting in France, firstly to prevent the bulls from suffering and dying, and secondly to ban access to bullrings and the participation of children in this torture. To this end, a day of coordinated actions in thirteen regions will take place on July 10. The animal rights organization is calling for a nationwide ban on bullfighting.

Bullfighting is considered a traditional spectacle where violence is trivialized. These torture sessions stimulate the aficionados in the audience, among whose ranks are even children, brought by their parents to witness these bloody scenes. These “shows” should constitute acts of cruelty and serious animal abuse, and therefore be punishable under the penal code. However, they benefit from an exemption in the regions where they take place, as they are, according to French law, part of a “continuous and uninterrupted” local tradition.

Whether on foot, on horseback or Portuguese-style, bullfights always torture and kill bulls in public or behind the scenes. There are several types: bécéradas with 2-year-old calves, novilladas with 3-year-old calves, and corridas with 4-year-old bulls. These are all very young individuals who are sacrificed in public. When we investigated bullfighting schools for children in 2012 and 2019, we saw adults forcing frightened children to take part in the unspeakable, and very young bulls put to death by teenagers.

What’s normal about killing an animal or watching them being killed? Bullfighting clearly contributes to the trivialization of violence. Far from being sport or art, these practices are abominable, and we demand that they be banned throughout France, without exception, rather than subsidized by town halls in search of local entertainment.

Videos and petition (supported by our partners) on our 2019 Nîmes bullfighting school investigation website
Our 2012 “Toreros in the making” investigation
Our 2009 report

Events:

Please check the dates, times and venues on the day on the corresponding Facebook event, which will be updated, as sometimes prefectures change them at the last minute.

Region	Town	Facebook Link	Place	Time
05	Embrun	Event link	Lieu-dit « Plan d’Eau »	Sunday 11/07 2:30 to 5pm
06	Nice	Event link	La Coulée verte, Le Paillon	4:30 to 6pm
08	Charleville-Mézières	Event link	Rue Pierre Bérégovoy	2:30 to 4pm
13	Aix-en-Provence	Event link	Allées Provençales	11am to 12:30pm
14	Pont d’Ouilly	Event link	Devant L’Épicerie Du Coing	2:30 to 5pm
17	La Rochelle	Event link	Place de la Caille	2:30 to 4pm
33	Bordeaux	Event link	Quai de la Garonne	Sunday 11/07 12pm to 5pm
34	Montpellier	Event link	Place de la Comédie	2:30 to 4pm
57	Metz	Event link	12 Rue du Petit Paris	3 to 4:30pm
59	Lille	Event link	Grand’Place	2:30 to 4pm
67	Strasbourg	Event link	Rue des Grandes Arcades	2:30 to 4pm
69	Lyon	Event link	Place Saint-Jean	3 to 5pm
75	Paris	Event link	Place Edmond Michelet	2:30 to 4pm

An award-winning breeder who beats his dogs: we are filing a complaint

An award-winning breeder who beats his dogs: we are filing a complaint
04.07.2021
Roquebrune-sur-Argens
An award-winning breeder who beats his dogs: we are filing a complaint
Domestic animals

One of many hunting festivals is happening this weekend in Roquebrune-sur-Argens. An award-winning breeder beats his dogs… but a witness filmed the scene there and sent it to us. We are filing a complaint for abuse committed by a professional (a crime)!

When one of our supporters found themselves face to face with this hunter-breeder in Roquebrune-sur-Argens, it made sparks. The man, an award-winner for his Porcelaine dog breeding during the Diane Roquebrunoise hunting festival taking place this Sunday 4 July 2021, keeps his dogs in a wire kennel, hitting them with what strongly resembles the handle of a whip. The poor dog being filmed, collapsed on the ground, terrified and beaten, undoubtedly must feel all the love that hunters clearly feel for their dogs…

It’s lucky that one of the participants of the ‘happening’, organised by the VESEA (Living Together Without Animal Exploitation) group, was filming at that moment. We are filing a complaint for abuse committed by a professional – an aggravated offence – because, once more, these acts of violence against animals cannot go unpunished.

During the verbal exchange, the breeder, leaving with a handful of prizes including one for best breeder – you couldn’t make it up! – doesn’t even seem to be aware that his behaviour was disgraceful. He beat them all successively and when confronted about it by an opponent he said: “Ah well, what can you do?!”. Hunters cannot continue to treat dogs as objects to be exploited, mercilessly having to obey like they are robots. They are sensitive beings and must be protected. We are there to ensure that happens.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Our investigators saw Ula in a state of extreme emaciation

Our investigators saw Ula in a state of extreme emaciation
01.07.2021
Spain
Our investigators saw Ula in a state of extreme emaciation
Exploitation for shows

In the month of May, and when the latest news published by Loro Park in April about Ula was bad, our investigators went to Tenerife’s dolphinarium. We had to go and see for ourselves what was going on. After this visit to the Spanish pools, we were not hopeful about the future of Ula at all.

Dr Gallego, a veterinarian specialising in marine mammals, analysed the behaviour and physical appearance of Ula and her mother Morgan at our request. It emerged from his assessment that Ula was in a state of extreme emaciation. At two and a half years old, she should be putting on weight rapidly and continuously. Instead, the little orca, born with a deformity to her left flipper, suffered a period of serious digestive illness which made even the park’s management team fear for her life.

A past marked by difficulties

Separated at birth from her mother, Ula was unable to be nursed by Morgan. And since this period of critical urgency in the spring, she has been isolated from the rest of the orcas. Our investigators could see that during the show, she was moved from one medical pool to another, no doubt so as not to mess up the stunts. In fact, when she did not stay still in the pool of the dolphinarium, she would spy hop to look into the other pool. The adults spent time at the entrance of her pool as if to keep in touch with her.

A frail health

According to our sources in the dolphinarium, she began to lose weight without losing her appetite, then she no longer ate anything. A feeding tube filled with very diluted fish purée had to be used because she was vomiting everything else she swallowed. She recently accepted food again by way of small fish every two hours, which made the keepers optimistic. But it was nowhere near enough for her to regain strength and weight.

For the veterinarian specialising in marine mammals, Ula “does not seem to be in total remission.” Of course she is better, but all the same her state is still devastating: you can see her ribs sticking out, which would never happen with an orca in good health. In the same way, you can make out the section between her head and the rest of her body, giving the first the shape of a peanut, a sign of a serious loss of subcutaneous fat, which is totally alarming. Furthermore, her dorsal fin is beginning to cave in, which indicates a lack of fat and muscle, and therefore exercise. This has a particular repercussion on her buoyancy: she has trouble returning to the surface to breathe.

An uncertain future

Ula remains in a critical condition even if the return of her appetite is good news. In any case, her and Morgan should not be confined in these pools. Besides, it should never have been possible, given the regulations in dolphinariums, for an orca like Morgan not born in captivity to give birth to a baby in a pool. A better future exists for the orcas of the dolphinarium – marine sanctuaries. Moreover, we are in the process of working to a solution of this kind for the French orcas with the greatest specialists on the matter. Morgan and Ula could perhaps benefit…if the little one survives in the meantime.

Translated from the French by Sophie Martin

Correction on November 17: withdraw of the mention of the dolfinarium’s owner.