At the Chimpanzee Conservation Centre in Guinea our closest cousins start to live again

At the Chimpanzee Conservation Centre in Guinea our closest cousins start to live again
17.06.2020
Guinea
At the Chimpanzee Conservation Centre in Guinea our closest cousins start to live again
Wildlife

We have just entered into partnership with the organization Projet Primates France to support the Chimpanzee Conservation Centre (CCC) in the Republic of Guinea. We are looking forward to providing direct help towards rehabilitating our closest cousins into their natural environment. This scheme means we are also helping to protect many other species, combat deforestation and train local people.

Located 250 miles from Conakry, the capital of the country, far from any road or village, the Chimpanzee Conservation Centre (CCC) in the Republic of Guinea is cut off from the outside world, in the middle of the forest, as close as possible to the animals.

Survivors of trafficking

Almost a hundred chimpanzees – orphans, babies, juveniles and adults – have found refuge here since the centre was set up twenty years ago. Chimpanzees in great physical and psychological distress, trafficked and sold as companion animals. Most of the sixty-four currently living here have suffered the same dreadful experiences: their mothers and other members of their group were assassinated in front of their eyes when they were small. Then they were captured, taken from their native forest and sold into captivity.

A place of sanctuary

The Chimpanzee Conservation Centre works alongside the authorities during rescue operations, its mission being to offer a haven of peace and a new future for these unfortunate creatures. Some of them are in a pitiful state when they arrive. They are often very ill, specifically because of diseases that they have contracted as a result of their contact with humans and with which their immune systems cannot cope. They are then placed in quarantine for three months, during which time they receive treatment for both their physical and their psychological problems. In order to help it recover from its traumatic experiences each orphan is assigned a human ‘substitute mother’ to look after it round the clock. It is with its new mother that it returns to the forest for the first time to try out its skills. At the end of the quarantine period it is integrated into a group of chimpanzees and goes out into the bush with them every day, accompanied by two members of staff.

Rehabilitation

But the Centre is not only a refuge: its aim is also to return the chimpanzees to the wild once they have the necessary skills. It’s a long-term project during which over a dozen years the youngest chimpanzees are taught by their elders while gradually loosening ties with humans. In this ‘forest school’ they learn both to communicate among themselves and to forge social relationships, forage for food, use tools, hunt, recognise danger etc.

Release

As of today seventeen chimpanzees have already been released into a territory covering 20 square miles within the National Park of the Upper Niger, which is recognised as a key area for the conservation of this globally endangered species. It is amazing to watch these creatures, saved from a tragic fate, gradually regain confidence and autonomy and being accepted into groups of wild chimpanzees.

Interconnected goals

We are pleased and proud to take part in the remarkable work of the CCC through our partnership with Projet Primates France. In addition to helping to end the suffering of these creatures and to rehabilitate them, this scheme is also part of the fight to prevent deforestation and the death of many other animals (in particular the pangolins that share the same habitat) and to encourage local people to become involved. Human and non-human animals, planet – same fight!

Translated from the French by Patricia Fairey

Fox cubs dug up: undercover infiltration

Fox cubs dug up: undercover infiltration
28.05.2020
France
Fox cubs dug up: undercover infiltration
Wildlife

Our investigators infiltrated at the center of the digging up process. In France, foxes can be dug up and slaughtered all year round, including during the breeding season. This sadistic practice leaves animals no chance. Their status as a species likely to cause damage, decided by the Ministry of Ecological and Inclusive Transition, thus allowing hunters specializing in “underground hunting” to go and get them with their large pincers, with dogs. To open the burrows like trenches several meters deep, cut tree roots with an axe … for the pleasure of occupying their Saturdays off by killing foxes with iron bars or by ordering their dogs to rip them to pieces on the spot. The images we have reported are chilling.

It is eight o’clock in the morning and the digging crews are on the warpath. After a round of surveillance to see which fox and badger burrows are occupied in anticipation of the opening of the badger hunt, they choose a red fox burrow on the land of an owner who wants to get rid of it, accompanied by the local president of the federation of hunters.

At the edge of the burrow, a specific sweet and sour smell, that of urine, humus and the undergrowth. If you don’t know the smell of foxes, you might think it’s the forest that smells like that. But here one has taken up residence, a fox family. Besides the birds chirping in the treetops, there is silence around. The wood is peaceful, the roads, the fields and the houses are far away.

Three new-born babies killed in front of children

Underground, the three little ones are waiting for their mother to return to eat. They sleep peacefully when they hear the first muffled barks. These are disturbing voices. The ground trembles several times, other cries creep into the galleries, which relaunch the barking. The little ones call the vixen to their rescue, without success. The barking is coming closer, yet still out of reach.

Then the dogs burst into the corner of the den where their mother had hidden them. In the blinding light, they will be pulled out with pliers or gripped by the jaws of the dogs. They will suddenly experience a stabbing pain to the head, then a secondly, they will feel the blood flow from their noses, their bodies will begin to shake with spasms, until they finally lose consciousness, one after another suffering in agony, exposed and vulnerable to their attackers …

In another country, exposing children to this would be the subject of a report by the child protection agency

As our investigators have reported, a very young adolescent and a child as young as five were exposed to this hunt and the killing of these cubs. Even worse, the preteen was pushed to kill them. An initiatory practice for the young “apprentice”. He will prove to be too squeamish in the eyes of his elders. The heavy pliers were torn from his hands as the rest of the underground hunting crew assisted in the killing of three fox cubs, barely a few months old, with heavy blows to the skull. For some time still, their little bodies will twitch with spasms … under the eyes of the child still in kindergarten …

One Voice is seeking the intervention of the Defender of Rights. We express our concern about the deleterious effects on the physical and psychological development of these children exposed to such violence.

The bodies of foxes thrown away along with the cigarette butts

The last fox cub will die before even discovering the rays of the sun, shaken between the clenched jaws of the hunting terrier, trained to kill and himself exhausted. Finally, the legal mischief is celebrated with a satisfied handshake. The small cubs are photographed, their murderers smiling around their corpses, the bodies are then thrown into a hole and buried along with dozens of cigarette butts smoked during the six hours of digging.

Decrees are stopped but then they are renewed

While these three young foxes lost their lives, the federations of hunters are pressuring the Prefects to obtain more and more orders making it possible to treat foxes as pests to be killed all year round, day and night, by trapping, shooting, hunting with hounds… to have the pleasure of killing even when the hunting season is closed. Because foxes, in addition to other animals, are being stripped of their status as sentient beings, denied their essential role in the biodiversity and even the right to exist. We are constantly attacking the Prefectural decrees (often published against the public’s opinion), and justice has proven us right. With rare but notable exceptions the foxes are spared because the justice system has seized in urgency and intervenes when necessary, vis-a-vis the hunters and the Prefectures. But more often than not, and this is why it is so important for the law to change, justice does not change its decisions when the foxes are already dead. Proving us right against the Prefects, but too late.

That’s enough! Let’s ban the practice of digging up!

We are fighting tirelessly to ban underground hunting with the support of more than eight out of ten French people and all other “traditional” forms of hunting. Support our actions to save the foxes.

They must be removed from the list of animals considered to be pests (likely to cause damage) established by the Ministry of Ecological and Inclusive Transition.

I love foxes! Let’s write en masse to the Minister of the Ecological and Inclusive Transition!

Hundreds of thousands of foxes are slaughtered throughout the year because they are considered pests by @Ecologie_Gouv. @Elisabeth_Borne, ban the sadistic practice of underground hunting now! #ILoveFoxes #JAimeLesRenards #RenardsNuisiblesVraiment https://www.jaimelesrenards.fr

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Digging up of these foxes and put to death in front of children! @Ecologie_Gouv @Elisabeth_Borne, remove the foxes from the list of “pests” and ban underground hunting! #ILoveFoxes #JAimeLesRenards #RenardsNuisiblesVraiment https://www.jaimelesrenards.fr

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Badger hunting: hell underground

Badger hunting: hell underground
28.04.2020
France
Badger hunting: hell underground
Wildlife

We are launching a vast campaign based on our high-risk infiltration into the world of underground hunting to denounce this despicable hunt which subjects’ badgers to the worst ill-treatment. Together, let’s ban this abomination!

When it comes to cruelty, hunters have never lacked inspiration. And among their worst ideas of hunting, there is one in particular which is quite monstrous: the underground venery. This perfectly legal practice consists in harassing an animal to the bottom of its burrow to subject it to hours of terror and pain before its last breath. Followers of this « leisurely past time » are oh so joyful and relentless in their pursuit, especially on badgers … You know, these shy and harmless little mammals. What could be better than persecuting defenceless beings to savour the pleasure of seeing them suffer and then congratulating oneself on being « the strongest »?

A high-risk infiltration

At our own risk, we managed to infiltrate the extremely closed environment of these hunts involving the digging out of a badger. For years, we have been trying to get inside this circle to expose these horrors. It took a lot of courage and self-confidence of our investigators to covertly integrate these « crews » without being exposed, to rub shoulders with these sadists pretending to be fellow hunters, to witness the massacres without flinching and document them to advance the cause of badgers. If the members of our team succeeded perfectly and returned from it physically unscathed, they were nevertheless very affected morally by these unbearable scenes which they had to witness. It is enough to look at the images they took, which are unpublished in France, to measure the level of violence and crass imbecility which is reached during these « hunting parties ».

An armed and alcoholic gang against a sleeping family

It is with their dogs and armed with shovels, pickaxes, axes, digging pliers, sawed-down firing rifles and packs of beer that groups of diggers hunt down their victims. They know where to go. The burrows are well known. Drunken parties of diggers make a « tour » regularly outside the hunting season to locate them in advance and know where to go during the season … The catch promises to be good and the carnage tasty! As soon as they arrive on the scene, they plug the exit holes of the burrows using pieces of wood or shovels planted vertically, in order to prevent their prey from escaping through holes other than those from which the dogs have entered. It’s the beginning of spring, the badger couples have given birth to their young and the families are still sleeping peacefully at the bottom of their homes. But suddenly, their world is torn apart…

Pain is good, the longer the better

They have taken up residence under a large oak tree, whose majestic roots form the structure of their burrow. Between them, the burrow cannot collapse. Both natural protection and columns between which the corridors can extend. But now the openings in their burrow close one by one, blocked by shovels or branches.

Suddenly thunder rises above their heads. Shovels strike the ground, or the trees overlooking their burrow and explode like the sound of many detonations. It’s panic. A badger cub painfully wakes from his sleep and sees his parents panicked.

The couple do not know which direction to take to shelter their little one: the exits are closed, and intruders have entered the burrow. Meanwhile, they must face the barking and the fangs which approach, the cries of humans on the surface intoxicated by alcohol and the smell of blood. The badgers howl, imploring, overwhelming, but only laughter responds to their pleas.

The badger parents then sought to prevent the dogs from accessing the underground room where they had taken refuge, right under the oak trunk. To do this, all the conduits must be closed as quickly as possible, to create an airtight pocket for the rest of the burrow, the last resort in case of threatening intrusions. And it is surrounded from all sides that the terrorized animals will helplessly put up for almost five hours, with this relentless demolition of their only refuge.

The diggers, armed with probes that they push into the ground to the tunnels, then ears pressed to the ground, listen to where the cries of the animals come from, estimate the depth of the burrow and the most strategic place to dig. But there, it seems that the oak tree stands between them and their future victims. Never mind: armed with an ax, they will take turns cutting one of the three main roots of the tree, measuring over twenty centimeters in diameter.

Lacking air, the father will try to allow his little one to breathe by opening the protective pouch a little. It will not take more for the dogs to manage, after hours of research, to locate them. The father, trying to save his baby is bitten and utters a heartrending moan. Suddenly, metal pincers come in, searching. His baby is grabbed by the abdomen between the iron pincers and then torn from the hole. The unfortunate one will thus be «presented» in its extreme distress to the hunters and their fans in jubilation… The shot will ring out. The badger freezes, then convulses for some time. A huntsman then begins a little dance, and sings « pointed like a knife, sharpened like a blade ». A few moments and another shot ring out, the adult male will in turn be shot, directly in his hole, after a fight which will cause one of the exhausted dogs to lose an ear tip. His body will join that of his son, abandoned on the ground. As for the mother and the other badger cubs, protected by the remaining roots, the « tired » hunters will leave them in their ravaged burrow, without failing to fill the trench, so that they die asphyxiated there …

The corpses will then be dragged through the woods to the trailer used to transport the dogs, where they will be thrown unceremoniously.

More damage in a day than badgers in a year!

The hunters will leave behind a bereaved and traumatized badger mother with potentially other cubs, an amputated oak, dozens of buried cigarette butts. Not to mention the damage caused to crops in the field adjacent to the wood, much greater than that which a family of badgers can do in a year, by dint of going back and forth to fetch who a tool, who additional drinks…

Abolish this sadism!

How many thousands of corpses and vile images will it take to rally the public and politicians to the cause of these martyred animals? This scandal must be banned, badgers must be protected. Everyone must open their eyes to the shameful realities of underground hunting, as it is done in the secret of the undergrowth. And face the magnitude of this badger tragedy.

Everyone must open their eyes to the shameful realities of underground hunting, as it is done in the secret of the undergrowth. And face the magnitude of the tragedy experienced by badgers.

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