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Romania: Quiet, we are killing!

Romania: Quiet, we are killing!

Romania: Quiet, we are killing!
12.06.2019
Romania: Quiet, we are killing!
Domestic animals

Romania is the scene of a tragedy. While dogs are being slaughtered in their thousands, the rights of children exposed to these horrific scenes are being violated.

The Ceausescu years turned pets out of their homes and on to the streets, many citizens turned into potential dictators of these streets. Stray dogs are tracked down like vermin, they are murdered in the eyes of children … while at the same time violating their human dignity! Let’s put an end to this hellish escalation of violence!

A large-scale massacre is taking place in Romania. Tens of thousands of stray dogs are persecuted and killed every year with the government’s consent. It encourages the entire country through its “law of slaughter”, to get rid of animals that have been left to their own devices. These unfortunates have become the scapegoats for structured violence for those in search of an outlet.

A bottomless pit

In Bucharest alone there are at least 2000 homeless dogs. Their numbers have been fluctuating ever since the 1980s, when the Ceausescu regime banned pets from entering, apartment blocks forcing families to feed them on the streets or to abandon them. Since then, these dogs have reproduced, multiplied, and are now the “the black beasts” for the majority of local residents. Pursued from everywhere, some cause damage, biting, thus fuelling the hatred against them. But rather than contain the problem by implementing a policy of sterilization, the authorities preferred to resort to the expeditious (and ineffective) solution of euthanasia. This has been officially practiced after 14 days on captured individuals who have not been reclaimed. But the truth is that most dogs are executed immediately after capture, or even at the very moment of their “pick-up”.

Horror at every street corner

It must be said that the dog pounds have quickly understood the profitability of these actions … Why do we have live animals, feed them on time, and then preform expensive lethal injections, if only, they could get the premiums up front before catching them? without any form or need of trial? Council employees began torturing and exterminating the “undesirables” automatically, not hesitating to commit the worst acts of cruelty in the streets. As an example, the citizens were not only accustomed to shows of butchery, they even reproduced these acts themselves. Today, it has become commonplace, even in a good way to assert their superiority and/or to pass their stoic nerve by cracking open a few skulls of dogs on their way. Even adopted, vaccinated and “regular” dogs often end up in this bloodbath.

What kind of example for children?

The Romanians are the collateral victims of these unsustainable public scenes: 86% of them have already been witnesses, according to the European Link Coalition. This international NGO, of which One Voice is a member, has undertaken to shed light on the link now established between animal abuse and violence against humans. With them, we urge you to challenge the European Commission and write to the Romanian Embassy in France on this serious problem within a country of the Union. By tolerating such practices that violate the Lisbon Treaty and its values, we are promoting executioners and / or their next victim!

Edit : Article modified on July 11th 2019

Nettles, the friend of butterflies

Nettles, the friend of butterflies

Nettles, the friend of butterflies
05.06.2019
Nettles, the friend of butterflies
Nature

One Voice leads a nonviolent fight to defend animal rights and respect all life forms. The organization operates independently and is thus free to speak and act freely.

This plant covered with stinging hairs does not look like much and attacks those who underestimate her. Able to defend herself against brutes, she protects her virtues as much as her allies. You have to have the grace of a butterfly to know how to approach her, talk to her and take refuge in her.

She
bites and she burns. However, one rarely declares her flames as a
bouquet of flowers when she is in blossom, presenting herself mainly
in the form of multi-coloured rows of clustering small pale flowers.
A nettle (Urtica), whatever her species, she has no allies. Of the
nettle family of Urticaceae, her hairy prickly leaves, are
uninviting. We avoid her at the side of the roads, we curse her when
we accidentally rub against her and the well-mowed lawn enthusiasts
pull her out or kill her with pesticides. We don’t know her well
enough.

Safe Haven

Because
this very old herb has many properties. She has been used since time
immemorial, both in food and medicine, in particular. A natural
fertilizer, her liquid manure is also very beneficial to the rest of
the vegetation. But the benefits of nettles are not limited to the
exploitation of them by humans. Her mere presence on the banks of
streams, at the edge of the fields, at the bottom of a vacant plot,
represents a boon for the surrounding flora and fauna. While cleaning
up polluted soils, she attracts a host of admirers, and in particular
butterflies! Many have understood how this uninviting plant is an
ideal refuge for sheltering from predators. And her mass turns out to
be a small garden of Eden where the cunning lepidopterans come to fly
with grace.

Nursery

In
a group of colourful foragers, we can in particular admire the
Vulcan, the Small Tortoiseshell, the Peacock Butterfly, the Comma,
the Map or even the Beautiful Lady. Sometimes less flamboyant, the
Owlet moths are not left out either: the Jersey Tiger, the Nettle
moth, the Small Magpie, the Silver Y and the dark spectacle, are just
a few of the many who regularly visit this « weed ». Many
also put their offspring in her care. Depending on the species, each
butterfly has its own technique. The Vulcan, for example, deposits
its eggs one by one on the top of the leaves (the caterpillars later
roll up the leaf to feed on from the inside out), while the Map
prefers to lay its eggs underneath the leaves, in the form of
cascading rosaries … which look like the inflorescences of the
plant itself!

Winged poets in danger

Thus, nettles provide both
food and shelter for a host of butterflies, whatever their stage of
metamorphosis. When you know that these endangered insects are
threatened with extinction, mainly due to the degradation of their natural environments, preserving their habitat is more essential than
ever! Leaving a square area of nettles at the bottom of your garden
is more than an easy gesture, it is an act of resistance against the
decline of biodiversity! To fight alongside us and sanctify more and
more green spaces, join the Arches of Nature!

Goiat needs us!

Goiat needs us!

Goiat needs us!
28.05.2019
Goiat needs us!
Wildlife

Was it really necessary to capture and uproot a free-living bear from Slovenia, where he had all his bearings, where he had grown up and to essentially prevent him from feeding where he was eventually forced to settle? One Voice denounces an inhuman policy towards Goiat and more generally the bears concerned by this type of program. We need all of you to help stop the scaring off of bears!

In the name of biodiversity, an inhuman program for bears

Suspected of having attacked herds or domestic animals (pigs, sheep or horses) seven times, the agricultural organizations called for measures against Goiat, a bear of Slovenian origin who had been “released” in the Val d’Aran area by Spanish authorities back in 2016. This was to make up for the lack of genetic diversity in the Pyrenean bear population, which were the descendants from a single male, the Pyros bear. The bears do not understand the borders put in place by humans, Goiat moves between our two countries, followed thanks to the GPS collar with which he was equipped with.

Goiat remained the favourite target of the French anti-bear activists. And this spring, after the attacks of which Goiat is perhaps responsible for, the Prefect of the Hautes-Pyrénées wishes to put in place measures of scaring off in order to remove the bear and let us just say this clearly, try to push it back to the other side of the border… The “bear plan” also stipulates that in the event of a so-called “problem bear”, the State can then launch scaring off operations. But what is a “problem bear”? A bear trying to feed? And what would be the next step warning shots? The slaughter of a bear? Isn’t the goal of bringing bears to the Pyrenees to see them multiply? Along with the inherent risks of their presence?

Let’s take part in a public consultation!

Before the publication of this decree, the Prefecture must carry out a public consultation. It will close on June 14th. In order to prevent this operation of scaring off this bear, many of us must respond unfavourably to this project.

By logging on to the site of the Ministry of Ecological and Inclusive Transition, indicate at the beginning of your comment that you are against the scaring off of Goiat. Then argue your case in a few lines. Please note, comments that are copied and pasted are not taken into account. Use your words and phrases without insults or threats (they would also invalidate your opinion).

To help you, we offer some key arguments. Choose one or more and develop them to your liking.

  • The expertise carried out by the technicians of the National Office of Hunting and Wild Fauna
    (ONCFS) has not shown that the bear Goiat is a “problem bear”.
  • Contrary to what is written in the draft decree, in no case does Goiat behave in a familiar manner. The attacks attributed to him took place at night, several hundred meters from homes, in the absence of any human presence. The term “familiar” is therefore not only abusive, but fallacious. In the absence of familiar behaviour, it cannot therefore be categorized as “problem bear” and should therefore not be frightened.
  • Only the installation of means of protection of these breeding herds is able to protect the animals in the long run from attacks from wild predators, but also from stray dogs which are responsible for much more damage to the herds than any of these bears, wolves and lynx put together.
  • The farmer who has suffered two attacks does not have a guard dog for his herd. This deficiency on his part must in no case be turned against wildlife.
  • The predations that Goiat is accused of all took place at night. The herds were poorly protected (lack of electrified fences, ineffective or absent guard dogs, etc.).
  • The installation of electric fences around bee hives was enough to protect them from Goiat, which was filmed nearby by an ONCFS hidden camera on 9th August 2017, demonstrating, if necessary, that simple means of protection are effective in protecting against the damage caused by a large predator.

We are counting on you. A big thank you to everyone.

Two bloodthirsty killers of sea turtles caught in Mayotte!

Two bloodthirsty killers of sea turtles caught in Mayotte!

Two bloodthirsty killers of sea turtles caught in Mayotte!
27.05.2019
Mayotte
Two bloodthirsty killers of sea turtles caught in Mayotte!
Wildlife

Two men caught in the act of killing sea turtles in Mayotte have been immediately put on trial on Monday May 27th 2019 at 2 p.m. at the Mamoudzou Criminal Court. The poachers-including a repeat offender employed by the department to protect these turtles-were filmed at night last week capturing, mutilating, butchering, then transporting two turtles. Between cruelty and the lack of means to defend these animals who are in great danger, One Voice directly questions the weakness of the law, and the lack of political will to act. We are a civil party in this case.

photo:  François-Elie Paute / Oulanga na Nyamba

The killing of the two sea turtles was filmed

The facts are serious. On the night of May 23rd to 24th on a Mayotte beach, two men are filmed surrounding two sea turtles, kicking them to make them move and then stunning them. They then butchered them with a knife while they are as it seems still alive, to then leave the shells on the beach and take the meat in their canoes. An endless and excruciating suffering for these two green turtles who had come to lay their eggs on the beach.

Who protects these endangered sea turtles?

In the world, all species of sea turtles are threatened, as also in the French territories and oceans which have as many responsibilities. However, in Mayotte, the poaching of green turtles reaches frightening proportions. About 400 of them are skinned each year on the beaches of the French islands of the Comoros archipelago. The Mahoran association Oulanga Na Nyamba, which works to protect sea turtles and their habitat, has no real means of acting. But how did we manage to leave these associations alone in the face of such a tragedy, these poor animals who disappeared in such terrible circumstances and suffering?

One of the poachers was paid by the state to watch after the turtles!

Laws, once published, must be enforced and it is up to the state to deploy the means necessary to enforce them. What have we learned here? One of the poachers, had donned the cap emblazoned with the slogan « save the turtles » and to top it all off, this was an employee of the departmental council, whose role was to watch over poachers. One who would then take advantage of this status and then to have poached for several months! A repeat offender, we found an interview dating from 2011, in which he was filmed with knife in hand on a beach with kilos of meat in his canoe. Confronted by activists already reminding him of the law, but failing to do any more. He was employed by the Departmental Council of Mayotte after a conviction…

In a report broadcasted by TF1, a program called « Sept à Huit » in November 2011, we can see the poacher / an employee of the departmental council interviewed on Papani beach during one of his nocturnal « outings ».

The Ecological Defence Council, just an empty shell

Hydrocarbons and noise from boats, fishing, plastic, poaching, climate change, disappearance of their habitat and breeding grounds, etc.: sea turtles are threatened from all sides, which is why they are supposed to be protected. For decades, successive French governments have looked elsewhere. Today, Emmanuel Macron establishes an Ecological Defence Council. We hope it will not be just an empty shell and that the turtle’s alarm call will be heard. We expect strong and effective actions, implemented quickly and for the long term.

Cruelty to free wild animals is never punished

How can you not be disgusted, revolted when you learn the terrible fate of these two poor turtles? Since the latter were free wild animals, whatever the cruelty to which they are the victims of, whatever the mutilations they have undergone, one can only file a complaint on their behalf for infringement of a protected species, not for unimaginable suffering they have endured. Beyond this status which, therefore, alone, protects them (and still, so little), it is implausible that these sensitive animals are not protected from acts of cruelty by the current texts! Animals are not just representatives of their species, which should just be protected as a matter of principle. Every individual should have the right not to be mistreated or violated!

Both poachers face jail time. Our lawyer also represents the association Oulanga Na Nyamba at the trial on Monday May 27th in Mayotte. We are waiting for concrete acts from the government in favour of animals, and a profound change in policy towards the living. Our parliamentarians must also take their share of the responsibility.