Animals pound

The problem of homelessness is as vast as it is complex. The main victims are cats and dogs, whose overpopulation, in the absence of a systematic sterilisation policy, is the cause of much suffering. In France, there are no fewer than 10.7 million felines on the streets. Abroad and overseas, such as in China, Mauritius and Réunion, massive slaughters are planned, against which One Voice is taking legal action and mobilising public opinion. In Darjeeling, India, it is working with its local partner, DGAS. It has already financed the construction of a clinic and a refuge to welcome and adopt abandoned animals and supports sterilisation/vaccination campaigns for dogs and cats. In France, sterilisation and a ban on the sale of animals through classified ads are at the heart of its campaign.

Wandering and suffering

Domestication has created animals that are dependent on humans. Wandering is by no means synonymous with freedom for them. Solitude, hunger, thirst, fear and bad weather are just some of the difficulties they have to face. Even cats, who are wrongly believed to be self-sufficient, are in great distress. Regularly targeted by certain humans, they have to deal with boundless violence: stoning, drowning, strangulation, immolation… One Voice’s Cellule Zoé is taking legal action against their torturers.

The association’s investigators also go out to meet homeless cats to denounce the ordeal they endure on a daily basis and to support the work of its partner shelters, which feed and sterilise them. In 2012, the association set up an innovative partnership with one of these shelters and a retirement home. Called Chatipi, this project has created a home for several cats without families in a Burgundy nursing home. The aim, which was achieved, was to bring comfort to both the elderly and the cats, by making the place an intergenerational meeting place for seniors, children and cats.

Stray donkeys in Brazil

Dogs and cats are not the only victims of abandonment. In the Nordeste region of Brazil, the number of stray donkeys has multiplied since they are no longer used to transport people. Abandoned by their “owners”, starving, left to their own devices, the donkeys roam and reproduce in a climate of almost general indifference. There are now so many of them that they cause traffic accidents. As they have become a nuisance, they are sometimes buried alive! Captures are organised to keep them on farms. But the infrastructure is rarely sufficient, and they die en masse, without anyone caring about them. Thanks to local and international partnerships, One Voice has been able to begin the long process of rehabilitating them. By publicising the problem in the media, it has already won the support of the authorities. But even with real political will, there is still a long way to go…