Shelters for mistreated farm animals, a good idea?

On March 10, at the request of the authorities, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation had recovered 455 cattle at once, on a farm in Seine-Maritime. “In total denial, the breeder was overwhelmed and the situation of his herd dramatic”, says the NGO by evoking “emaciated or even cachectic animals”, “wounded and untreated”, “some even unidentified”…

This time, this seizure had a certain media coverage, the breeder in question having participated, a few years earlier, in the program “L’Amour et dans le pré”. But just go back upThe Foundation’s Twitter feed or that of the Oaba (Slaughterhouse Animal Assistance Work), the other association regularly called upon by the state veterinary services, to realize that these seizures of mistreated animals in clandestine farms or slaughterhouses are frequent.

“Thousands of animals seized each year”

“We are talking about several thousand animals each year, points out Frédéric Freund, director of Oaba, who collects around 2,000 per year. An order of magnitude that Christophe Marie also gives for the Brigitte Bardot Foundation of which he is the deputy director.

The two NGOs then place them, at their expense, in pensions on partner farms. At least initially, until a court ruling seals the final fate of these beasts. “But these seizures come as a last resort, when everything that has been done to help the breeder get back on their feet has failed,” explains Frédéric Freund. It is rare then that justice entrusts these removed animals to their breeder again. »

In other words, very regularly, these farm animals become the property of the two associations. For the vast majority of them, the Oaba sells them, without profit, to farmers. “But we also happen, when it is financially possible, to withdraw certain animals from the breeding circuit, continues Frédéric Freund. Typically the cow which is 17 years old, the sheep which is lame or sometimes also animals which have a rather special history…” They are then distributed among the forty or so partner farms of the association and end their lives quietly. “We currently have 550 animals in this herd of happiness “, he specifies.

NGOs sticking out their tongues

For its part, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation has come to own a herd of 10,000 farm animals. It must be said that the association does not dither. “All the animals entrusted to us are boarded until the end of their lives,” says Christophe Marie. Either in the four refuges of the association, or with about thirty partner farms. “These are often former breeders or sons of breeders who have reoriented their farms towards crops and then benefit, with these pensions, from additional income”, specifies the deputy director of the Foundation.

But these pensions have a cost, agrees Christophe Marie: “We allocate to this activity, the main activity of the Foundation, a budget of 6 million euros this year, supplied solely by the donations we receive. »

These associations stick out their tongues, especially as they are increasingly in demand. “Fifteen years ago, we recovered 500 animals per year, compared to 2,000 today and we are far from being able to meet all the requests from the state veterinary services”, points out Frédéric Freund.

In February 2021, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation launched a first SOS by requesting, for the first time in 35 years of existence, financial assistance from the government. “We had been so much in demand at the start of the year that we had already almost exhausted the 3.5 million euros that we had budgeted for that year for pensions, recalls Christophe Marie. In the end, we did not obtain aid from the State even if, since then, the transport costs of his seized animals are no longer borne by the associations. »

Reception structures in each department?

Two years later, it’s Oaba’s turn to sound the alarm. A few days ago, the association launched a petition calling on the State to invest more in the subject. Specifically, the association calls for the creation of a network of shelters for mistreated farm animals and managed by the public authorities. “At least one center per department, asks Frédéric Freund, who imagines them as immediate reception structures for seized animals. “Kinds of buffer zones through which they would pass at least the time to settle the administrative and financial questions”, he specifies. “It would also allow us, the association, to have a little more time to organize ourselves to find more lasting solutions for these animals”, abounds Christophe Marie.

But at the Oaba, we see even further. “These reception structures could also be used to accommodate animals found wandering,” continues its director. There again, the phenomenon tends to increase and can have dramatic consequences. Until creating fatal road accidents. “However, Frédéric Freund notes that mayors give up acting when they are told about ramblings, “lack of structures to accommodate these animals”.

The state expected as a conductor…

And then there is this new European regulation on international animal transport. “It imposes on livestock trucks mandatory unloading of transported herds, beyond a certain number of hours on the road, to allow the animals to rest, recalls Frédéric Freund. It’s 29 hours, for example, for cattle. But this regulation is not always respected, precisely because there are no stopping points. “There are only about twenty in France, laments Frédéric Freund. Here again, these reception structures would make it possible to expand this network, in particular in strategic places which today do not have any. There are no stopping points, for example in the Nord department, in Savoie, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques…”

The Oaba assures that local authorities are already in favor of the creation of such places of reception. “It would also be possible to obtain European funds for these reception structures, slips Frédéric Freund who then expects the State to play the role of conductor in this project. He has an appointment on May 25 at the Ministry of Agriculture to plead his case.


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