"An animal is neither a product nor a toy": Julien Denormandie's plan against abandonment

This is undoubtedly THE surprise that thrills young and old alike: the arrival of a furball in the family.

Some may give themselves this “gift” for Christmas.

But it is precisely because he does not want animals to be considered as “products” that the Minister of Agriculture, Julien Denormandie, will sign a charter with the Leboncoin site on Monday.

So that a puppy never again ends up in the “toys” section and that future owners know what their obligations are.

On June 23, you received a parliamentary report proposing to step up the fight against animal cruelty.

You promised to answer it.

JULIEN DENORMANDIE.

Today I am presenting an ambitious plan to fight against the abandonment of pets.

France indeed holds a sad record in this area.

Each year, there are more than 100,000 abandonments of pets, especially dogs and cats.

My priority is to fight against this phenomenon.

Because when you own a dog or a cat, you are responsible for it.

An animal is neither a consumable product nor a toy.

Why do you insist on this point?

Because 750,000 dogs and cats are officially sold or adopted each year in France and unfortunately we often see what are called adoptions or impulse purchases.

You walk past a window with a puppy or a kitten: you or your children find them cute, and it happens that you end up buying some without necessarily realizing the homework involved.

To fight against these behaviors which too often lead to abandonment, we are going to introduce a compulsory awareness certificate for all adopters or buyers.

What does this certificate consist of?

You will have to sign a document that informs you of all this implied, in terms of obligations of care, vaccination, the need to take your animal out and the financial cost.

It is about becoming aware of the responsibilities of adopting a pet.

A bill including this measure will be discussed on January 26 in the Assembly.

The goal is for it to be implemented in 2021. We will also ban the sale of dogs and cats in mobile vehicles.

Walking vehicles?

We all have in mind the image of the truck stopping at the side of a road, which has a crate with puppies and kittens for sale.

It must be ended.

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The SPA was calling for a ban on the commodification of animals, including therefore selling them in pet stores, you do not go that far.

No.

Animal sales or adoptions will continue to take place in specialized shelters, pet stores or fairs dedicated to the sale of animals.

In all these establishments, you have professionals capable of informing you.

We do not restrict the ability to adopt an animal but we fight against abuses that lead to an impulse adoption or purchase of animals.

VIDEO.

Christmas at the SPA: "Animals are not gifts"

Will garden center signs also be able to continue to sell animals?

Yes, because they are considered as animal stores with, again, professionals who inform and raise awareness.

Purchases are also made on the Internet, the announcement of a puppy classified as a toy aroused the fury of Internet users ...

Yes, I was the first to be shocked by this announcement.

This is precisely why we are signing a framework charter this Monday with the main French online sales platform,

Leboncoin

, in order to prevent such abuses.

In addition, buyers will be made aware of all the duties incumbent upon them towards this animal.

This will again limit impulsive behavior.

It is very important to me and a lot of work has been done with this platform.

Your plan also includes a shelter assistance component.

In the recovery plan, I wanted to put 20 million euros for associations and shelters, especially local ones, which are essential to welcome abandoned animals.

They do a very big job with too little financial support.

They will now benefit from state support to improve their premises and increase their reception capacity.

These investments will support these structures and improve the living conditions of the animals collected.

It's essential.

We are also going to create an observatory dedicated to the fight against the abandonment of pets.

Because if we have a figure of 100,000 dropouts per year, we know: the reality is undoubtedly much more terrible.

Have you set a goal in terms of dropouts avoided?

Difficult to answer because precisely our base is very underestimated.

We must therefore start by having the monitoring tools.

There will also be more severe penalties ...

Yes, abandonment is qualified by law as an act of mistreatment and therefore criminally reprehensible.

I am in favor of increasing the penalties for abandonment.

This is one of the points of the bill brought by the members of the majority, very committed to the subject, that we have worked with the Chancellery to go up to three years in prison.

The penalties for prohibiting the keeping of an animal will also be extended.

Strengthen the sanctions, very good but even when these sanctions exist, the associations regret that the judges do not take these cases seriously ...

We worked with the Chancellery, which is aware of the subject.

We are also tightening up controls.

Pets must be identified (by tattoo or by chip).

We also propose to give the power of control to the rural guards and the municipal police officers.

Speaking of control, a few days ago L214 unveiled yet another shocking video in a slaughterhouse, are there really enough inspections in these facilities?

The ministry carries out thousands of checks each year in slaughterhouses and farms.

In this case the slaughterhouse that you mentioned had been inspected very recently, even before the video was broadcast.

This inspection gave rise to decisions which are currently being implemented.

In general, every time we notice non-respects, my hand does not tremble.

First, so as not to cast shame on an entire profession.

But more generally, we need to modernize our slaughterhouses.

However, they earn little money.

Let us stop being in the injunction and give them capacities of action.

This is why the government has allocated 130 million euros for the modernization of the slaughterhouses in the recovery plan.

What is new.

And it's being rolled out.

We are coming to the end of 2 years of experimenting with cameras in slaughterhouses, yet very few have taken advantage of them ...

Four slaughterhouses are participating in the experiment, but many are equipped for internal control purposes.

We will take stock of this experiment.

I would like to remind you that the necessary controls are those carried out by the services of the ministry.

More than 2,000 veterinary and associated staff work on site or in conjunction with them in more than 1,000 slaughterhouses and cutting plants.

VIDEO.

A slaughterhouse suspended after the dissemination of shocking images of mistreated lambs

However, associations regularly show shortcomings ...

But politics is certainly not about the emotion of a video.

It is the politics of reason, that is

In other words, give these companies the ability to modernize and empower the professionals who are primarily responsible for animal welfare in their companies.

We must take the subject from the right end: the priority is to invest in modernization.

With these 130 million euros, there will be no more videos denouncing irregularities?

In any case, never had such a modernization plan been put in place.