The majority had made it a battle horse, in tune with the concerns of society: Parliament must definitively adopt Thursday, via a final vote of the Senate, a bill against animal abuse.
On the menu of this vast text, the progressive prohibition of wild animals in circuses and dolphinariums, the sale of puppies and kittens in prohibited animal shops and tougher penalties for abuse or abandonment.
It is about "consolidating the link between animals and men", in line with legislation on animals since 1850.
The LREM-Agir majority, which ardently pushed for these provisions, boasts a new "historic stage in the fight for the animal cause", in unison with protection associations.
The Animalist Party also applauds, even if it would have liked to go further.
Hunting and bullfighting
"The animal condition is neither a fad of urban people in need of nature nor a passing fad but a subject to which a growing number of French people are sensitive and which, henceforth, is irreversibly political", the co-author again proclaimed on Tuesday. of the Loïc Dombreval (LREM) bill, veterinarian by profession, when it was last adopted by the Assembly, by 118 votes in favor, one against one LR and 4 abstentions.
This near unanimity, also expected in the Senate Thursday morning, was obtained by setting aside several subjects of annoyance.
The bill does not tackle "animal abuse as a whole", lambasted the deputies Olivier Falorni (Liberties and territories) and Bastien Lachaud (LFI), according to whom hunting in particular "will have been particularly cajoled" during this five-year term.
"The day will inevitably come when, in this hemicycle, we will be able to debate delicate questions, such as certain hunting practices, such as bullfighting, like certain intensive breeding practices," Mr. Dombreval wants to believe.
Its text has traveled for nearly a year in Parliament and is the subject of an agreement between the two chambers.
For the rapporteur to the Senate Anne Chain-Larché (LR), it is "truly balanced", bringing "the French legislation" up to standard, lagging behind, "without removing man from animals, nor accumulating sterile prohibitions" .
The range of measures is aimed primarily at pets, "neither toys nor consumable goods", recalls the Minister of Agriculture Julien Denormandie.
One in two French people own them, but each year some 100,000 animals are abandoned.
To avoid impulse purchases, a "certificate of commitment and knowledge" will be issued before any acquisition.
The sale of puppies and kittens in pet stores will be prohibited as of January 1, 2024. The presentation of animals in windows will no longer be permitted.
The sale of animals online will be better regulated.
Thousands of wild animals in circuses
In terms of strengthening penal sanctions, the fact of deliberately killing a pet will be an offense and no longer a simple contravention.
Those convicted of mistreatment will have to follow an awareness training course.
Those who will be prohibited from keeping an animal will be entered in the wanted persons file.
Main initial bone of contention, the fate of the thousand wild animals in the current 120 traveling circuses was the subject of a compromise.
It will be prohibited to present them to the public within two years, and to detain them within seven years.
"How we are going to feed our animals for seven years and at the same time initiate a retraining, it is impossible", retorts William Kerwich, president of the union of the capacity of circus and show animals.
"This is an arbitrary law because there is no animal abuse in our circuses," he told AFP, promising a "mobilization" of the profession on Monday.
The detention of cetaceans in dolphinariums - 21 dolphins and 4 orcas in France - will be excluded within five years.
"The government will be there to support these professionals" with a view to their retraining and reception solutions for animals, promised the Secretary of State for Biodiversity Bérangère Abba.
LREM deputy Aurore Bergé recalled that it was not a law of "defiance", condemning "the threats sometimes suffered by some parliamentarians" for their votes.