They took out the rabbit masks, the “Save the rabbits” banners, “prefecture, soldiers and hunters hand in hand”, the fake blood and the megaphone.
“We call on the French Army to stop killing rabbits,” they chant.
This Friday noon, the activists of PAZ, the tireless association which defends the animal cause in Paris, held a small "happening" under the general's windows, in front of the main courtyard of the Invalides, between the cannons in bronze, vestiges of “the victories of the royal and imperial armies”, and the tomb of Napoleon.
The event surprised passers-by.
LP/CC
It has been five years since the war of the rabbits agitated both camps, associations and the military, with around ten episodes going through the justice system.
PAZ having succeeded in overturning four prefectural decrees.
At the origin of this conflict, a colony of rabbits from Garenne, the largest in the capital after that of Bois de Boulogne (16th century), populated by nearly 250 to 300 individuals according to the police headquarters, which frolicked peacefully on the lawns of this site classified as a Historic Monument under the gaze of the soldiers of Operation Sentinel.
And especially under the amused gaze of the tourists who were coming out of the Army Museum.
On sunny days, the challenge was to immortalize the scene by lying down in the grass to take the selfie with the pair of ears sticking out.
The soldiers were much less amused, the animals ruining the lawns and munching on the cables and watering pipes of the premises.
Here are the famous rabbits frolicking on the lawns of Les Invalides (7th century)
It was in the middle of the Christmas holidays that yet another episode of the war was unleashed.
The police headquarters launched “a secret consultation”, denounces PAZ, with the state services subsequently publishing a decree sealing the fate of the rabbits.
“A low blow,” according to activists.
The rabbits were going to be captured to go to the countryside and released in the Bréau area, in Seine-et-Marne.
And the police headquarters (PP) clarified: “The capture operation will take place over several sequences”, until February 29, or even longer, “in conditions favorable to the well-being of the specimens collected”.
According to her, 48 wild rabbits have already been captured and released.
Amandine Sansivens, co-founder of PAZ, chokes.
The Bréau estate belongs to the Seine-et-Marne hunting federation and is open to hunting.
“The police headquarters really smoked us out!
» And to accuse the PP of being “on its knees before the hunting lobby”.
This Friday, after asking the Invalides, a commander in the military governor's office responded: “There will be no reaction.
The case is under control by the police headquarters.
» Contacted, she then justified herself.
Rabbits are responsible for “the deterioration of the Invalides gardens, the pipes, the flora,” she recalls in the preamble.
The damage would amount to 366,000 euros excluding taxes.
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The police headquarters also insists on good transport conditions for small animals.
“The rabbits are placed in individual wooden boxes on a bed of straw.”
Finally, she ensures that “the area in which they are reintegrated is a repopulation space from which they are not chased away”.
Not enough to calm Amandine Sansivens and the PAZ activists.
“If the PP renews its rabbit capture order in March, we will take legal action.
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