Members of the Paris Animals Zoopolis (PAZ) association declare victory. After their mobilization on May 13, 2023 in front of the Herblay decathlon, to protest against the sale in the store of live fish intended for live fishing, they announced that they had won their case.
“For ethical reasons, we have stopped the sale of live goods in our store,” the brand responded by email. “This is very good news and real progress,” comments Amandine Sanvisens, president of the PAZ association. Live fishing, which aims to catch predatory fish, such as pike, is a “cruel practice which consists of using a living vertebrate animal as bait, generally a fish”, accuses the association.
Decathlon says it wants a transition to lures
“We now want a national decision to be taken so that this sales ban affects all Decathlon stores,” continues Amandine Sanvisens. Concerning a definitive ban, the brand wants to be more measured. “Livefishing is an ancestral practice. Décathlon is committed to the promotion and distribution of increasingly high-quality lures which will gradually replace live bait. To succeed in this transition, which cannot be immediate, it is relevant to let Decathlon still sell live goods. »
In any case, the PAZ association is increasing its mobilizations throughout France to win its case. A bill was even tabled at the end of November by Nupes deputies to ban live fishing. But for the Val-d'Oise fishing federation, which we questioned during the May demonstration, "it is the only practice which allows us to catch very old, and therefore large, fish", she argued. Its president Bernard Breton believed “that other fishing techniques to catch them are not effective, because these predators “bite with difficulty on lures”.