SHARE
COPY LINK

ANIMAL CRUELTY

Animal-loving anarchists set fire to French zoo

Anarchists have claimed responsibility for setting fire to a zoo in central France.

Animal-loving anarchists set fire to French zoo
Elephants at Safari de Peaugres. Photo: Hape662/Flickr
Anarchists calling zoos 'prisons' have said they were behind a blaze that destroyed several ticket booths at the Peaugres Safari park in the Ardèche region on August 1, France Bleu reported
 
No animals or people were harmed by the flames.
 
The fire began late in the night on August 1st and burned through into the early hours, until firefighters arrived to put it out. 
 
The zoo had to close for one day on August 2.
 
 
 
 
An investigation has been opened into the incident.
 
In a blog posted on the anarchist website Le Laboratoire Anarchiste, its authors explained that they decided to set the zoo on fire because “zoos are like prisons” and equated them with colonisation.
 
“Zoos pretend to protect these animals, when in fact at the time they were discovered by colonialists, they were decimated and thrown into cages and brought back here to be exhibited as entertainment, as gifts in circuses and zoos.”
 
“Zoos remind us of those colonialists who didn't just massacre and exile non-human animals but by using the same arguments that they had that “human zoos” which were developed during the bloody process of colonialisation.”
 
 
 
 
 
The authors describe how they planned the fire so it would spread quickly but without reaching the forest nearby.
 
The park spans over 80 hectares and is home to 1,150 animals. It draws 300,000 visitors a year.
 
 
 

Member comments

  1. The braindead are at it again. Let’s start careful fires when the country is in the middle of a heatwave. Don’t these idiots realise that animals can smell a fire which then causes panic.

  2. These idiots are just thugs, not animal lovers. If they really cared for the animals they would lobby and raise money to have them rehabilitated in a more natural environment.
    I agree that most zoos are awful, but persuasion is the best way to close them down, not stupidity.

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

ANIMAL CRUELTY

‘Gratuitous cruelty’: Spain probes suspected abuse at animal testing lab

Spanish police and prosecutors said Monday they were investigating an animal testing lab after undercover footage showed staff there tossing around, smacking and taunting dogs, pigs and other animals.

'Gratuitous cruelty': Spain probes suspected abuse at animal testing lab
Handout: Cruelty Free International

“We were dismayed to see the images,” the head of the government’s directorate-general for animal protection, Sergio Garcia Torres, told AFP.

“It is a blatant case of animal abuse.”

Footage published Thursday by Cruelty Free International shows appears to show animals at the Vivotecnia animal testing facility being cut into apparently without having received anaesthetics.

Staff were also filmed swinging dogs and rats around and in one clip someone is drawing a face on a monkey’s genitals as the animal is pinned to a table.

The group said the footage was taken by a whistleblower who worked at the facility, which is on the outskirts of Madrid, between 2018 and 2020.

“There can be no doubt that such gratuitous cruelty causes unnecessary distress and suffering,” the animal rights group said in a statement.

“It is also unlawful.”

Police and public prosecutors said Monday they had opened separate investigations into Vivotecnia, which carries out experiments on animals for the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries.

The company’s phone number was no longer working on Monday and its web site was down for maintenance.

In a statement cited by Spanish media, Vivotecnia chief executive Andres Konig said he was “shocked” at the images. But, he added, they did not “demonstrate the day-to-day reality at Vivotecnia”.

Following the outcry caused by the release of the footage, the Madrid regional government on Sunday temporarily halted activity at the animal testing facility.

Animal rights political party PACMA has filed a lawsuit against the managers of the company and urged the government to step up its supervision of animal testing.

“It’s a very opaque world and it could be that this is happening regularly without us knowing,” PACMA president Laura Duarte told AFP.

The Vivotecnia laboratory animals were examined by veterinarians and are being moved to other facilities.

SHOW COMMENTS