“Mayors should have the right to issue endangerment orders for these victims who are our pets”

HAShen there were only 26 million in 1988 according to INSEE, today there are 77 million pets who share the life of the French, one household in two welcoming at least one animal. At the same time, the notion of animal welfare is evolving as the perception of the relationship between man and his environment changes.

Animal welfare, beyond the single issue of pets, is a growing concern and more and more often a political issue and a tool for reflection on our lifestyles.

No sector is left aside by these questions, whether it is our consumption habits, breeding and the conditions of the slaughter of animals in agricultural and agro-industrial subsidiaries, by the way. by the relevance of using animals as objects of experimentation or shows, everything is rightly questioned.

Mayors without full legal power

Since 2015, the Civil Code has made it possible to take a first step to get out of an archaic vision of the relationship between humans and animals by attributing to animals the quality of sentient beings and therefore by opening the doors to them of a more protective legal status. . If the legislation prohibits the mistreatment of domestic animals and wild animals held in captivity, the law refers to a series of decrees the measures specific to ensuring the protection of farmed animals. But it is very often the citizen vigilance of activist associations that proves to be the most effective in changing mentalities and practices in these sectors.

The law of November 2021 is useful in this sense and allows great progress by proposing the creation of a certificate for pets, the precise content of which will be defined by decree to fight against abandonment, a toughening of penalties for mistreatment and acts cruelty to animals, the end of wild animals in circuses, the end of animal breeding for their fur, to speak only of that.

Read the analysis: Article reserved for our subscribers In just a few years, animal welfare has become a political cause

However, if the notion of mistreatment and cruelty is present in this text of law and in the legal arsenal implemented, it is clear that the attention of the legislator is still focused on the most violent forms of this mistreatment. , considered as torture. But for what would allow mayors or grassroots associations who are on the front line to intervene concretely from the first alerts or suspicions, to put the animal victims in safety, then there is not the account.

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