France is the European country with the most abandonment of animals per year, with 100,000 just for dogs and cats -

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  • A bill on animal abuse is being studied from this Tuesday in the National Assembly.

    In particular, she wants to tackle the abandonment of domestic animals in France.

  • With 200,000 animals abandoned in 2019, France is the bad student among Europeans, a place it has been occupying for several years.

  • For Muriel Arnal, president of the animal defense association 

    One Voice

    , the real key point to limit these abandonments is not to directly tackle the abandonments but to limit the possibilities of purchases.

A bill against animal abuse is debated from this Tuesday until Friday in the National Assembly.

The text addresses several problems, including the potential ban on shows with wild animals, but also deals with domestic animals.

The first chapter of the text thus aims to fight against the abandonment of pets, while France is seen as a European donkey cap on the subject.

In its last report in June 2020, I-Cad, a company responsible for the identification of domestic animals by the Ministry of Agriculture, recalled that France was the European country where the most domestic animals were abandoned.

Around 200,000 dogs, cats, ferrets and other companions are abandoned each year, including 100,000 just for dogs and cats (out of a population of 21 million in total, one in two households have a pet).

The bill proposes in particular the establishment of a "certificate of knowledge" for any first time acquiring a pet, but has not validated the idea, proposed by the deputy LREM Loïc Dombreval of prohibit internet sales by non-specialist sites.

According to Muriel Arnal, president of the animal defense association

One Voice

, everything must be done to limit this kind of impulse buying.

How to explain that France is the first European country in terms of animal abandonment?

We are generally very last in everything concerning animals.

We want to sanction dropouts, but by doing that, we treat the symptoms instead of the cause.

When people abandon an animal, either they have great financial difficulties or they have taken a hold of the animal.

It is no use forbidding them to give up or making them feel guilty, it's too late, and if they keep it, it would only make the situation worse for the animal and for them.

On the contrary, you have to do education, recommend leaving your animal in a refuge if you are overwhelmed rather than abandoning it in nature.

Above all, it is necessary to tackle the causes of the problem, rather than the consequences.

Once you get to the consequences, it's actually too late.

In addition, when an individual abandons his animal, he rarely does so out of cheerfulness, he indicates that he made a mistake, that he now realizes the burden that this represents.

Awareness takes place.

The whole question is how to ensure that this awareness occurs at the time of purchase and not of abandonment.

How to tackle the causes in this case?

The problem is less the abandonment of animals and more people overwhelmed by their animals, for whatever reason.

There is a lot of emphasis on the financial cost of an animal, which means that some wealthy families do not ask the question when buying one, by saying that they have the adequate income.

But an animal is also time, constraints, and sometimes difficult moments.

In France, we are still in the myth of the kitten that we offer at Christmas without thinking that we have for seventeen years to take care of it.

There is a real lack of pedagogy and an absence of awareness of the responsibility that an animal represents.

Instead of doing spots on the abandonment of animals, which do not have much effect, we should do spots on the responsibility of having an animal.

Indicate the average financial cost, the number of hours per week to deal with it, etc.

Sales on the Internet and in pet stores should also be banned, in order to stop treating the animal as an object.

When you buy an animal like you buy a pair of shoes, you multiply the chances of a lack of awareness.

On the contrary, in a shelter or at a breeder, there is a long discussion before purchase, we first meet the animal, we talk about it, it promotes hindsight.

Beyond shopping, there are also families overwhelmed by births ...

We need to carry out real campaigns on sterilization, especially around cats.

Hundreds of thousands of animals are abandoned because they are the result of unwanted births, it is necessary to explain to people that cats are vulnerable animals, that they do not survive in the wild, and that they do more huge damage.

These unwanted births are mostly abandoned or given to relatives, who accept more to please than out of a real desire to have animals, which again leads to future abandonment.

In 80% of cases, abandoned animals were donated or bought on the Internet, so involuntary births must be limited.

Is this bill going in the right direction?

We must better consider the animal in France, this will also help to raise awareness before purchase.

Any proposed law strengthening the legal status of animals is a step in the right direction, even if it seems a long time to put in place.

There is an evolution in society on the animal issue, but policies seem to lag once again.

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