Animal welfare is taking an increasingly important place in the concerns of the French. Witness the growing success of Veganuary or the mobilization of internet users against animal cruelty (including a football player). However, this topic struggles to force itself into the presidential campaign, overshadowed by other issues and hampered by an unwillingness of local elected officials to get involved, laments Hà ©lène Thouy, lawyer for L214 and co- president of the Animal Party. Although she does not participate in the first round of the presidential elections, the candidate’s aim remains: to bring the animal case to the political stage in order to arrive at concrete measures that respond to the civic pursuits. meeting†
Your party has not won the 500 sponsorships it takes to stay in the race for the Élysée. What is your assessment of your campaign?
We are of course disappointed. At the end of January we were promised 300 referrals. Aside from the strict question of sponsorship, this scenario is worrisome because the animal cause is an increasingly citizen issue that needs to be pushed into the presidential campaign. The elected officials themselves recognize that our candidacy is legitimate when we talk to them. But many of them have relapsed.
How can this turnaround be explained?
The elected officials are afraid. Fear of losing their subsidies, fear of not being invested again, fear of hunters’ reactions, etc. Some even went so far as to tell us they would vote for us, but they couldn’t sponsor us!
Can we say that there is a gap between the expectations of the French in defending animal welfare and the response of these elected officials?
All the way. A poignant example of the corrida, the ban of which could not be put on the agenda, while three quarters of the French, including those who live in the bullfighting zone, speak out against it. In addition, we founded the Animalist Party to compensate for this lack of democracy.
What do you think of the proposals of the other candidates?
Some are interesting, even if the animal issue in general deserves a bigger place to be approached in a serious and full way. The animal cause is not yet sufficiently integrated into the environmental case, at least not among local elected officials. I also think that we can rightly express doubts at the national level, especially if the candidates speaking on this issue have been deputies and have not passed a law at national level in this direction. Nice statements get people talking about the case, and that’s good. But it is far from enough.
One of your flagship proposals is to create a ministry dedicated to animal protection. What would it look like?
The idea would be to create a state ministry, completely independent of the Ministry of Agriculture, even though the aim would, of course, be to build bridges between the two. It would have enough resources to make real progress in livestock. It would also propose to farmers to refocus, in particular by redirecting subsidies towards the vegetable sectors. I’ve been talking to breeders for a while and many of them want to get rid of it. We have all benefited from this system of agribusiness, but we now know that it is problematic. So we have to look for solutions together.
This is in line with one of your other proposals, which aims to reduce the consumption of products of animal origin by 50% within five years… What resources would you use to achieve this?
Eight out of ten animals come from intensive farming. The idea would therefore be to develop the vegetable sector in France, which at the same time means regaining food sovereignty. And the war in Ukraine reminds us how important this issue is.
It also requires education for children and citizens in general. For example with vegetable cooking workshops and more vegetarian dishes in collective catering. But it also means that you have to get rid of certain beliefs, such as that you should eat meat every day to be healthy. In general because of changes in mentality and our eating habits. So it is also a cultural battle.
Can we associate the general public’s growing awareness of the animal cause with a specific event that has taken place in recent years?
The broadcast of the video of the Alès slaughterhouse in October 2015, which received a lot of publicity and was the subject of an animal cruelty trial. I think there is clearly a before and an after. The images broadcast by the media at prime time caused an electric shock. From there, there was a lot of media attention for the pet case.
At that point, we were creating the party. I was also responsible for drafting the complaint that led to the Alès slaughterhouse affair. But I had no idea what impact it would have on the general public. I think this event really helped to free up expression on this topic.
What’s next for your party?
Legislative elections! We already have more than 300 candidates and we hope to invest about 500. This is the logical continuation of our campaign. We know that the battle will be a long one, because unfortunately the animal problem will not be solved overnight. If the subject is ubiquitous in the minds of citizens, it must now be put on the political agenda through strong action.
(ETX Daily Up)