Loïc Dombreval, LREM deputy, tasked at the end of 2019 by the Minister of Agriculture, Didier Guillaume, to lead a mission on pets and on end-of-life equines, submits its report on Tuesday 23 June to make evolve the animal condition.
"Animal protection is not embodied politically. Only an independent administrative authority can advance animal conditions and animal rights in France," MP Loïc Dombreval told AFP. The latter interviewed 258 people to give a mission report to the government, 312 pages containing 121 recommendations to "improve the lives of pets and that of horses at the end of their lives".
He thus suggests "to create a sort of defender of rights or a State secretariat dedicated to the animal condition, even an interministerial delegate who could deal with all these questions, in the image of what is done in Belgium".
A demand more than necessary when we know that two out of three households have a pet (21 million animals) in France.
The deputy would also like to launch a national internet portal dedicated to animal protection gathering all the updated information essential for future buyers, owners, associations, police, magistrates, prosecutors.
An initiative that would avoid "100,000 pets, suddenly become bulky and unwanted, and which are abandoned every year, including 60,000 during the summer period", can be read on the site of 30 million friends.
For small shelters and local associations "which considerably lack the means", Loïc Dombreval wants to create a National Fund for animal protection, "supplemented by an amount taken from electronic identification (microchip) and donations of all kinds".
Favorite adoptions
"There is a real problem of ignorance of what is involved in the possession of an animal. The animal is often extremely attractive, we have an emotional relationship with it, but there is too much impulse buying and bad advice. ", testifies the parliamentarian. Among the other measures presented, Loïc Dombreval proposes to make compulsory a "knowledge certificate", issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, before any purchase. And he advocates "the creation of a toll-free number for animal protection dedicated to the reporting of acts of mistreatment, as it exists for other subjects".
If there is mistreatment, the deputy wishes, on the criminal side, to see the sentences "go to 3 years in prison and a 45,000 € fine, against currently 2 years and 30,000 €".
"I discovered that in current French law, if you degrade a public good, you risk up to seven years in prison and a 100,000 € fine. But, if you cut your animal in two after having raped it , the sentence is three times lower. ", explains to the Parisian the deputy.
A new categorization of dogs
With regard to dangerous dogs, "the 1999 law must be reformed. The dogs that bite the most are not those who are categorized. The classification in a category must be made on the basis of the dog's behavior and not on its race which has no scientific value! ", affirms Loïc Dombreval to AFP.
An evaluation of the dog would be done at "a regulated and moderate price". In addition, the veterinarian would test his behavior at one year and classify it in one of the four categories, "from the most harmless to the most dangerous."
In another part of the report, the issue of equines, and measures to control the level of knowledge of future owners and the funding of "rest centers" is mentioned.
All these and many other proposals will now have to be analyzed by the Ministry of Agriculture.