While Paris is strewn with garbage cans, an association for the defense of animals organized a demonstration this Saturday to raise awareness of the cause of rats.
By Valentin Dechambre for Le Point
© Vincent Isore / MAXPPP / IP3 PRESS/MAXPPP
Published on
Subscriber-only audio playback
Un surprising timing. On the thirteenth day of the garbage collectors’ strike against the pension reform, the Parisian association for the defense of animals Paris Animaux Zoopolis (PAZ) organized a demonstration on Saturday March 18 to defend rats. If Paris is crumbling under nearly 10,000 tonnes of waste, on the thirteenth day of the garbage collectors’ strike against the pension reform, the activists want to raise awareness among the inhabitants of the situation of “rats and preliminary animals” in the capital, reports The Parisian.
The association also wanted to “call on the town hall of Paris”, “put the rat subject on the table” and “obtain an answer on the working group they requested”. In the midst of a garbage collectors’ strike and in a tense sanitary context, the demonstration is surprising. But for Amandine Sanvisens, co-founder of PAZ, “it is high time to stop massively poisoning rats”, these “amazing, intelligent, social and even laughing animals, endowed with surprising capacities for empathy” who are killed by agents maintenance “with an arsenal of cruel methods”.
“A blow of com”
The association advocates the renovation of unsanitary housing and calls for a “better waste management policy” with “investments in research”, taking as an example “the United States, which is testing contraceptive methods, with bait”. Asked about the context of the demonstration, Amandine Sanvisens assured that she had made “a request to the police headquarters long before the garbage collectors’ strike. This has nothing to do. And it’s been since 2008 that we launched our campaign on rats. »
READ ALSOGarbage collectors’ strike: who can requisition the agents?
On the side of the public authorities, Pierre Lecoq, LR mayor of the 6th arrondissement where the demonstration took place, expressed reservations. “I am not sure that their demonstration this Saturday, in the midst of a garbage collectors’ strike, is well understood. It seems a little baroque at the moment! It may also be a publicity stunt, ”he told the newspaper.