© Thibaud Moritz
In a slaughterhouse in Bègles (Gironde), on February 11.
In vain did they hurry to the Salon de l’agriculture to feel the ass of cows, the candidates have few proposals on the end of life of farmed animals. As if, sheltered from the enclosures of the slaughterhouses, what happens between these walls where, according to L214, more than a billion animals are slaughtered every year, did not exist. Despite a tremor in 2016 with the creation of a parliamentary inquiry committee on the conditions for slaughtering slaughter animals in France, and the launch this summer of a slaughterhouse modernization plan endowed with 115 million euros, proposals to improve the working conditions of this difficult profession and animal welfare are not among the priorities of the candidates. The most committed to the subject, Hélène Thouy, the candidate of the Animalist Party and lawyer for L214, known for her multiple videos denouncing animal abuse in slaughterhouses, did not obtain the number of signatures necessary to be able to present herself.
Animal abuse and working conditions
At Yannick Jadot and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, we talk a lot regarding “animal wellbeing”. The two candidates also intend to get out of industrial farming, upstream of the slaughter chain. But the terms of “abuse” and «abattoir» do not exist at EE-LV. The rebellious is probably the most reformist in this area. It program of“ensure the effective application of the regulations on slaughtering conditions and strengthen them, in order to limit animal suffering as much as possible and create the conditions to make slaughtering on the farm possible”.
Yannick Jadot, for his part, recalls that “concerning meat, European animal welfare and traceability rules must apply”. Further to the left, the communist and steak advocate Fabien Roussel is also once morest “industrial livestock facilities” and plans to end the “undignified conditions for transporting and slaughtering animals”. The candidate of Lutte Ouvrière Nathalie Arthaud and that of the NPA Philippe Poutou clearly link the cases of animal abuse observed in slaughterhouses and the working conditions of employees. For the first, the end of capitalism will lead to the end of this industrial system. For the second, “vegetarianize food” will allow to “end with industrial farming that mistreats both animals and employees”. Finally, Anne Hidalgo announces that she will launch “Animal Welfare Foundation”.
Nothing at Pécresse or Zemmour
Emmanuel Macron plans to continue the momentum of his slaughterhouse modernization plan, this time at the livestock level. He bets on “farm modernization projects with a positive impact on the environment and animal welfare”. The more you go to the right, the more the measurements are non-existent. We find nothing at Valérie Pécresse, Jean Lassalle, Eric Zemmour or Nicolas Dupont-Aignan. Only Marine Le Pen has made the animal condition a campaign axis. There is even a 16-page booklet dedicated to the “animal protection” in his presidential project. In addition to her antiphon on the ban on ritual slaughter, the far-right candidate plans to appoint a “Animal Defender”who will have access to and may investigate “all places where animals are kept (zoos, laboratories, farms, slaughterhouses, etc.) in order to ensure compliance with the applicable regulations”.