Question 21931 — animals

Summary

Mr. Bruno Fuchs alerts the Minister of Agriculture and Food to the danger for animal welfare represented by the operation of the “thousand cow farm” of Buigny-Saint-Maclou. From the point of view of animal welfare, this type of structure has raised questions since its creation. The provision of a space of 10 m² per cow, all without the possibility of leaving the building or grazing, although regulatory, is legitimately worrying. The logic of profitability which governs the production processes of this type of factory farm leads to the neglect of animals, although they are essential to the entire resulting industry. The profitability of such establishments is made possible by low resources invested in the care and hygienic maintenance of animals, making cases of premature euthanasia of animals more frequent. All at a frantic pace and not recommended by many farmers of three milkings per day. The fears raised by agricultural workers about this type of exploitation were confirmed by a former employee of “the farm of a thousand cows” who testified for Reporterre in 2015. He said he found cows in this exploitation in poor health, fed too much nitrogen or even spoiled food, poorly cared for, confined in their own excrement, therefore subject to a high mortality. Despite the numerous complaints filed, no judicial police visit was carried out to the farm. Thus, citizens from the associative world have mobilized to shed light on these events. However, as a result of their union action, five activists and one Confederation activist were sentenced on September 13, 2018 in Amiens to pay 120,000 euros in “compensation” to the owner of the factory farm, even though they had been recognized by the court of appeal as participating in “a collective action of whistleblowers”. Knowing that the owner has not at the same time been convicted for his practices, this seems to mean that case law now enshrines the protection of industrialists who transgress the standards imposed by the prefecture, and condemns whistleblowers on the animal abuse. He questions him about the possibility of intervention aimed at toughening animal welfare criteria, in particular through the obligation to let animals graze in the open air, and severity with establishments implementing such treatments for animals.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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