Im sharing this but chose not to watch the video- If this is accurate I hope that we take France off our vacation list a suggested. Dogs Used as Shark Bait on French Island Stephanie Roche of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, another animal-welfare group in Paris, confirmed that live animals are used as bait on Réunion. But, she said, it is not a common practice. How Did Dogs Become Adept at Playing to Humans?Did Carolina Dogs Arrive With Ancient Americans? Dogs in Training to Sniff Out Cancer Seizure-Alert Dogs Save Humans With Early Warnings Photo in the News: Baby Foxes Going to the Dogs The Bardot organization has been fighting the practice for a decade. But this is the first time Réunion politicians have reacted strongly and swiftly to stop it, Roche said Last month, it became illegal for fishing boats to carry any live or dead dogs or cats. The French Embassy in Washington, D.C., issued a written statement condemning the use of dogs as shark bait, emphasizing that such acts are illegal and will not be tolerated in the French territory. The embassy maintains these are very isolated cases and authorities on the island are closely monitoring the situation. Earlier this month the first court case was held involving a person charged with using live dogs as bait. Authorities had found a seven-month-old puppy on John Claude Clains property in July with three fishing hooks in its paws and snout. Clain, a 51-year-old bread deliveryperson, was found guilty of animal cruelty and fined 5,000 euros (U.S. $5,982), according to Clicanoo, a Réunion newspaper. The amateur fisher said he did not use the puppy as bait. Instead, Clain said, the dog had been injured by a trap he had set to protect his hens, the paper reported. Clains case isnt an isolated one, said Fabienne Jouve of GRAAL (Groupement de Réflexion et dAction pour lAnimal, or the Grouping of Reflection and Action for Animals), an animal rights organization based in Charenton-le-Pont, France. Lately, almost every week, one dog has been found with hooks on the island, not counting the cats found on the beaches partially eaten by the sharks, Jouve said. Once fishers capture the animals, she said, the dogs and cats are hooked the day before, so they can bleed sufficiently. Some escape before being tossed into the ocean. Others arent so lucky. After hooks are plunged into their paws and/or snouts, the animals are attached to inflatable tubes with fishing line and dumped into the ocean, Clicanoo, the newspaper, reports. To avoid detection fishers place their bait in the middle of the night, according to the newspaper account. In the morning the men return to see if a shark has been caught. Barbaric practices have no excuses, whatsoever, in the 21st century, GRAALs Jouve said. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in Friday Harbor, Washington State, is offering a U.S. $1,000 reward to any Réunion police officer who arrests anyone using live dogs or cats as bait for sharks. Both the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in the United Kingdom and the Thirty Million Friends Foundation are asking animal lovers to sign a petition urging the French government to step up enforcement of laws against the use of live dogs as bait.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 16:17:35 +0000
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