Paris drowns in rubbish, yet animal rights activists worry about rats – video

Paris drowns in rubbish, yet animal rights activists worry about rats – video

In France’s capital, waste management workers have been on strike for days, leaving thousands of tonnes of rubbish piling up on the streets. At the same time, an animal rights group has staged a number of demonstrations to raise awareness about rat extermination methods and the protection of rodents.

WORLD POLITICS MARCH 19. 2023 16:40

Paris is drowning in rubbish, after days of strikes and the halting of waste collection in municipal districts. Waste management workers are protesting against the government’s pension reform and its most sensitive point, the extension of the retirement age by two years.

As the leftist city administration refused to instruct the garbage collectors to take up work, even despite a call from the interior minister, police took over the case and ordered the removal of thousands of tonnes of accumulated household waste from the streets of Paris. The work is still ongoing.

Rats have appeared around the overflowing bins, as expected, posing a serious health hazard to people. However, the animal welfare association Paris Animaux Zoopolis (PAZ) has chosen this time to speak out in defence of rodents. On 18 March, in the 6th district of the capital, banners were placed in front of the town hall in Saint-Sulpice Square to raise awareness about the plight of rats in Paris.

The activists believe that rats are not the enemies of humans and have asked the city council to set up a task force to develop new, non-lethal methods, as the current methods are cruel and ineffective. The era of mass poisoning must be ended, the members of the association say.

The association’s co-founder, Amandine Sanvisens, went so far as to argue – in a talk show called „Touche pas a mon Poste” – that there is a scientific consensus that rats are sentient beings and suffer, which should not be ignored, and that ethical and effective methods are needed.

The animal rights activist also gave an interview to Le Parisien, pointing out that the timing of the anti-rat extermination demonstration may not have been the best, but the date of the Paris Animals Zoopolis demonstration had nothing to do with the garbage strike, she stressed. They have already forwarded their request on the protection of rats to the police long before the garbage collectors’ strike, she said, pointing out that the association has been engaged in a political struggle since 2018 on the issue of the eradication of harmful rodents, and that the PAZ calls for the cessation of lethal methods of rat extermination, especially anticoagulants, the co-founder of the PAZ said.

Rats are not responsible for all the bad things that happen in France, the association’s Twitter post points out.

The issue of rat infestation in big cities has become a frequent topic of debate of late, with several city councillors taking a stand on rat extermination methods, including Paris animal rights activist Douchka Markovic, who says that negative prejudices against rats should be ended and that instead of killing them, they should be studied in order to find effective and ethical methods.

Rat infestation is a growing problem in Paris, and the French capital has been added to the list of the ten most rat-infested cities in the world, V4NA reported earlier. The list shows that Paris has an estimated rat population of around 6 million, which translates into 1.75 rats per inhabitant, meaning that the French capital has more rats than inhabitants. The high presence of rodents is of great concern, according to a statement issued by the French Academy of Medicine in the summer of 2022, because experts believe that rats are the most dangerous creatures in humans’ immediate environment.

 

WORLD POLITICS

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animal rights activists, demonstration, france, paris, rats