This partnership provides in particular for the training of police officers in criminal issues of animal protection and in the reception of the public whose animals have been victims of mistreatment.
The SPA signed this Friday with the Central Directorate of Public Security (DCSP), to which all the police stations in France are attached, a partnership to support police officers in the fight against animal abuse, announced Jacques-Charles Fombonne , president of the SPA. This former Gendarmerie Brigadier General has signed, he says, an “innovative” and “historic” partnership with Céline Berthon, Central Director of Public Security.
“The purpose of this partnership is to put in place prevention officers who are facilitators of police action”, commented Jacques-Charles Fombonne.
“We are going to train police officers in criminal issues of animal protection and in welcoming the public whose animals have been victims of abuse so that people have a privileged interlocutor when they go to a police station”, a- he specified.
Specialized agents
This partnership also aims to train peacekeepers in police schools with an 8-hour module on animal protection. “We are going to train the 3,500 peacekeepers who are leaving school this year, he said. So in the police stations, the public concerned will be directed to the young guards who will have done the training.”
In France, in 2021, 12,000 offenses concerning domestic animals, tamed or held in captivity, were recorded by the police and the gendarmerie, against 9,200 in 2016, according to figures from the statistics service of the Ministry of the Interior released in October last.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced on this occasion the creation of a new service of 15 police and gendarme investigators specializing in the fight against animal abuse and attached to the Central Office for the Fight against Environmental Damage. and public health (Oclaesp).
Animal abuse on the rise
Attacks on domestic animals – ill-treatment, serious abuse, involuntary attacks on the life and integrity of the animal, abandonment, etc. – increased by 30% between 2016 and 2021, according to a study by the Interior. The first animal victims of these attacks are dogs (46%) and cats (24%) and the perpetrators are 73% men, most of whom are between 30 and 44 years old.
Ill-treatment (35%) and serious abuse (34%) are the offenses most frequently observed, ahead of involuntary attacks on the life and integrity of the animal (14%).
