Advertisement

Animal-loving anarchists set fire to French zoo

The Local France
The Local France - [email protected]
Animal-loving anarchists set fire to French zoo
Elephants at Safari de Peaugres. Photo: Hape662/Flickr

Anarchists have claimed responsibility for setting fire to a zoo in central France.

Advertisement

Anarchists calling zoos 'prisons' have said they were behind a blaze that destroyed several ticket booths at the Peaugres Safari park in the Ardèche region on August 1, France Bleu reported
 
No animals or people were harmed by the flames.
 
The fire began late in the night on August 1st and burned through into the early hours, until firefighters arrived to put it out. 
 
The zoo had to close for one day on August 2.
 
 
 
 
An investigation has been opened into the incident.
 
In a blog posted on the anarchist website Le Laboratoire Anarchiste, its authors explained that they decided to set the zoo on fire because "zoos are like prisons" and equated them with colonisation.
 
"Zoos pretend to protect these animals, when in fact at the time they were discovered by colonialists, they were decimated and thrown into cages and brought back here to be exhibited as entertainment, as gifts in circuses and zoos."
 
"Zoos remind us of those colonialists who didn't just massacre and exile non-human animals but by using the same arguments that they had that "human zoos" which were developed during the bloody process of colonialisation."
 
 
 
 
 
The authors describe how they planned the fire so it would spread quickly but without reaching the forest nearby.
 
The park spans over 80 hectares and is home to 1,150 animals. It draws 300,000 visitors a year.
 
 
 

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

Anonymous 2018/08/08 21:52
These idiots are just thugs, not animal lovers. If they really cared for the animals they would lobby and raise money to have them rehabilitated in a more natural environment. <br />I agree that most zoos are awful, but persuasion is the best way to close them down, not stupidity.<br /><br /><br />
Anonymous 2018/08/08 10:05
The braindead are at it again. Let's start careful fires when the country is in the middle of a heatwave. Don't these idiots realise that animals can smell a fire which then causes panic.

See Also