Beauty and the Beasts
Sunday 28 December 2025
Free and sparkling, Brigitte Bardot was catching the light. She hijacked the spotlight and turned it on the animal world, with tenderness and relentless dedication.
“On the Trail”, the Information and analysis bulletin on animal poaching and smuggling, is supported by the Fondation Brigitte Bardot and the Fondation Franz Weber. When Franz Weber departed for another world in 2019, Brigitte Bardot wrote: “It is thanks to him that I have become the warrior, the fighter against all kinds of atrocities that humans inflict on animals throughout the world”.
Fireworks: they are playing dead
Press release n°2
It’s almost dead calm on the front line, after Robin des Bois’ alert on the Normandy sham (1) – 95 km of coastline plunged in the fumes and rockets of some twenty synchronised fireworks displays in a supposed tribute to all the soldiers Ryan and Coleman who landed on the sand on June 6, 1944 before breaking through the jungle in the “bocage”.
Livestock carriers: The most dangerous vessels in the world
Freiburg, Paris, 26.03.2024. Currently, only 64 livestock carriers are permitted to load European animals on EU-ports to then export them to third countries. This at least 1.5 billion € worth trade is carried out on substandard and overcrowded ships. In response, the German animal welfare organization Animal Welfare Foundation e.V. (AWF) together with the French environmental organization Robin des Bois publish a comprehensive report (pdf – 8.4 Mo) on the seaworthiness, safety, environmental compatibility, and suitability for health and animal welfare of livestock carriers trading from the European Union. The figures and our film speak volumes: the transport of live animals on decrepit vessels across the sea must end immediately. At the very least, compliance with internationally binding standards is necessary. The European Union and its Commission must finally take responsibility in this process after another three years of crippling inaction.
Panic in the nests of Normandy
On the night of 1 June 2024, the Normandy Region and the D-Day Landings Committee are planning a war of fire along 95 km of coastline between Sainte-Mère-Eglise (Manche Department) and Ranville (Calvados Department). Utah Beach, Omaha Beach, Gold Beach, Juno Beach and Sword Beach will be ablaze with 19 synchronised fireworks displays. There is nothing peaceful about the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Trouble at sea
Paris International Agricultural Show – Press release n°1
The Al Kuwait made a technical stopover in Cape Town, South Africa, on February 19 and 20, 2024. She was carrying 19,000 cattle. She had left Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on February 9, bound for Umm Qasr in Iraq. As soon as the Al Kuwait approached Cape Town, a smell of death invaded the metropolis. SCPA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) officers boarded the ship and found the animals wounded, suffering, stuck in litter and excrement. Some were already dead. Several were euthanized at the request of South African veterinarians. The corpses were not unloaded.
