A car battery failure, at 7 a.m., in Avallon (Yonne), Thursday, December 3, 2020, at the time of the departure of the convoy is the forerunner of a complicated day.
The employees and volunteers of the zoo-refuge La Tanière are expected by the authorities of Yonne, near Vézelay, to be entrusted with thirty-five horses seized by justice, to owners suspected of belonging to a sect.
The zoo-refuge La Tanière de Nogent-le-Phaye recovers thirty-one stallions from a sect
The incident was resolved in fifteen minutes when a resident offered his vehicle to install battery-to-battery cables.
A strategy before the intervention
The Eurelian procession arrives at the meeting place, a few kilometers from the site where the equines live in a state of health emergency. Patrick and Francine Violas, the founders of the zoo-refuge La Tanière, meet with referents from the Yonne prefecture, the French Institute of Horse and Riding (IFCE) and the gendarmes to define the operating mode of the rescue of several horses.
Patrick Violas brings together the five employees and the two volunteers chosen for this operation: “We are not addressing people from the sect.”
Identified, dewormed and vaccinated
After ten minutes on a dirt road, the four trucks and the seven cars park near a huge grassless meadow. Equines wade through several inches of mud.
You have chosen the Cinnamon macaque as your favorite animal at La Tanière zoo-refuge!
The La Tanière team sets up metal barrier locks, serving as a funnel to channel the horses. The animals can be approached, stroked and put on a halter. The horde of fifty stallions is nevertheless excited by mingling with the six mares.
When passing through the corridor, before getting into the trucks, the equines are identified, inspected, vaccinated and dewormed. Florence Ollivet-Courtois, the veterinarian of La Tanière is concerned:
“Some horses are blind, one-eyed, limp or have sores.”
Florence Ollivet-Courtois (veterinarian of the zoo-refuge La Tanière)
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Mélissa, another veterinarian at the zoo-refuge distinguishes an anomaly on a stallion “His teeth are moving.” All injured animals are put aside to be evacuated to the veterinary service of La Tanière.
Close to giving up the rescue
After the airlock, the horses are guided to the trucks. But the mobile platform of the semi-trailer is too high. The first stallion refuses to come forward.
Patrick Violas takes his hoof and puts one foot on the platform. But the animal retreats. He slips a rope behind the animal’s buttocks. Four people are mobilized. It takes half an hour to make the first stallion climb. A large harness is tested in place of the rope.
The second horse rears, slides, backs up, then neighs. Six people are needed to push an equine weighing more than 400 kg.
A screen is added to the side fences to reassure them. Mélissa proposes to create a landing with straw in order to reduce the height of the step of the truck.
Patrick Violas, he tries to attract the stallions with bait of carrot, hay, apple and granules. In vain.
In three hours, only six horses got into the trucks. Too few. The risk of injury to animals and personnel is possible. The veterinarian says: “You have to know how to give up when it becomes dangerous. You must not force.”
Patrick Violas agrees:
“Horses are unbalanced. They fall on their buttocks and are unable to get up because they have been fed golden straw. They have fat but no muscle. They wear out very quickly. all stunted including a 2 year old foal. “
Patrick Violas (founder of the zoo-refuge La Tanière)
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The situation is tense.
New technics
A new strategy is implemented at a temperature of 3 ° C. The mares are sorted and evacuated.
Calm returns to the horde of males. The trucks enter the field and lean their trailer against a ditch, thus offering a level to the animals.
One of the trucks got stuck before making a success of its maneuver. Once loaded, they will not be able to come out. But Patrick Violas anticipated: “A farmer is ready with his tractor to take us out of the field.”
The horses end up obeying, one after the other. Because of the delay, the Violas couple coordinate alternating meal times.
Truck at ditch
Six people, the former owners of the equines and their veterinarian then disturb the seizure, ordered by a court decision. Patrick Violas lets the gendarmes call them to order.
The few horses still reluctant are sedated, especially the dominant ones. Florence Ollivet-Courtois has to treat a major injury to a horse, bitten by a fellow creature. It will have to be sewn up once back in Eure-et-Loir.
At 3:30 p.m., the operation was completed. A team drone flies over the horses’ extensive territory to see if any animals have been missed.
A stuck semi-trailer is put back on the road, with the help of a tractor. The convoy is formed when a heavy weight bites the side, gets stuck and threatens to lie totally on the side with the fifteen horses it is carrying. It’s the panic. The farmer reacts quickly and uproots the truck.
Unloaded in the middle of the night
A convoy leaves for Nogent-le-Phaye, another at the border of the Côte-d’Or. It is raining. Around 9 p.m., the trucks retreated on a small path without lighting towards a large meadow.
When the driver activates his levers, the electric door of the trailer is blocked. The rescue day turns into a nightmare. The door is finally unlocked. And the horses descend quietly to discover an abundant grass.
The Violas couple, from La Tanière zoo-refuge, are releasing two books on animal causes
Exhausted, but united, the team from La Tanière then joined Eure-et-Loir after a two-hour drive.
The 35 stallions seized, castrated and cared for will be entrusted to benevolent owners, selected by the management of La Tanière, in 2021. They are added to the 31 horses, aged 6 to 8 years, seized on November 3, in the same property of the Yonne.
Offer a visit to the zoo-refuge for Christmas
The zoo-refuge La Tanière, located at the Grand Archevilliers farm, 28630 Nogent-le-Phaye, has opened its ticket office to offer tickets to offer as gifts for the holidays, with no validity limit. Adult prices 16.90 €, children from 3 to 11 years 11.90 €. Reduced group rates are also available, from twenty-five tickets. Contact: Website: latanierezoorefuge.fr. Telephone: 02.37.34.24.20. For reservations for groups: [email protected]. Management specifies that donations are possible in particular before December 31 in order to benefit from 66% tax exemption of the amount offered.
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Thierry delaunay
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