Protests force Paris to scrap riverside menagerie

THE RABBITS huddle in their cages. The hens squawk and preen. The ducks, close to the river but unable to swim, simply look bored. The birds and animals of the open-air market along the Quai de la Megisserie are one of best-known sights of Paris, loved by generations of the city's children.

But not for much longer. After complaints by animal rights groups and tourists, the Paris police have decided that the cages must be moved indoors - or taken away altogether - within the next two weeks.

"This is unfair. Grotesque," said one shopkeeper, as he swept the floor beneath his cages yesterday. "These animals are loved. They are spoilt. They have a wonderful life with us. How do you think animals are treated on farms? These people, the tourists especially, know nothing of the real world."

The market beside the Seine, near Chatelet, close to Notre Dame cathedral, has existed for 40 years. To its supporters, it is a breath of rural France in the heart of the capital. Hens, ducks, pheasants, turkeys, pigeons, goats, rabbits, dogs and cats wait in jumbled rows of cages, as if at a country market.

On weekends the pavements teem with people, most of them just looking. It's a kind of informal menagerie, a place for grandparents to bring their urban grandchildren and show them the hens and ducks.

To critics, the outdoor cages - mostly belonging to six or seven pet shops scattered along that section of the quays - are a disgrace and a blot on the face of the capital. Animal protection groups say the creatures on sale are squashed into their cages and exposed to rain, wind or excessive heat. They say vendors don't check the ability of their clients to look after the animals they buy.

The Paris Prefecture of Police has decided the critics are right. After a study by its own veterinary services, the prefecture has given the shops until 1 December to remove all the cages from the pavement. Open-air sales, the prefecture said, "do not allow the animals to be sheltered from extremes of climate and do not guarantee their comfort, given the smallness of the cages and the summary nature of their care".

The ruling points out that the creatures are exposed to pollution from the heavy traffic passing along the quays. They are also vulnerable to catching diseases from the flocks of feral pigeons that the cages attract.

The shops owning the outdoor cages are mostly quite small. There is no room to move the cages inside, the shopkeepers say. The ban will probably force them to give up selling some kinds of creatures altogether. This may force them to lay off staff, even to close.

"They say my hens are being polluted by cars. What about us humans? Are we not being polluted by the cars?" said another shop manager. "This is all the doing of a few tourists. Americans, Swedes, Germans mostly. They come in and complain. But it's just because they have nothing like this in their own country. If you take them away from their hamburgers, they know nothing."

Are these creatures, then, to eat? Not the dogs presumably, but the hens, the ducks, the rabbits? No, he insisted, people buy them to keep. But where do you keep hens or ducks or turkeys in Paris? "Ah, monsieur, I sell people these creatures. I don't question them closely on what they are going to do with them."