Text: Fanny Suteau – The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region presented its partnership with the animal protection society (SPA). A dispensary will be built near the Part-Dieu station and a new refuge will see the light of day in Saint-Laurent-de-Mure.
Upon arrival, Laurent Wauquiez went to greet the guest of honor at this conference: Paulo, dog from the Marennes shelter, found a few weeks ago. On average, 100,000 pets are abandoned each year in France and the SPA alone collects half of them. Moreover, the pandemic and inflation have not improved the situation.
Christophe Dumont-Richet, head of the Marennes SPA, Laurent Wauquiez, president of the AURA Region and Paulo
To help the association, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region has decided to invest €200,000 for the creation of a dispensary in the 3e arrondissement and 1.8 million for a new animal shelter in eastern Lyon, 30 minutes from Lyon. “Which will make it the most important financing of the SPA by a local authority to date”, welcomes the President of the Region.
Installed on a former equestrian center, the new refuge will have an area of 7.5 hectares
New refuge, new paradigm. “The dogs will be in semi-freedom and will be able to put themselves in their individual niche when they want to”, explains the president of the SPA Jacques-Charles Fombonne.
The refuge will be able to accommodate 79 dogs, 262 cats, 15 farm animals and equines and will include a bird aviary, a dovecote and a pond for fish. But that’s not all. A pound will also be present to meet the needs of the local area, as well as a training center dedicated to animal protection and welfare.
“It’s an opportunity to be able to accommodate the animals in better conditions, to be able to offer them accommodation worthy of the name”, adds Christophe Dumont-Richet, head of the Marennes SPA. His refuge will be transferred to Saint-Laurent-de-Mure as soon as the work is finished.
Pedagogy at the heart of this new space
This refuge will also be a place of prevention and awareness, “a place where we will help you understand the language of the dog, to educate it better”, assures the president of the SPA. The mayor of Saint-Laurent-de-Mure is delighted to see his municipality associated with this project. “We will be able to work with the children of our schools on pedagogy around the animal”, indicates Patrick Fiorini.
Jacques-Charles Fombonne, Laurent Wauquiez, Thierry Kovacs, deputy vice-president for the environment of the Region and Patrick Fiorini, mayor of Saint-Laurent-de-Mure.
“What we are proposing is a real new place in which we will have a symbiosis between man and animal”, concludes Jacques-Charles Fombonne, before symbolically handing over to Laurent Wauquiez “the order of Knight of the SPA”. This new refuge will replace that of Marennes. Work will begin in September 2024 for an opening scheduled for early 2026.
With an area of 209m2, the dispensary will open its doors at the start of the 2024 school year. “The care there will be absolutely free. This makes it possible to have animals in good health even if the owners do not have the means to take care of them”, specifies the president of the SPA.
On the occasion of the Open House on the weekend of May 13 and 14, 2023, shelters and animals are pulling out all the stops! Red carpet, tuxedos, evening dresses and cameras: the refuges of the SPA are transformed into a film studio!
In Strasbourg, environmentalists withdrew the €44,000 subsidy to its SPA
This policy in favor of animal welfare is not shared by everyone. In December 2022, the ecological town hall of Strasbourg announced to the association for the protection of animals in its territory that it would not pay it the €44,000 usually allocated to its operating budget.
Contacted by Lyon People Regarding this issue, the SPA of Lyon and South East did not wish to comment and indicated that it does not receive subsidies from the City of Lyon.
> To help the Strasbourg SPA : https://www.change.org/p/subvention-supprim%C3%A9e-%C3%A0-la-spa-de-strasbourg
