Editor's blog October 2006

We can, of course, all lists dozens of aspects of French life that we love - otherwise we wouldn’t be here. But, inevitably, there are also a handful of things we do not love about this French life and whenever a new survey comes out about what the British love and hate about France the same two items top the hate list: French driving and they way the French treat their animals.

We shouldn’t settle too comfortably on the moral high ground. OK, we have the RSPCA but their latest report claims levels of animal abuse are soaring in Britain. And whilst we are famous for being gooey over our domestic pets, we still buy economy packs of cheap meat without, perhaps, wondering precisely how a chicken can be produced for 99p? I’m sure just as many bucket loads of kittens are drowned in rural Britain as rural France.

Nevertheless, the French attitude to animals is, shall we say, more pragmatic than ours. Everyone has a story about a next door dog that is locked in a tin shed for days on end or watching a local farmer bash the latest batch of kittens’ brains out with a spade while the children look on.

An Alsatian kept as a guard dog half a kilometre from my house has not been off it’s chain - ever, not even for five minutes - in seven years. But as the chain is 3m long it complies with French welfare laws and much as we locals - including many French - would like to liberate it, legally there is nothing we can do.

In this month’s issue we tell the heart-warming story of one Frenchwoman’s attempt to give sanctuary to abused and abandoned kittens. You could argue that she is onto a looser: how can she ever rehome the cats at the rate new ones will come into her refuge? Wouldn’t she be better off letting the strays be put down and concentrating on education initiatives to ensure cats are spayed and castrated? At the moment most of the help she is getting is from the British community but Angelique hopes this will change. For her real mission is even greater than the mammoth task of rescuing cats: with her motto “Le Chat Mon Ami”, she tells me, she wants to revolutionise French attitudes to animals in general.

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APOLOGIES to readers who had trouble sending e-mails to us or using the web site www.therendezvous.info mid August/early September. This was something to do with hackers getting into the server, based on the East coast of America, which meant it being shut down for cleaning. Circumstances beyond our control, as they say.
As a result we are extending the deadline for August’s win a bungy jump with AJ Hackett competition till 21 October. You shouldn’t, but if you do have any more trouble, post you answers to La Vindcendiere, 14500 Truttemer le Grand.