One police officer or gendarme in each of France’s 4,000 police stations and gendarmerie brigades will be trained and appointed as a reference officer for problems related to animal cruelty, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said.

They will be “specially trained to receive complaints to fully understand the law that applies” in these cases and “to deal with people who come to denounce these facts,” Minister Gérald Darmanin told the press during a visit to the Defense Society. of animals (SPA) in Chamarand (Paris region), reports AFP and Agerpres.

Since January 15, police and gendarmerie investigators from the Central Office for Combating Damage to the Environment and Public Health (Oclaesp) have joined a new service that specializes in combating animal cruelty.

“At the same time, judges must apply the law and be much stricter in sentencing,” the Stephane Lamarthe Animal Rights Association responded in a statement.

“I signaled to the Minister of Justice, unfortunately without success, (Eric) Dupont-Moretti, who did not hide his indifference to acts of cruelty to animals, even his pleasure in witnessing bullfighting, which is the very expression of the action. cruelty to animals,” Christophe Marie, spokesman for the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, said.

In 2021, French police and gendarmerie recorded 12,000 crimes against pets or captive animals, a 30% increase from 2016, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior.