A camel parade in Paris arouses the anger of an animal rights association

The mayor of a town in Essonne plans to parade camelids next Saturday around the Eiffel Tower. The Paris Animals Zoopolis association denounces a marketing stunt.

Camel, dromedary, llama or alpaca, the camelids, heroes of the deserts and the high plateaus, find themselves at the heart of an intense battle. On the one hand, Christian Schoettl, the mayor of Janvry, a town in Essonne, who would like to parade them on Saturday April 20 through the streets of Paris, escorted by a security force of 80 people and a poop collector.

On the other side, the animal rights association, Paris Animals Zoopolis (PAZ), who opposes this strange procession. And in the middle, the Paris town hall and the prefecture rather unfavorable to the organization of the parade, but incapable of having it banned. Knowing that although camels and dromedaries have the unfair reputation of having a bad temper, they do not really represent a threat to public order.

The business of the French Federation for the development of camelids

Officially this event is organized, because 2024 has been named “international year of camelids”, by the United Nations. It would therefore be a question of making the general public aware of their multiple virtues. Camels and dromedaries resist the harshest climatic conditions, from very hot to very cold, while being models of resilience and sobriety, thanks to their humps which make them resistant to hunger and thirst.

But for the PAZ association, Saturday’s parade is not at all aimed at inviting the French to become sober, like camels. On the contrary, the goal would be to invite them to consume ever more. A marketing stunt of the French federation for the development of camelids. A federation which seeks to develop its business of selling camel milk or Alpaca wool. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter. Because, whatever the motivation, is it really reasonable to parade desert animals and silence through the noisy streets of the capital?