In Paris, a controversy over a parade of camelids around the Eiffel Tower

The organizer, mayor of a town in Essonne, says he wants to support “the cause of the dromedary”. It is the Paris police headquarters which will have the last word and will say whether or not it authorizes this “incredible parade”.

Not sure they can ride their bumps in Paris. The parade of around fifty dromedaries, camels, llamas and alpacas, planned for Saturday April 20 in the capital, starting from the Eiffel Tower, is suspended for confirmation from the police headquarters, after having been denounced by a defense association animals. Neither does the Paris town hall. “is not in favor of this parade”, she declared to AFP, but she has no decision-making power, “the demonstration being itinerant”.

This event is part of the International Year of Camels, proclaimed by the UN in order to promote “the essential contribution” death “heroes of the deserts and highlands” who provide for “millions of households living in hostile environments in more than 90 countries”.

Animals that “have no place in Paris”

“The incredible parade”, organized by the French federation for the development of camelids in France and Europe, must be held between the Quai de Seine in front of the Eiffel Tower, the Invalides and the Unesco headquarters, all located in the 7th arrondissement of the capital. One way, organizer Christian Schoettl explains to AFP, is to support “the cause of the dromedary in the French capital of human rights”.

Mayor of Janvry (Essonne), he had already made himself known by parading with camelids in Paris in 2014, during a demonstration against the reform of school schedules. For this Parisian parade, he said he mobilized 70,000 euros in funds, 34 national delegations, 80 people to protect the event including three veterinarians, a civil security ambulance, two vans to rescue animals if necessary and poop scoopers.

Not enough to convince the animal rights association Paris Animaux Zoopolis, which denounced in a press release the use of these animals as “entertainment objects” And “vulgar food resources”. “These animals are adapted to the desert, to high temperatures and to drought. They have no place in Paris”argued Amandine Sanvisens, co-founder of the association, to AFP.