A wild feline in the bathroom, a camel in the stairs, a monkey in the cellar: the new pets craze isn’t making everyone happy. When things get a little too out of hand, who ya gonna call? No, not “Petbusters”! In France, people call the firemen to the rescue. And the firefighters have to train for this new mission.
Lieutenant-Colonel Dominique Grandjean of the “Sapeurs-Pompiers de Paris” (the Paris fire brigade) is a pioneer in this field in France. A veterinarian, he has put together a special team in charge of capturing animals astray. Seeing that the problem of having exotic animals astray in cities not only affects the Paris area but also the province, he set up a center where firemen from the rest of France can come to master the techniques of animal-catching. “Our special dog brigades currently include one NCO (noncommissioned officer) and 6 servicemen”, explains Grandjean. They all have a Certificate of Competency in fire brigade dog training (missions include searching for people who are buried under something or lost), so, basically, they all know a bit about animals. Without leaving the brigade, they can follow a tuition on animal catching, dispensed by myself”.
“This tuition is soon to gain a more official character with an internal Certificate of Competency that will soon be available to the outside. It includes theoretical training, at the national veterinary school of Alfort (ENVA), and matter-of-fact practice (handling of exotic animals and metropolitan wild animals) through sessions at the Zoo de Vincennes, at the natural history museum, at the herpetology club (study of reptiles and of amphibians) and at the ENVA center for the safeguard of wild animals.The training center will receive firemen from the Paris area but also municipal police units, national police, the gendarmerie (a kind of police that is a branch of the military), and firemen from the rest of the country.”
In some regions of France, action has already begun. The fire brigade in Vaucluse is taking part in some beginners exercises at the crocodile farm in Pierrelatte (Drôme region). Their aim: learning how to capture and handle reptiles and tarantulas.
When lieutenant-colonel Grandjean starts listing only part of the various animals he has come across in the past, one understands that special training is a necessity. Here it goes: “Dogs, cats, snakes, primates, crocodiles, iguanas, various lizards, tarantulas, wild boars, weasels, coypus, skunks, horses, tigers, lions, panthers, camels…”!Moreover, he has noticed “a large increase in the number of reptiles over the last two years, and particularly in the number of venomous snakes and of “magot apes” “. Rumor has it in the suburbs that these apes can easily replace pit bulls. But specialists all say that these apes are adorable during childhood but become uncontrollable once they have achieved sexual maturity. What’s more, it is illegal to own one. So the number of lawsuits and of apes being placed in shelters is skyrocketing. Christian Huchedé’s Arche, for instance, already has so many that it is now refusing animals.
When it comes to capturing, Dominique Grandjean reckons that some animals are harder to catch than others. “Boars, weasels, skunks, wild felines, venomous snakes are the hardest to handle and the most dangerous”, says he, “but a cat that has gone crazy can be very hard to get hold of”.This type of mission is often very weird. Grandjean remembers a case where “a hippopotamus escaped from a circus and was tricked back to its cage by scattering water in front of it with a fire hose. Indeed, these animals seek water. There was also a crocodile hunt on a suburban river near Paris in a small dinghy. And once some fools had managed to get a camel up to the third floor up a staircase…and couldn’t get it down again! We also had a tiger in an apartment and a lion in a bathroom”.What becomes of these animals once they have been captured? “We never kill them ourselves. They are sent to the SPCA, to the club of herpetology or the ENVA center for the safeguard of wild animals, or even to the zoo or the museum. They are given back to their owners as long as they can supply the necessary documents (CITES, “certificates of ability”)”.It goes without saying that our specialist would not advise anyone to purchase or offer someone an animal of this kind. Here is the advice he gives people who are tempted to do so: “Don’t buy an exotic animal, save your money for a trip to Africa to see them in their natural environment, for the place of such animals absolutely is not in some urban area, or more generally in a home in a country such as France. To respect an animal is to leave it where it is happy and to go & see it there!”.Unfortunately, it looks like it is fashionable to own a “different” kind of pet, and this trend is set to last. One of the main concerns is that of the illegal imports of wolves from Eastern Europe.
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