In Paris, the camel parade planned in Paris canceled, but the police offer a plan B in the Bois de Vincennes

PARIS – Change of plans. The French Federation for the Development of Camelids in France and Europe had planned to parade around fifty dromedaries, camels, llamas and alpacas in several emblematic places in the 7th arrondissement of Paris on Saturday April 20. A parade finally banned by the Paris police prefect this Thursday, April 18.

Initially planned from the banks of the Seine to the UNESCO headquarters, passing in front of the Eiffel Tower and the Invalides, the camelid parade will therefore not take place around these prestigious sites of the capital. A decision explained by the prefect of Paris, who mentions the numerous construction sites present on the parade route in view of the Olympic Games and “the significant consequences on traffic” in this tourist place.

The prefecture also ensures in its decree that this environment “such high urban density (…) is likely to harm animal welfare”. It also raises security issues, with an initial route near public buildings, in a context of “hardening the Vigipirate posture” since the “claim of responsibility for the Moscow attack by the Islamic State organization”.

Particularly criticized, the announcement of this parade also caused the animal rights association to jump. “Paris Animals Zoopolis”who denounced the use of these animals as “objects of entertainment”.

PLAN B

To avoid a total cancellation, the police headquarters, however, offered an alternative route to the event organizers. “The parade can be held this April 20, 2024 at the Bois de Vincennes with a gathering at 12 p.m. on the esplanade of the Château de Vincennes, departure of the procession at 2 p.m.”indicates the prefectural decree, before a “wandering” possible in specific avenues until 6 p.m.

A solution which, however, seems far from convincing the organizer of this demonstration, Christian Schoettl, also mayor of Janvry, in Essonne. To the AFP, he assures that he has filed an emergency appeal with the Administrative Court of Paris to maintain the initial course.

But he is ” impossible “ for him to organize the demonstration at the Bois de Vincennes in such a short time. “I told the Prefect of Police that we were not organizing a picnic, that moving 34 foreign delegations and 50 camels was colossal logistics”especially for “animal safety”argued the city councilor.

Christian Schoettl had initially defended the holding of this parade in Paris to the AFP, explaining that the parade aimed to support “the cause of the camel in the French capital of human rights”.

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