L214 Éthique & Animaux : presentation

An animal defense organization

L214 is a French nonprofit animal defense organization that focuses its action on animals used for food consumption because they account for 99% of the animals exploited by humans. L214 considers that animals, as sentient beings, have the right not to be killed regardless of the suffering or well-being of their lifetime.

L214 works in three related areas: 

• To show the reality of the most common practices so they will evolve through information campaigns. To detect illegal practices and condemn them through litigation.  To contribute to the evolution of current legal regulations.
• To demonstrate the negative impact of animal product consumption and to suggest alternatives: consumption reduction, refusal of factory farming products, and promotion of vegan eating.
• To broaden the debate about animal conditions, to raise the question of speciesism, to work to end animal consumption and other practices damaging to their wellbeing.

Why "L214" ?

This mysterious name refers to the article L214 from the French rural code: in 1976, it recognizes for the first time that animals are sentient beings.
Art L214-1: “Every animal as a sentient being must be placed by its owner in conditions that are compatible with its species’ biological imperatives.”
For the moment, this article has not been seriously taken into account either in the law or in practice.

Team L214

The association was founded in 2008 by animal rights-motivated vegetarian militants from Stop Gavage (Stop Force-Feeding), a campaign for the abolition of foie gras now continuing through L214.
The core of the association comprises about a dozen of volunteers and about sixty employees who coordinate with each other remotely. Hundreds of militants provide support by setting up actions in their cities. Members and sympathisers contribute to the activities of L214 in various areas, according to their skills and disponibility (accounting, graphic design, video editing…)

Our resources

Exclusively private donators finance L214 Ethique & Animaux, which implies a total freedom of speech and action.

How do we work?

L214 Éthique & Animaux gathers information about its campaigns’ topics:

• by filmed field investigations when possible;
• by interviewing agribusiness professionals;
• by studying scientific or professional publications;
• by reviewing animal-related legal texts.

L214 Éthique & Animaux releases this information on its websites, edits videos, tracts and brochures. The goal is to reveal the reality of farming and slaughtering.

Inform and make see

The recognition of L214 as one of the updated animal defense associations in France leads its spokespersons to be invited more and more often on television to participate into debates about the animal condition, to explain the discoveries of their investigations, or to comment the news about animals used in food production.
The press also relays L214’s investigations and campaigns. Regional press in particular is attentive to the actions performed by the militants in most of the big cities of the country.

Finally, the pictures and file cases are made available for everyone’s use on L214’s websites, on video hosting websites, and on other blogs and websites.

Responsible consumption

L214 encourages consumers to adopt a responsible purchasing behavior, at best by doing without products from animal origin, at least by reducing their consumption of such products and by refusing those coming from factory farming.

Toward a sentient civilization

L214 makes part of a movement claiming that our society should consider the needs of every sentient being, at the opposite of the movements that advocate discrimination, hatred or xenophobia. L214 wants our society to come to recognize that animals are not merely goods at our disposition, and allow not that they be treated as such. They are inhabitants of this planet too, and their interests deserve consideration.

L214's work recognized

L214 is ranked "Standout Charity" by Animal Charity Evaluators, making it one of the 12 most effective associations in the world according to their recommendations.