NEWS AND VIEWS: New signs encouraging motorists to slow down when approaching areas at risk for animals including cats have been installed in Mennecy, Essonne, France. Mennecy is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. Mennecy is about 80 kilometers south of central Paris in the north of France.
Personally, I love to see this! It is enlightened thinking and it shows a commitment to cat welfare.
However, in this neck of the woods, the residents are not only concerned about cats walking across the road but other animals such as hedgehogs and horses. The signs are the idea of council worker, Lionel Garnier, who founded and runs a shelter for rescued cats. He was saddened to see how many were run over by vehicles. The signs were installed during the summer of 2023.
The area has always had lots of stray cats and we are told that Mr Garnier has been feeding them for 15 years. Sadly, he would gather up their bodies when they got run over. Obviously, he found the experience heartbreaking and decided on the road signs.
His shelter does good work in rescuing and sterilising stray cats but, as mentioned, he noticed that too many were being killed on the roads and brought the problem to the attention of the local mayor; proposed the idea for the road signage and it was taken up.
The project was able to attract €10,000 in funding which allowed the jurisdiction to ask a local fabricator to design and make the signs. Around 30 have been installed where the accidents are most likely to happen.
In 2020, Mennecy was awarded the distinction of being an animal friendly town with a 3-paw rating which is the highest.
In the Ile-de-France region, there are 102 towns which have been granted animal friendly ratings from 1 to 3 paws.
The local residents have provided overwhelmingly positive feedback to the signs. Some however regard them as a waste of taxpayers’ money.
