Cause Animale Nord Homeless Man Puppy Stealing

Confirmed 152,291

Overview

Cause Animale Nord Homeless Man Puppy Stealing refers to an incident in which alleged members of the French animal rights activist group Cause Animale Nord are seen stealing a puppy from a homeless man in the streets of Paris, France. Following the viral circulation of the video, and subsequent listing of the dog for adoption, in September 2015, the story quickly went viral in the French social media and prompted a heated debate surrounding the group's actions.

Background

On September 19th, 2015, members of the French animal rights activists group "Cause Animale Nord" were caught on camera stealing the puppy of a homeless man on the streets of Paris. Shortly after, witness Nghi Le Duc posted a video of this on his Facebook page (shown below, left), where it received over 1.8 million views in the following 5 days. The video can also be viewed on YouTube (shown below, right).^[1] In the video, 2 members of the activist group are shown subduing the homeless man before trying to grab the man's puppy. During the segment, the man is seen wailing as he tries to get his dog back, before a 3rd member of the activist group grabs the puppy and runs off; after which the homeless man chases after them while leaving all his possessions behind.

[This video has been removed]

Notable Developments

On September 20th, the official Facebook group for Cause Animale Nord^[5] created a post in which they shared they named the puppy "Vegan" and advertised the adoption of her (shown below). The post was deleted a few days later by the group as commenters condemned the group's actions in the reactions.

"Vegan (name choosen in memory of our convictions), small bitch, rescue of the day during the “let their skin to the animals” protest in Paris. We withdrew it from a romani who was using it to beg. The police doesn’t do anything, we act. You can act too, you only need a little bit of courage… The “PA” (Animal protection) is not being behind a screen or parade in a demonstration, it’s to really act daily. She will be complied and proposed for adoption."

On September 22nd, Anthony Blanchard, President of Cause Animale Nord, put up an official reply towards the situation regarding the puppy (shown below, left),^[3] claiming they believed the puppy was drugged, an acknowledged issue amongst the homeless in Paris who sometimes use young animals to soften passersby into donating,^[18]^[19] which led to them taking it away. Cause Animale Nord never confirmed the puppy was indeed drugged, despite being requested for evidence various times, which led to viewers believing the puppy wasn't drugged based on its behavior in the video. A day later, on September 23rd, the group made a new post in which they put the puppy up for adoption; this time including a price of €195 (shown below, right).^[4] As of September 24th, the posts have gathered respectively over 1,400 and 1,300 replies, with the majority still condemning the group's actions. The post in which the puppy was promoted for adoption was removed by the group a few days later.

On September 23rd, a Change.org petition^[2] was created asking to "investigate the functioning of the association Cause Animal North" as a result of the video. In less than 24 hours, the petition was already signed over 75,000 times; which increased to over 125,000 signatures by the end of September 24th (local time).

Between September 23rd and 24th, various videos of the scene were uploaded to Imgur, reaching the site's most viral images section on at least 3 occassions. The most popular video managed to gather over 850,000 views and 8,000 points within 18 hours;^[6] following by the other 2 receiving respectively over 730,000^[7] and 113,000 views,^[8] 7,000 and 3,000 points, within less than 14 and 9 hours. Each of the posts also promoted the Change.org petition. The video was also shared on the r/videos subreddit,^[9] where it received over 3,200 upvotes in less than 14 hours. The story was subsequently picked up by various non-French news outlets as well, including SBS,^[10] LiveLeak,^[11] BuzzKeys,^[12] 9news,^[13] DailyStar^[14] and DailyMail.^[15]

Homeless Man Found

On September 24th, French resident Vincent Defives uploaded an Imgur photo of himself and the homeless man from the video,^[20] claiming he found the man after discovering the location of the recording. Despite a language barrier between the Romani man and Defives, he was able to figure out that the man had a lawyer since that day to help him press charges against Cause Animale Nord to retrieve the puppy, which he missed a lot, and shared that the man was very delighted by the support he got. Defives' Imgur upload managed to become the top trending image on the site by September 25th with over 20,000 views in 13 hours. Defives subsequently also created a donation page on both Leechi.com^[21] and GoFundMe^[22] to financially aid the man, which managed to gather respectively over 1,400 and 240 euro in the next 13 and 10 hours. Defives later updated the image with details on the funding and the homeless man's name being Uliane.

"After some detective stuff, some luck and knowledge of Paris, I found the place where the video took place and found the homeless there. He and his friend are very kind and appreciate a lot the print of the imgur post I make for them (the one were I was commenting on).
I explain to them that a lot of people across the world would like to know more about him and his story and that they are ready to help him find his puppy and financially.

But he wasn't speaking french nor english and his friend was talking a little french.

I understood that he misses his puppy very much and would love to have him back. They have a lawyer since today who help them to press charges against the association "Cause Animale Nord" to retrieve his dog.

I explain to him that I didn't achieve to find where his puppy is even if I make contact with a person of the association which stole it from him.
When I assure them that a lot of my friends on internet were ready to give him money he didn't understand well and after some explanation he praise the sky for that.

Edit 1 : I have the phone number of his lawyer and will try to get in touch with him and update you all on if he got back his dog or not."

Official Investigation

By the end of September 24th (local time), the official Facebook page for the French National Police created a post in which they informed readers that they had been informed about the video various times, and subsequently opened an investigation towards the assault and theft by Cause Animale Nord.^[17] In two hours after creation, the post had already received over 5,000 likes.

"[REPORTS] Many of you reported the video of the assault of a homeless man by animal rights advocates to remove his puppy.
An investigation was opened.

REMINDER: Victim or witnessed an assault, immediately contact Police -secours by dialing 17."

A week later, on October 1st, the police took the President of Cause Animale Nord, Anthony Blanchard, into custody for questioning. A police source claimed towards the French commercial radio network RTL,^[23] "The president of the association Cause Animale Nord, who admitted the theft of the animal while in custody on Thursday afternoon, had placed the puppy in a foster family in Wattignies (in the Nord department)." Blanchard however denied any accusations of violence, but promised to return the dog as a condition for his release.^[24]^[25]

Puppy Returned

Following Anthony Blanchard's release from police custody under the condition of returning the dog, the homeless man and the puppy were reunited with each other on October 2nd.^[26]^[27] By the time of reuniting, the change.org petition had been signed over 240,000 times.^[2]