While the practice of abandoning one’s pets in time for the summer vacation season is something many Europeans are guilty of, it is the French who are being the most hardcore shaded by their own to prove a point about the disgusting statistic of 100,000 documented animals per year being abandoned in France. That neglect hits a peak in the months between June and August, when so many are traveling and cannot be bothered with the responsibility of either taking a pet along or finding accommodations for it elsewhere (likely at an added expense). So instead, the easy thing (so often closely aligned to the evil thing) to do is simply leave the creature behind.
Well, some French people ain’t havin’ it, as evidenced by the latest campaign ad from the animal welfare charity 30 Millions d’Amis Foundation, in which, as only les français can achieve, some massive jibes are delivered by way of repurposing Queen’s “We Are the Champions,” usually associated with all manner of nationalistic/sporting vaingloriousness, as a means to showcase that what the French are champions in these days is being putains with their pets.
Opening on a man who appears simply to be walking his dog along the fence of a deserted, grassy lot, we’re soon horrified to see him tying the leash to a protruding metal stake as he sings, “I’ve paid my dues/Time after time/I’ve done my sentence/But committed no crime.” Almost as though he’s using Freddie Mercury’s words to insist he never “deserved” the “burden” of having a dog in the first place.
The collective of directors, Mégaforce (also responsible for Rihanna’s “Bitch Better Have My Money” and Madonna’s “Give Me All Your Luvin’” videos), then cuts to a woman putting her kittens in a box and continuing, “And bad mistakes/I’ve made a few,” once more iterating that the primary reason so many animals get abandoned is because, in France, they’re treated like “the latest fashion statement” to have, depending on what breeds are au courant. When they “go out of style,” it suddenly feels like a terrible mistake to have made such an investment, particularly when the next fad breed comes around. Next, we see a man let his dog out of the back seat of the car to run free into a field, not knowing his master has no intention of letting him in the vehicle again, turning back in shock when he hears the door slam and sees the car drive away. From there, it’s a tragic montage of pets being “released”–from rabbits to cats to hamsters (the latter being tossed into a trash chute).
The fact that the lyrics are not altered at any point for the purpose of parody lends the ad an even graver, more effective tone. A sardonic sense of mockery that the French know how to execute unlike any other culture–made all the more poignant because they don’t even try (like the British obviously do). As the group of neglecters mount the top of a rather unimpressive hill together, three of the members of the abandoning crowd hold up torches that shoot out the signature blue, white and red colors of the French flag for a pronounced perception of just how much the 30 Millions d’Amis Foundation is belittling a country that is number one for pet neglect in Europe.
Considering how sensitive the French can be to having a black mark in terms of national shame, this campaign could at least partially achieve its goal to mitigate the numbers pertaining to neglect. What’s more, with legislative measures being introduced that would increase the age required to purchase a pet, as well as upping measures to microchip pets so that they can be traced back to their owners, there might be hope for more mindful care of pets in the future. When noting that France was among the first countries to recognize animal sentience as a reason not to treat them like shit (via an animal protection law passed in 1976), perhaps the nation can soon come around to realizing that being “gifted” with such sentience doesn’t make them any less immune to the emotional damage of abandonment.
