Paris town hall asks the Aquarium to reduce its nightclub evenings

Disco evenings among the fish. The Paris Aquarium, one of the oldest in the world, is transformed into a nightclub and hosts private parties, around 200 evenings per year. The activity represents a quarter of its turnover, but it is not to the taste of animal defense associations, who demand that the town hall, owner of the walls, ask the operator to put an end to it. animal welfare name.

In a text adopted on Friday February 9 by the Paris Council, the town hall “asks the Paris Aquarium to significantly reduce from this season the number of evenings hosted at the animal habitat”. “The regularity of these evenings which are organized in the living space of some of the animals in the aquarium necessarily has an impact on their health” in addition to posing an “ethical problem”, recognized the Deputy for Condition animal Christophe Najdovski.

During a nighttime check carried out on October 21, however, inspectors “did not observe any violation of animal welfare,” indicated police headquarters representative Élise Lavielle.

The Paris Animaux Zoopolis (PAZ) association believes, on the contrary, that these evenings are illegal since a 2021 law prohibiting “presenting animals (…) in nightclubs”. In addition, “the aquarium does not have prefectural authorization to organize festive events,” PAZ co-founder Amandine Sanvisens told AFP, deploring for these reasons the request “a little timid” and without an accounting objective. of town hall. The text, however, goes “in the right direction,” she added.