What is OCAD?
Creation
The Observatoire de la protection des carnivores domestiques (OCAD, French Observatory for the Protection of Domestic Carnivores), was created in May 2021, at the instigation of the French Ministry of Agriculture as part of its first action plan to combat pet abuse. It is one of the schemes set up via the France Relance plan.
Governance Expertise workFAQ
Objectives
OCAD's mission is to understand, monitor and assess the situation of domestic carnivores (dogs, cats, ferrets) in France, in order to better guide public policy on animal protection for these species.
In the short term, OCAD's primary objective is to characterize and evaluate the abandonment of domestic carnivores in France.
In the longer term, other matters will be addressed.
What we do
OCAD provides up-to-date reports and recommendations to support public policy-making for the protection of domestic carnivores.
In particular, it is responsible for :
- Understanding the issues relating to the welfare of domestic carnivores in France and the various factors that influence it
- Characterizing domestic carnivore abandonment in France (classification, number) to improve the care of these animals
- Analyzing the causes and consequences of abandonment
- Monitoring the effects of public policy on the protection of domestic carnivores and formulating proposals for changes to public policy in this area.
Governance
OCAD comprises 3 bodies and 1 secretariat.
SECRETARIAT: DGAL
The secretariat's main tasks are to :
- Ensure the smooth running of OCAD
- Host the Steering Committee (COPIL)
- Draft the text of referrals to the expert body
- Solicit the views of the expert body on draft referrals and an assessment of their feasibility, which are then passed to the steering committee for approval.
- Communicate authorised referrals to the expert body
A STEERING COMMITTEE (COPIL)
The COPIL is chaired by the Director of the Direction Générale de l'Alimentation (DGAL). Its members are drawn from the expert group and 15 other organizations involved in the protection of domestic carnivores.
It is responsible for:
- Specify OCAD work topics and the terms of reference for referrals to the expert body
- Authorise referrals to the expert body
- Debate the implications of the recommendations made in the expert body's opinions
- Submit OCAD's opinions and recommendations to the French Minister of Agriculture
- Propose a summary for the general public for each opinion or recommendation
A delegate from the National Register of Domestic Carnivores is not a member, but attends all COPIL meetings as a guest.
AN EXPERT BODY: THE FRCAW
The duty of the expert body is to respond to queries from the OCAD Steering Committee, using all available information via open access or supplied by OCAD members and, in particular, referring to the I-CAD database.
The FRCAW carries out this mission, and to do so :
- Specifies the procedure for responding to referrals authorized by the Steering Committee
- Analyses and puts to use the data and information provided
- Identifies any additional data collection requirements to meet objectives and the additional indicators to achieve this
- Reports to the Steering Committee
In addition, the expert body can call on other experts and organize scientific working groups on methodological issues.
DATABASE: I-CAD
Overseen by the company that manages the French National Identification Register for Domestic Carnivores (Ingenium animalis).
The OCAD database has been set up to gather all the data necessary for the analysis of matters studied by the Observatory. It collects, organises and manages the data studied.
Steering Committee
Domestic canine and feline professions and industries
Database
permanent invited non-member
Database manager
Identification des carnivores domestiques
