A Heartfelt Cry from Jérémy Bellet
On November 25, Paris resonated with a rare emotion: the deeply human commitment to abandoned animals. On that day, the YouCare association launched an exceptional charity exhibition, bringing together artists, public figures, and animal welfare advocates around a single goal: raising funds to feed, protect, and support thousands of animals in distress.
But behind this initiative, there is a face, a heart, a voice: that of Jérémy Bellet.
A young man for whom injustice, in all its forms, is a daily struggle; an activist who has chosen to put his fame, friendships, and sensitivity at the service of those who cannot speak: the animals.
This exhibition is not just an artistic event. It is a gesture. A cry. A promise. A hand extended to those we forget, abandon, or too often mistreat in silence.
Somewhere between the noise of the world and our frantic routines, there is a voice we no longer hear. A voice without words, yet filled with emotion, expectation, and vulnerability. A voice that beats to the rhythm of the hearts of living beings who share our planet, our cycles, our light: animals.
This text is a modest but sincere attempt to give space back to that voice. To alert without accusing, to touch without guilt, and above all, to remind that compassion is not a weakness—it is one of the last grounds on which humanity can still reinvent itself.
Invisible Suffering, Because It Has No Words
Animal suffering is often said to be “silent.” In truth, it is not. It can be heard by those willing to listen: in the anxious gaze of an abandoned dog, in the hesitant run of an exhausted horse, in the short breath of an injured bird, in the restricted movements of an animal behind a too-small cage.
What is silent is not them.
It is us.
Somewhere in the evolution of our modern societies, we have learned to cut ourselves off from this primal sensitivity that connected humans to the rest of life. Once, our ancestors read the signs in nature, perceived animal emotions, and respected life because they understood its fragility. Today, most of us are surrounded by walls, screens, obligations, and priorities that distance us from this fundamental reality: animals feel too.
They feel fear, stress, loneliness, hunger, attachment, love.
They feel what we feel—sometimes even with greater purity.
Our era calls itself sensitive. We talk a lot about emotions, well-being, and empathy. Social media resonates with messages about compassion and “kindness.”
Yet never have so many animals been mistreated, exploited, or neglected.
There is here an almost cruel paradox.
In cities, households own cats and dogs they love as family members. Yet just a few kilometers away, in invisible places, animals live confined, stressed, and sometimes brutal lives. We have developed selective sensitivity: full of tenderness for some, blind for others.
It is not cruelty.
It is not lack of love.
It is often disconnection, distance, gradual forgetfulness.
We live fast, too fast. We consume fast. We pass through spaces without looking around. In this speed, animals sometimes become silhouettes, sounds, objects, products—anything but lives.
« I dedicate this project to animals, beings free from any malice, with only one goal: to love and be loved » – Jérémy Bellet
For years, Jérémy Bellet has fought against discrimination, harassment, and human injustice. But twice already, he voiced his anger against another form of violence: that inflicted on animals, notably after denouncing the appalling living conditions in a zoo in eastern France.
For him, this exhibition is not merely an artistic project. It is obvious. Necessary. A response to the silent screams of thousands of abandoned animals each year.
« This exhibition, I dedicate it to those who ask for nothing, have no power, and yet suffer in silence, » he states in the press release.
His words resonate with rare intensity. They reflect empathy, vulnerability, total commitment.
When an Animal’s Gaze Breaks Through Human Defenses
Those who work daily with animals—veterinarians, caretakers, respectful breeders, shelter staff, volunteers, wildlife photographers, field journalists—know that a simple gaze can move a human. This is not romantic imagination: it is a biological and emotional fact.
An animal’s gaze carries no artifice.
It does not lie.
It does not manipulate.
It questions.
A dog in a shelter stares at a visitor without knowing what is expected.
A horse observes its caregiver with almost human intensity.
An injured dolphin approaches a boat, not out of fear, but necessity.
A stray cat is wary… yet lets its tail betray a glimmer of hope.
It is in these moments that we understand a simple truth:
animals are not “other things.” They are “other beings.”
They are not objects.
They are not accessories.
They are not numbers in a cage.
They are lives trying to understand the world with the means they have.
And sometimes, this world is not kind to them.
Human Responsibility: Neither Judgment Nor Excuse
Talking about animal suffering should not become a tribunal against humanity.
For all its contradictions, humanity also holds magnificent gestures. Every day, humans save animals.
Strangers adopt, care, protect.
Associations fight.
Veterinarians exhaust themselves in emotionally heavy services.
Photographers exhibit to bear witness.
Journalists report to awaken consciousness.
Citizens gradually change habits.
Human responsibility is not condemnation.
It is an invitation.
An invitation to do better, to look differently, to understand that our power over animals must be exercised with humility.
We have the strength.
We have the tools.
We have the voice.
They have vulnerability—but also trust, attachment, loyalty.
Balance is fragile.
It is our duty to preserve it.
18 Celebrities, 18 Portraits, 18 Encounters: Art as a Universal Language
The concept imagined by Jérémy Bellet is simple but symbolically extraordinary:
18 personalities photographed with an animal to create an emotional bridge between the cause and the public.
Actors, filmmakers, fashion designers, writers, journalists, athletes—all agreed to pose, to offer their image, to associate their face with that of an animal in order to tell a story and provoke reflection.
Among the guests present in Paris:
Nicoleta
Massimo Gargia
Philippe Bas
Jérémy Bellet
Jeanne d’Hauteserre, Mayor of the 8th arrondissement
Yoann Latouche
Sandrine Arcizet
Sophie Darel
Mapelinage
Philippe Hersen
Laetitia Fourcade
Valérie Kaprisky
Nabil Hayari
Véronique Jannot
Julie Pietri
Each presented a tableau depicting themselves with an animal—a frozen image, yes, but charged with meaning, gaze, and complicity.
These works will be auctioned, and all proceeds will be donated to YouCare.
YouCare: Transforming Compassion into Action
Founded in 2020 by Thomas Moreau and Charles Thiery, YouCare is not just any association: it acts on all fronts of animal protection.
The founders—two friends from Levallois—turned their love for dogs into a life mission. Thanks to their energy and their partners’ commitment, YouCare has already distributed over 7 million meals to abandoned animals, working through a network of 600 associations across France.
La Ruche YouCare, the first animal solidarity bank, is now an essential lifeline for saturated shelters.
Thomas Moreau perfectly summarizes the impact of their work:
« For a shelter, a responsible adoption frees a space, funds care for the next, and above all, creates a lasting encounter. »
What YouCare builds is a virtuous circle—a human chain where every link counts.
The 21st-Century Challenge: Reconciling Modernity and Compassion
Our century stands at a crossroads.
Never have we been so technologically powerful.
Never so destructive.
Never so informed.
Never so disconnected.
The question is no longer:
« Do we know animals suffer? »
Science has long settled that.
The real question is:
« What do we do with this knowledge? »
Do we continue as if nothing happened?
Or do we transform this knowledge into choices, actions, laws, and new habits?
Compassion is not a luxury.
It is a necessary horizon in a world where indifference is too easy.
The Path of Hope: Every Gesture Matters, Even the Smallest
Changing the animal world is not done through grand upheaval.
It is in the details.
In the gaze cast differently on an animal.
In responsible adoption.
In resisting impulsive actions.
In supporting shelters.
In educating children in gentleness.
In thoughtful purchases.
In respecting nature, even in the city.
Every gesture, however small, adds a thread to the tapestry of a fairer world for animals.
« We Are the Champions »: The Shame Counter Revealing the Reality of Abandonment
To raise awareness, YouCare launched a moving digital campaign: « We Are the Champions. »
A real-time counter on noussommesleschampions.fr displays the number of animals abandoned or mistreated since the beginning of the year. A harsh, brutal, but necessary reality.
Every digit represents a face, a story, a suffering.
Every second that passes, another animal is left to itself, anxiety, cold, and hunger.
This Paris exhibition fits into this dynamic: bringing human attention back to where it has sometimes strayed.
Stark Numbers: A National Emergency
In France:
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330,000 dogs and cats are abandoned every year.
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In 2023, the SPA rescued 45,000.
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Each summer, around 60,000 animals are left on the roadside.
Main reasons:
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Financial difficulties (30%)
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Separations or moves (25%)
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Impulsive purchases (10%)
Thousands of broken lives, saturated shelters, overwhelmed volunteers, and animals who want only one thing: to be loved.
The Exhibition: A Heartfelt Cry Before Christmas, a Dark Period for Abandonment
Starting November 25, 2025, the exhibition was designed to resonate with a particularly tragic period: the end-of-year holidays, when animals are still given as objects.
A puppy under a Christmas tree, a ball of fur offered on a whim, then abandoned months later when reality catches up…
Jérémy Bellet insists:
« Animals are not toys. »
That is why the opening period was chosen as a reminder, an alert, an urgent message.
A Touring Project: Carrying the Animal Voice Across France
After Paris, the exhibition will travel to several French regions.
A way to bring the cause closer to citizens, meet diverse audiences, open dialogue, and provoke awareness.
Each stage will include discussions, highlight local association actions, and, of course, remind of YouCare’s commitments.
The journey will end with a grand auction in Paris—a solemn, powerful moment where art and solidarity merge to fund vital animal protection actions.
Conclusion: Reconnecting With the Part of Us That Still Feels
At its core, this article is not a demonstration.
It is not a prosecution.
It is not an injunction.
It is an invitation to rediscover that intimate, almost instinctive part of ourselves that connects us to animals—a part made of gentleness, respect, curiosity, and responsibility. A part that modernity has not erased, only anesthetized.
Animals ask little of us.
But they deserve so much.
They deserve a world where their lives are recognized as lives, where their pain is acknowledged, where their presence is a wealth, not a detail.
A world where humans are not only powerful, but attentive.
A world where we never forget that, for an animal, every gesture counts, every gaze matters, every human breath can be a promise of safety or a threat.
We have the choice.
Today, tomorrow, always.
And if humanity wants to remain worthy of its name, it is time to truly listen—to the silent voice of animals.
A Parisian Evening Full of Emotion and Hope
At the launch in Paris, the atmosphere was charged with a singular emotion.
It was not merely a social event: it was an evening of meaning.
The present personalities were not there to show off, but to be useful.
To lend their voice to those who have none.
To support a project born from the heart of a young man who refuses resignation.
The testimonies, exchanged glances, and displayed artworks all breathed compassion and a desire to act.
The Strength of One Man: Jérémy Bellet, an Uncompromising Commitment
This project carries his DNA.
It reflects his fight against injustice, his natural empathy, courage, as well as his modesty and sincerity.
Jérémy Bellet is a public figure, but above all a deeply sensitive human being, who cannot bear cruelty or indifference.
He does not merely denounce.
He creates.
He unites.
He acts.
With this exhibition, he contributes his “small stone,” which, added to others, can become a bulwark against abandonment and mistreatment.
Conclusion: When Art Becomes a Refuge and Humanity Reclaims Its Bright Side
This exhibition is a meeting:
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Between art and solidarity,
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Between celebrities and animals,
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Between humans and their responsibility,
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Between gaze and awareness.
It reminds us that animal suffering is not a fatality.
It can be fought, alleviated, repaired.
Sometimes all it takes is a gesture, a photo, a painting, a commitment—to change a destiny.
Thanks to YouCare, thanks to Jérémy Bellet, thanks to the involved personalities, thanks to the public, a light has been lit.
A soft, fragile, yet determined light.
The light of hope for all animals waiting to be saved.
« Every loved animal teaches us to breathe together, to share our hearts, to fully feel life. Their presence transforms our days, makes us more human, and reminds us that compassion is the most universal language. »
©2025 – IMPACT EUROPEAN
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