“The animal is the vector of humanity”

“The animal is a vector of humanity,” Kollender said in an interview shortly after receiving his medal, alongside representatives from the Institut Curie in Paris, the hospital where Snoopy works. — We feel extremely strong emotions, sometimes even overwhelming. We need to breathe; we need a gentle and joyful presence. A dog gives us that.

Cozy, punctuated by windows displaying old engravings and manuscripts, the Goncourt room has hosted the ceremony of the literary prize of the same name, the best French book of the year, and, since 1926, the Renaudot prize since 1914.

For decades, the 30 million friends literary prize has also been awarded there. In a country where the love of books, argumentation and literary rewards is only comparable to affection for pets, the “Goncourt Animal Prize” is certainly the sweetest of these rites, and no less prestigious.

“People can write with great emotion and honesty about their animals,” said Didier Decoin, secretary of the Goncourt Academy and judge of the 30 Million Friends Prize. — And who better than writers and philosophers to talk about the fabulous relationship between animals and humans?

This award comes from a television program of the same name, first broadcast in 1976, created by journalist Jean-Pierre Hutin and his wife Reha. According to Reha Hutin, now 80 and elegant jury president, she and her husband (who died in 1996) loved animals and hoped to draw attention to the treatment of pets, “by filming domestic animals as if they were wild animals in documentaries, with the same respect.”

The series would become one of the longest-running French television shows of all time, featuring the pets of celebrities and ordinary citizens, while highlighting the cause of animal welfare. Since 1995, the “30 Million Friends” program has also become a very influential foundation.

The title means nothing, explains Hutin:

— Just a number that sounds good; Of course, there are many more animals than that in France!

She stressed that the couple wanted to convey their message in a delicate way.

“The activist approach wasn’t for us,” Hutin said. — I love Brigitte Bardot, but in fact, she exaggerates a little.

In 1978, largely inspired by the number of writers sharing their animals on the television show, the magazine “30 Million Friends” was born. This multimedia initiative speaks directly to the heart.

— We, the French, have an interesting relationship with animals — said Hutin. — On the one hand, we venerate them, we take our animals to cafes, but on the other, until 1995, we still operated according to this Cartesian definition of the animal as movable property.

Thus, “30 Million Friends” – the brand, the idea and the foundation – was instrumental in successfully promoting a change in legal language, with animals now considered “sentient beings”.

In 1982, the award itself was established. Sitting in the chairs reserved for the Goncourt Prize jurors, the first jury included the Hutins and Decoin, as well as the French Minister of Culture, publishers, novelists and renowned journalists.

Jean-Louis Hue emerged victorious, with the treatise “The cat in all its states”.

The award has since expanded to include both fiction and non-fiction. Subsequent winners include many other books about dogs and cats, but also titles such as “The Wisdom of Elephants”, “How to Speak Whale”, “In the Name of Sharks” and, in French translation, the international success “Life of Pi”, centered on a tiger.

— It has become, by far, the most important literary prize, if not the only one, dedicated to animals and their well-being — declared journalist Frédéric Vitoux, judge for 20 years. — This prize seems important to me, even essential, because it helps to raise awareness of the animal world among a wide audience. And he does it without demagoguery.

Eleven novels and ten non-fiction works were in the selection this year, including “Animal Elegance”, “The Smile of the Chimpanzee” and “Thirty Million Orgasms”, an analysis of the erotic life of the zoological world.

“Snoopy” was the unanimous choice in the nonfiction category. The book not only met the jury’s rigorous criteria of literary merit, but also contributed to a cause very dear to the 30 Million Friends Foundation: bringing more animals to French hospitals.

This award undoubtedly has a social dimension.

— Over the past 35 years, I have noticed that the jury has become influential in the defense of animal rights because publishers now show a real interest in the subject — declared Irène Frain, one of the jurors.

But the distinctive seal on a book’s cover also tends to boost sales. This price allowed “His odor after the rain”, Cédric Sapin-Defour’s love letter to a lost dog, published in 2023, to sell more than 300,000 copies.

This year’s award-winning novel, “D’une belle naturel”, by Christian Signol, addresses a thorny issue in contemporary France: the reintroduction of the wolf into Limousin and the resulting conflicts between farmers, shepherds and animal rights defenders.

— He is a novelist who already enjoys considerable popular success, but whom the literary world tends to underestimate, perhaps precisely for this reason. Which is unfair,” Vitoux said.

In an interview, Signol spoke about the importance of being recognized by such an important group.

— This award means that the most effective way to defend the cause of animals is to adopt their point of view. This is what I did in several chapters of this novel, putting myself in the place of a wolf, experiencing its gaze, its instincts and its suffering. This is a literary technique that Jack London used in “White Fang”.

Jurors serve a life term. But perhaps the most famous member of the jury was conspicuous by his absence: for three years, the controversial writer Michel Houellebecq refused to come out of his isolation to judge the prize, even though for many years it was the only literary jury he was part of and the only event the press knew he would be safe to attend, often accompanied by his corgi Clément.

— A crowd of journalists always invaded the dining room, rushing to interview him, — Frain said.

In fact, Houellebecq was a fan long before he was a judge; after winning the Goncourt prize (human), he mentioned the magazine and its derivatives so often in interviews that Hutin felt compelled to invite him.

“He misses him a lot,” she said.

The pets accompanied the human jurors during the ceremony, until certain incidents occurred. A frightened ferret bit its owner. Then, a few years ago, a cat got scared, there was climbing on the curtains, broken chairs; and the jury, with regret, forbids the presence of all except the best trained.

Vitoux says he got involved because of his passion for cats, which spans several works and emerges in his biography of Céline.

— I love cats and it’s impossible for me to live without one at home. Without a cat, the house is lifeless.