Hunting: what a sinister goose game!

They have named the White-fronted goose, the Greylag goose and the Taiga bean goose... These geese are now a grey area. For several years, French hunters have been curious about these birds, immortalized by Michel Delpech or Raymond Devos, so they can be killed in greater numbers legally, ... Yet protected by the international conventions of Bonn and Bern, by the Birds Directive of the Union European Union, they are the subject of a custom-made order prepared for this purpose by our Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition. One Voice rebels against this!

An irresponsible decision

Nesting or stopping over in France on their migratory routes leading them to Scandinavia and Siberia, these geese already heavily impacted by legal hunting see today the killing spread out in contempt of their reproduction cycles. Nothing justifies this extension of slaughtering on our soil (except Alsace), the opposite is true!

The state of knowledge on the populations concerned indicates that it is irresponsible to extend hunting periods. There are nearly 20,000 butternut geese in our country wintering every year. Half of them are shot down during their migration. Today, one wants to kill 4,000 more by extending the period of authorized shooting. Why? In the name of an international management project prepared for several years, which reports “nuisances” in other European countries, and would allow the hunters of France to remedy this problem… by shooting «French» geese, which have nothing to do with this so called problem!

Adaptive management?

The problems posed yesterday at Amsterdam airport by migratory flights of geese nesting in Holland, damage to local cultures (very little documented evidence) ... this thread is a bit big to justify a surplus of ducks in France: there are not the same populations of geese, and here they are already in decline!

We speak of courageous and intelligent birds. Despite the vagaries of the weather, wild geese preserve their way of life, the notion of life-time couples, provide infinite help to their young, spending hours of learning on their lands of passage and within their broods, from the south to the north of the Europe. All indications are that their numbers are decreasing, like that of many birds, and February is decisive in their reproductive cycle. Any adaptive management of these species would require that hunting periods be shortened, not extended.

Connected killing

The ministerial decree whose legality we challenge is in no way based on figures or specific cases justifying the extension. On the other hand, and it is a shame, while allowing additional shootings, it clearly mandates the federations of hunters in the precise counting of the 4,000 announced victims ("hunting app" (chassadapt) an app for smartphones will record the animals slaughtered up to the quota, after, it's too late, the animals are already dead, but do not 'enter' more because you are theoretically in violation). The balance of the consolidated hunting charts is expected in the summer and in November. An expected assessment report will certainly ensure that the additional shooting did not affect the conservation status of the birds, and that overall international cooperation is satisfactory. So, one has delegated to the hunters, now unified and connected, the management of their victims. Bravo!

We must act!

For several years now, European hunters have been tracking these migrants as targets, not being able to see these vast and magical wild birds flying around them without opening fire. Cynically, the French decree states that these additional shootings are in the end “non-recreational”. For geese we suspect.  

One Voice has appealed to the Council of State, so that this measure is suspended to save the 4,000 already convicted and judged on merit... Wednesday, February 6th, 2019, we also call for a protest (appointment at 12 o'clock, place de Paris City Hall) against these new hunting rights and for the defence of the biodiversity. These geese are not those of the Capitol, but they are just capital! #LaissonsMigrerLesOiesSauvages