Traditional hunting: the government chooses to force their way through a hidden door
We thought they had been buried once and for all, but the government has got their shovel out to give them a second chance. Since 2018, dozens of legal decisions have proven us right and have meant the massacring of hundreds of thousands of birds could have been avoided. But the government will stop at nothing to please hunters. Disguised as ‘scientific experiments’ (that do nothing to advance science, only hunting), they decided to pave the way for the return of cages, nets, and decoys in our countryside. While lapwings, golden plovers, and even field larks already spend their lives avoiding being shot, we will do all we can to get these decrees cancelled and so that this cruel hunting remains a relic of a bygone past.
Updated 20 October 2023:
All of the prefectural decrees planned on traditional hunting experiments in 2023 were published, and all of One Voice’s emergency interim suspension proceedings were also sent to the corresponding administrative tribunals.
In addition to the hearing already planned and announced for 26 October in Châlons-en-Champagne, another has been added to the calendar and will take place in Bordeaux for Lot-et-Garonne on 27 October at 10am.
Updated 24 October at 1:30pm:
New hearing dates! To say no to the return of traditional hunting and to protect larks from cruel and cynical experiments, we will be at the Bordeaux Administrative Tribunal on 27 October 2023 at 10am (for Lot-et-Garonne AND Gironde) and at the one in Pau on 2 November 2023 at 3:30pm (for the Landes and Pyrénées-Atlantiques departments).
Unbearable suffering for animals in the name of ‘tradition’
A hunter-trapper traps a small field lark that is struggling, hooking a small string around its leg or wing and shutting it into a cage before going into hiding. Then he pulls on the string. The pain makes the lark screech, it tries to escape but it is held fast by the trap. Hearing its cries, dozens of other larks – and other species – fly to its rescue. It is at that moment when the trap closes up: nets fall on both sides, trapping them all without distinction. The selected individuals are then killed one by one, methodically, and never mind if the others are injured in the process…
In the name of ‘tradition’, hunting with glue, cages, nets, or decoys was still authorised until recently. But that was without including our action (and that of the LPO, with whom we have fought alongside with the same perspective). Since 2021, One Voice has obtained a ruling by the European Union Court of Justice, followed by many rulings by the State Council, which have all proven us right: these types of hunting are quite simply against the ‘Birds’ Directive. Although glue hunting is nothing but a sad memory, the government is persisting and the legal battle continues for other types of hunting. In October 2022, the State Council urgently suspended the hunting of field larks with nets and cages in the south-west. We are awaiting the final ruling. And in May last year, they even insisted that the government revoke the 1989 decrees authorising the very principle of these hunts.
But the minister is clearly ready to do anything to please this lobby and does not hesitate to brush aside legal decisions from the highest of administrative authorities in the country to allow them to kill animals.
Hunters, these well-known ‘scientists’, are judge and jury!
To allow the killing of several thousand more birds, the government has, or will, launch an ‘experiment’ in five departments to show that these types of hunting are selective. And this even though, regarding net and cage hunting, the State Council has already settled the matter. And of course, these experiments will be led by… the departmental hunters’ federations. You are never served better than when it is by yourself, right! And they pride themselves on being great scientists too…
No need to be a specialist to clearly see that these experiments are only scientific in name. Led by hunters for hunters, this masquerade has a sole aim: to pave the way for the return of nets, decoys, and cages. In Ardennes, there are no less than 500 lapwings that will therefore be captured, and 15 golden plovers. In Lot-et-Garonne, 1000 field larks will end up in nets and cages. Three other departments (Gironde, Landes, and the Pyrénées-Atlantiques) are still to publish their decrees. We are planning to attack them too.
They will hide behind ‘science’, they will say that birds will not be killed, and they will allude to ‘tradition’. But no matter: we will always give these animals, and the 83% of French people who want these practices to disappear, (Ipsos/One Voice survey 2022) a voice against these barbaric types of hunting. We are attacking these decrees and will be at the Châlons-en-Champagne Administrative Tribunal on 26 October at 11:30am (for Ardennes)
Translated from the French by Joely Justice