Manche, Orne, Haute-Vienne: a succession of victories by One Voice for badgers!
After the Dijon tribunal, it is the turn of the courts in Limoges and Caen to suspend decrees being carried out authorising badger digging in the Haute-Vienne, Manche, and Orne departments in the spring. The administrative judges recognise that there is indeed a serious doubt on the legality of these decisions. Initial victories for badgers, who will therefore have their lives saved this spring.
*This spring and summer 2023, badgers and their young will have peace in the Haute-Vienne, Orne, and Manche departments.
Under the framework of our large-scale attack against decrees authorising digging out badgers this spring, we are winning the first key victories.
On Friday 5 May, the Limoges Administrative Tribunal suspended the Haute-Vienne Prefect’s decree from being carried out. For the court, there was indeed a serious doubt on the legality of this decision, passed following botched proceedings.
In Caen, the Administrative Tribunal agreed with us and ruled, beyond the procedural flaws, that additional periods of digging out were likely to harm the young, still present in the setts at this time of year. The judge went further and, for the first time, admitted that the very possibility of digging in the spring is illegal.
At least 800 badgers spared. We will not stop there
Badgers are not animals that reproduce quickly. They only have one litter per year, and generally one or two cubs, rarely more. Their development is slow and it can take more than a year for them to gain independence!
In total, in Haute-Vienne, almost 500 of them will be saved by our actions. In Orne, more than 300 badgers and badger cubs will have their lives saved. The Manche Prefecture did not bother to tell the court how many badgers were killed each year by digging to respond to our arguments and those of AVES France (who took the same position as we did at the hearing for this department).
Year after year, One Voice and its partners obtain significant victories against illegal decrees passed by State representatives. In the weeks to come, we will continue to defend badgers in dozens of departments from Ardennes to Lot-et-Garonne and right up to the Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
More than ever, we need your help to give these animals, martyrs of our woodlands, a voice. Sign the petition to demand an abolition, pure and simple, on digging, and for us to stop using the word badger in a derogatory manner! You can also find us in thirteen towns in France for our coordinated national action to defend them as well as foxes, who are also victims of this cruel hunting method.
Translated from the French by Joely Justice