Common tenrecs: against animals and justice, little arrangements between the prefecture and hunters
Every year, between fifty and one hundred thousand common tenrecs are hunted on Reunion Island. Although the administrative court in Saint-Denis issued an emergency injunction suspending this announced massacre before it even began, a new decree is due to be adopted to authorize it in spite of everything. In addition to contempt for the animals, there is contempt for justice. And for good reason: it would appear that it was not the prefect, but the hunters themselves who held the pen… One Voice is calling for mobilization to oppose the massacre and these methods!
Update on 21/02/2024
After launching the public consultation for a new draft decree authorizing the hunting of common tenrecs, the prefecture closed it prematurely. But the collusion between the prefect and the hunters is total and, from now on, assumed: the authors of the draft decree and the presentation note are still… the director of the hunters’ federation and her lawyer!
The only difference, and it’s a big one: if this new decree is adopted, hunters will be allowed to kill common tenrecs every day of the week, instead of three days previously. To say no to these methods and to the extension of the number of hunting days, take part in the consultation!
Decree suspended, thousands of common tenrecs saved
Already victims of large-scale poaching, common tenrecs are killed for several months each year. While their newborns are still in their burrows, hunters set their dogs after them. Those who don’t die directly are picked up and killed later. It’s a sad fate not unlike that suffered by badgers and foxes in France’s underground venery.
Because tradition will never justify the violence inflicted on animals, we are fully mobilized wherever animals are targeted in its name. In December 2023, the Saint-Denis administrative court ruled in our favor, annulling the 2022 decree a posteriori. On February 12, it confirmed its position: the procedure for adopting the decree for 2024 was more than dubious, and the use of dogs directly endangers the pups. A relief for these animals and their defenders, on the island and everywhere else.
Never better served than by oneself: at the meeting, the hunters write the regulations themselves!
But the respite was short-lived. On February 12, a new draft decree was already online on the prefecture’s website. On reading the attached documents, we were doubly stunned to discover that the draft decree and its presentation note seemed not to have been drafted by the State services, which are supposed to be the guarantors of the general interest, but by… the director of the departmental hunters’ federation and her lawyer! We immediately had this information noted by a bailiff and will be contesting this new decision by all available means.
This is a shameless way for the prefect to allow the slaughter of these animals and silence the voices of all Reunion Islanders who are opposed to these practices. You too can make your discontent known by taking part in the public consultation!