In Lyon, we cohabit with coypus rather than slaughtering them all the time
Every year, hundreds of thousands of coypus are killed in France. To attack them and make the most of their “hobby”, hunters like to resort to an old-fashioned method: archery. As always, the animals pay a high price so that these amateur aspiring Robin Hoods – more like cavemen… – can have a few hours’ fun in the forest. And this despite the fact that alternatives do exist, such as in Lyon, where the city council will be launching sterilization campaigns. Proof that, with the right will, it’s possible to put a stop to the mortiferous approach that too often prevails!
Hunters’ logic: kill!
Kill with a rifle, kill by digging up, kill by trapping…! In the Isère department, we learn that hunters prefer to shoot coypus with a bow! For these animals, it’s a real ordeal: the arrow is rarely lethal on the first shot, and many end up wounded and die after a slow agony, sometimes next to their young.
Beyond its cruelty, the whole approach is absurd. By slaughtering nearly a million foxes a year, who are the coypus’ predators, hunters are upsetting a fragile balance. Then, as always, they come running and claim to be repairing the damage they themselves have caused, by “regulating” the species, as they put it. QED.
More animal-friendly alternatives
Sometimes, political courage can bend this deleterious logic. In the Lyon area, where a few years ago coypus’ bodies were pierced with arrows and their heads crushed with clubs by hunters, the town council has radically changed its approach as part of an “action plan to improve the condition of animals“.
In particular, an experiment is planned to sterilize coypus. This is proof that barbaric measures aimed at killing animals arbitrarily considered to be a nuisance can be replaced by a more respectful approach to these sensitive beings, even if it means still imposing our rules on the wild world, provided the authorities give themselves the means to do so.
Because it is never justified to make animals suffer and kill them, join us in demanding a radical reform of hunting by signing our petition!