Underground badger hunting: 10 new victories and more hearings to come!
In the Cher, Loir-et-Cher, Eure-et-Loir, Loiret, Allier, Finistère, Corrèze, Calvados, Aube and Charente-Maritime departments, the courts have sided with the animals by cancelling or suspending the supplementary periods for underground venery set by the prefectures. Cornered in their burrows and seized by metal pliers before being finished off, the badgers who fall victim to this cruel practice are living a hellish existence, to which the courts are now objecting, all the more so as the young badgers, who are only a few months old at this time of year, are endangered and often illegally killed. On the strength of these court rulings, which protect animals in accordance with the law, we are announcing new hearings!
After suspension, orders definitively canceled
In 2023, we had 80% of the decrees allowing badgers to be hunted in their burrows from May to September, in addition to the rest of the year, suspended as a matter of urgency. Thanks to our legal action, more than 4,000 badgers were saved and were able to raise their young without fear. But we still had to obtain the annulment of these texts. This has now been achieved in the Loir-et-Cher, Eure-et-Loir and Loiret departments, where the Orléans administrative court ruled in our favor on June 20. At the same time, it also annulled the supplementary period authorized in the Cher department, this time in 2024, after it had been suspended!
In these four departments, the judges once again stressed that hunters’ practices were endangering young badgers, who are still vulnerable at this time of year and protected by law. They also pointed out that the prefecture had not provided sufficient evidence of the damage allegedly caused by these animals. And in the Finistère department, the decree authorizing a supplementary period of underground hunting for 2024 was annulled by the Rennes administrative court on July 5 for lack of a sufficient presentation note. So, permits to kill are handed out lightly…
Finally, on July 11, the Limoges administrative court also handed down its decision, annulling the 2023 decree by which the Corrèze prefect had set a supplementary period of underground hunting from June 15 to September 14, 2023.
With each new attempt by the State, we continue to attack in a hurry!
Wherever hunters insist on tormenting badgers all summer long, despite the illegality of the practice, we are there! That’s what we did when we joined forces with AVES and ASPAS to challenge the decree issued by the Charente-Maritime prefecture authorizing the digging up of badgers from June 1 to September 7. On July 1, the Poitiers administrative court suspended the order. Having heard our arguments, the judges insisted on the fact that the young were still far from being emancipated when they were weaned, and depended on their parents until the end of their first autumn. Killing their parents and destroying their burrows therefore put them in direct danger.
In the Allier department, the Clermont-Ferrand administrative court also suspended the decree issued on May 23, 2024 authorizing the digging up of badgers from July 1 to the general opening of the hunting season. This decision, handed down on July 5, also stressed that the supplementary period was “likely to harm young badgers who were not yet emancipated and the badger population in general”.
And thanks to the decision we obtained hand in hand with AVES and ASPAS from the Caen administrative court on July 10, badgers in the Calvados department, targeted by underground hunters since June 15, will once again be safe until September. Finally, on July 11, the administrative court of Châlons-en-Champagne also suspended the supplementary period of underground hunting that was underway in the Aube department.
Some courts still ignore the law
In the Mayenne and the Loire-Atlantique departments, the Nantes administrative court has remained deaf to our arguments. On July 1, it announced that it was rejecting our requests for suspension.
The same thing happened in the Ille-et-Vilaine department, where the court refused to annul the prefectural decree of January 2023 on the grounds that badgers had been observed during the counts… And this despite the fact that the French National Hunting and Wildlife Commission (ONCFS), which has since become the French Biodiversity Commission (OFB), considers that counting is not a reliable method for estimating the conservation status of their populations…
In the Ardennes department, the administrative court of Châlons-en-Champagne also rejected the request for suspension that we had formulated alongside AVES and ASPAS concerning a supplementary period of underground hunting from June 1 to September 14. Delivered on July 8, its decision is surprising, to say the least: the judges have authorized hunters to kill badgers… with the exception of female badgers and any animal weighing less than 8 kilos. Are we to understand that they expect hunters to go into the forest with scales and weigh each individual before deciding whether to kill them or release them back into the ruins of their burrow? As underground hunters are never checked, they alone will decide how to proceed…
More hearings to come
We’re not stopping there. On July 11, we were present at the Orléans administrative court, alongside AVES and ASPAS, to seek an emergency suspension of the digging in the Eure-et-Loir department, as we had already succeeded in doing last year.
On July 15, at 11:20 a.m., we’ll be making the same request to the Limoges administrative court concerning the authorized stalking from June 15 to September 14 in the Haute-Vienne department. We’ll also be defending badgers on July 22 at 3pm, at the Poitiers administrative court for the Deux-Sèvres department, and finally on August 2 at 11:30am at the Limoges administrative court for the Creuse and Corrèze departments.
To support us in our fight for badgers, ask for a ban on underground hunting by signing our petition.
Photo : Nicolas Bazerque