Underground hunting: in 2024, over 4,000 badgers already saved!
As in 2023, there’s a flurry of legal victories for badgers! Since the opening of the supplementary underground hunting periods on May 15, our appeals have led to the emergency suspension of this cruel hunt in no less than 13 departments, sparing more than 4,200 individuals. Meanwhile, little by little, the courts are definitively annulling the decrees adopted in 2023. With just a few days to go before the last hearings of the season, pressure has never been so strong on the State and hunters to put an end to this outdated practice!
Since the beginning of spring, thousands of individuals have been saved from the diggers’ shovels!
The latest victories: in the Eure-et-Loir, Haute-Vienne and Ille-et-Vilaine departments. While the diggers were preparing their shovels to track down and kill over 1,000 badgers (150, 700 and 200 respectively) for hours on end, our mobilization, with our partners ASPAS and AVES, once again bore fruit. The young badgers, only a few months old and just starting to emerge from their burrows, can now spend the summer in peace!
Despite their relentlessness, the authorities can no longer ignore the clear message from the courts. In the Cher department, after two successive rulings in our favor, the prefecture was about to thumb its nose at justice and the general interest and authorize the digging up of badgers again… but finally gave up, just a few days before the planned opening!
6 new supplementary periods from 2023 definitively declared illegal!
The fight against underground hunting is a real long-distance race. After emergency rulings suspending dozens of 2023 orders, the courts are gradually handing down their final rulings in all these cases. The results are final! Puy-de-Dôme, Corrèze, Rhône, Essonne, Morbihan, Côtes-d’Armor… between botched procedures and recognition of the illegal harm caused to young badgers by this outdated practice, the courts are cutting the hunters’ pseudo-arguments to shreds!
More than ever, these decisions highlight the total collusion between the hunting world and State departments. Special mention should be made of the Morbihan prefecture, which was sanctioned by the court for having allowed the hunters themselves to draw up the documents justifying the opening of the hunt… The bigger it is, the more it (no longer) is acceptable!
The next step in our fight is clear: to put an end to this illegal practice once and for all! To do this, support us by signing our petition for a radical reform of hunting, and for a pure and simple ban on underground hunting!
Upcoming hearings :
- Deux-Sèvres (with AVES, ASPAS, LPO, Deux-Sèvres Nature Environnement and Vétérinaires pour la Biodiversité): July 22 at 3pm at the Poitiers administrative court;
- Cantal (with AVES, ASPAS and LPO Aura) and Puy-de-Dôme (with AVES, ASPAS, LPO Aura, FNE Puy-de-Dôme and FNE AURA): July 26 at 9:30 am at the administrative court in Clermont-Ferrand;
- Creuse and Corrèze (with AVES and ASPAS): August 2 at 11:30 am at the Limoges administrative court.
Orders suspended for the 2024 season (average number of badgers killed in previous seasons)
Allier (350)
Ardennes (90)
Aube (230)
Aveyron (300)
Calvados (200)
Cher (300)
Côtes-d’Armor (500)
Eure (500)
Eure-et-Loir (150)
Finistère (200)
Ille-et-Vilaine (200)
Morbihan (500)
Haute-Vienne (700)