Digging up badgers: legal victories... and prefecture shenanigans!
Thousands of badgers saved thanks to our emergency procedures, dozens of decrees declared definitively illegal by the courts… and panic on the part of hunters and prefectures! As the last hearings of the season approach and the victories multiply, the hunters and the authorities are looking for every possible way to keep this cruel pastime alive. Here’s an example from the Haute-Marne department, where the prefecture is more interested in defending hunters than in respecting animals and the law.
2024: another emergency suspension, more than 4,000 badgers saved
In the Deux-Sèvres department, we intervened with a real associative front: together with AVES, ASPAS, LPO, Deux-Sèvres Nature Environment and Veterinarians for Biodiversity, we obtained from the court the suspension of the digging a few days after its opening.
A logical decision, given that the prefecture had acknowledged that “during the supplementary period […] almost all the young are taken“! And this at a time when we have obtained confirmation from the State Council that it is forbidden to kill young badgers…
In all, over 4,000 individuals were saved by our actions in 2024. And, department by department, after the emergency, the courts are confirming the illegality of this cruel hunt in spring and summer: in Charente-Maritime and Vienne (where we were attacking with the LPO and Vienne Nature), the 2023 authorizations have just been definitively annulled. A new hearing will take place on September 6 at 10:30 a.m. at the Rouen administrative court for the Eure department (with AVES, FNE Normandie and LPO Normandie).
In the Haute-Marne department, scheming that won’t go down well!
We know that prefectures will do anything to allow hunters to continue killing badgers, who are systematically accused of all evils. Even if it means opening giant administrative beat hunts, as in the Ain department, where we have counter-attacked, or simply trampling on a court ruling, as in Haute-Marne.
In this department, in April 2024, the Châlons-en-Champagne administrative court ruled in our favor, definitively canceling the supplementary period scheduled from May 15, 2024 to September 14, 2024. The prefecture then rushed to prepare the adoption of a new decree, authorizing a complementary period from June 1… but this decree was never published! We now understand why: in the middle of summer, an authorization has just been issued for a supplementary period from August 1 to September 15.
This behavior on the part of the Haute-Marne prefect is unacceptable on three counts: it illustrates a senseless attack on animals, the shameless violation of a court ruling, and a maneuver in the sole interest of hunters, far removed from the defense of the general interest. With AVES and ASPAS, we attack this decree, and solemnly denounce this behavior!
Speak up for badgers with us! Sign our petitions for their protection, a ban on digging up badgers and a radical reform of the hunting system!