Badgers: in the Ain region, no to administrative beat hunts to replace digging up!
Our legal actions are bearing fruit: everywhere in France, the supplementary periods of underground hunting have been suspended. But as we anticipated, the prefectures are adapting to continue pleasing the hunters, by allowing more and more massive administrative beats against badgers. In the Ain region, for example, the prefect has just authorized the lieutenants of louveterie and pests, accompanied by the hunters of their choice, to crack down throughout the region… for more than 7 months, even outside the hunting season! A way of avoiding having to publish a decree for each operation, and of preventing us from taking legal action… We are challenging this decree.
Prefects and hunters adapt… so can we!
After a record-breaking 2023 season against spring and summer digging, the successes continue in 2024, with numerous suspensions across France and nearly 4,000 animals saved. More than ever, this practice to which hunters are so attached, and whose cruelty we demonstrated thanks to our undercover investigation, is in the hot seat. And they seem to be panicking!
We knew they’d react, once again with the support of the State. In the last few weeks, we think we know how: in several regions, prefects have adopted decrees authorizing administrative beat hunts against badgers. Thousands of animals could be killed by lieutenants of louveterie and pests! But we’ve been expecting this reaction, and we’re ready to attack these decrees.
Administrative beat hunts often illegal, always unacceptable!
In the Ain region, the prefect has “offered” a giant administrative beat hunt, covering the whole region for almost 7 months. By authorizing these massacres over an extended period, the authorities are distorting the purpose of these measures, which are supposed to be reserved for exceptional cases, but which are unfortunately becoming the norm. Even though they are often illegal, as our recent victory for the foxes in the Nièvre region shows.
As usual, to justify killing animals, the authorities accuse them of all kinds of evil. And as usual, the prefect doesn’t put forward a single piece of data to justify her decree: nothing about agricultural damage, nothing about infrastructure damage! In short, killing on the basis of lies, in response to pressure from hunters.
These decisions not only flout the legal framework, but are also ethically unacceptable. A few days after having challenged 12 decrees issued by the Prefect of the Indre-et-Loire region targeting foxes, we are once again going to court! To support this fight, sign our petition for a radical reform of hunting.