Underground badger hunting out of season: a practice that yields... and will eventually break!
In 2023 and 2024, our large-scale campaigns against the horror of underground hunting saved thousands of badgers from a violent and painful death. Even though dozens of rulings have ruled this indiscriminate hunt illegal, because young badgers are systematically killed, some prefects are determined to allow hunters to have a little “fun” out of season. But we’re making progress: the number of departments authorizing hunting from May 15 has never been so low before, dropping from 72 in 2020 to… 12 in 2025! Once again this year, we’ll be out on the streets and in court to keep up the pressure.
Badgers, favorite target of prefects and hunters
Beneath their discreet appearance, these animals are endowed with a fascinating intelligence. At night, when they’re not sleeping, they live as a family in intricate burrows that they carefully maintain. They play, educate newborns in late winter and early spring, and play an active part in balancing ecosystems… underground, but not safe. A few weeks after the births, just as the youngest begin to emerge from their refuge, the diggers get their shovels, guns and knives ready to kill them after hours of stalking.
To protect a cruel and extremely violent hobby, the prefects will do anything. The pretexts are each more fallacious than the last: here, badgers are accused of attacking herds of bovines; elsewhere, they are incriminated for destroying several tons of crops. At this rate, perhaps they’ll end up being accused of eating children… This intolerable relentlessness must stop!
From 72 in 2020 to 12 in 2025: the beginning of the end for complementary periods?
In 2023 and 2024, the large-scale campaigns we ran in the field and in the courts with our
partners helped save thousands of lives. Today, judges are (almost) unanimous: yes, this practice is illegal! Some prefectures even recognize this themselves, as in the Loire-Atlantique region where nearly a third of the animals killed are young badgers, and nearly a third of the females massacred have just given birth. A death sentence for their still-dependent young.
Faced with us, the diggers are deploying all their energy and influence to get the authorities to ignore these rulings. But they cannot resist indefinitely, and the fight is bearing fruit more than ever: in 2025, only 12 departments are preparing to authorize underground hunting from mid-May, compared with 19 in 2024 and 72 in 2020!
With ASPAS and AVES, we are organizing a first salvo of requests in the Mayenne, Allier, Cantal and Puy-de-Dôme regions. Above all, May 15 is World Badger Day! You can now join our national action in your nearest town to speak up on their behalf and that of the foxes, and sign our petition to demand a ban on digging up these animals!
First round against underground massacres!
Since May 15, certain departments have been killing badgers and their young. To put an end to this, we’ll be present at the first hearings on June 4, 2025 at 10 a.m. at the Clermont-Ferrand administrative court against the decrees of the Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Allier regions.