In the Gers region, an order to cull 660 foxes for "experimental" purposes
In the Gers department, four lieutenants of louveterie and pests have been given free rein until December 2025 to kill 660 foxes in the name of a pseudo-study aimed at gaining a better understanding of their diet. This is utter nonsense, given that several thousand foxes are already killed in this region every year. One Voice is challenging these decrees and will be at the Pau Administrative Court on 4 March at 2:30 p.m. to seek their urgent suspension.
Constantly hunted, foxes know no respite
The prefect has given carte blanche to the lieutenants of louveterie and pests. The aim? To examine foxes’ stomachs to find out more about the diet of these red-coated animals. The usefulness of this study is questionable, not to mention the many non-lethal alternatives that could have been implemented. The killings will be carried out day and night, by all means, in 70 municipalities. And once again, the prefect is taking advantage of the situation to transfer to sworn hunters the responsibility of deciding where, when and how they will intervene. One can easily imagine them delighted: “If you want something done right, do it yourself!”
This is no longer just inconsistent, it is outright persecution. It is difficult to imagine animals that are easier to kill: classified as ESOD, they can be dug out of their burrows, trapped and shot all year round. While we await the outcome of our appeal against this audacious classification, it is a bloodbath. Not to mention recreational hunting, which begins on 1 June for these animals, instead of September for other species.
Hunting in the name of science: a new trend in France?
The state is prepared to do whatever it takes to authorise the killing of wild animals in the name of the sacrosanct “leisure” of a small influential minority. Last-minute publication of decrees, the opening of certain hunts in several stages in order to confuse us, as well as unlimited hunts –we are used to these plots.
Never short of ideas, it is now invoking science, as it so often does to authorise massacres in the name of experimentation. But this is not entirely new: after our repeated victories against traditional hunts, the state is seeking to reintroduce them in the name of “scientific experimentation”, which we managed to suspend partially.
We are challenging these four decrees in order to combat the persecution of foxes and the misuse of science. We will be present on 4 March at 2.30 p.m. at the administrative court in Pau. In the meantime, please sign our petitions to demand a radical reform of hunting and the removal of foxes from the list of animals that can be killed without restriction!
Hundreds of red foxes spared!
The Pau Administrative Court has just issued an emergency suspension of the prefecture’s decrees, which argued during the hearing that the purpose of these culls was to remove foxes from the ESOD (formerly “pest”) species list… even though the State itself requested their classification in this category in 2023, a classification that we challenged in court. Whatever excuses are given, the lieutenants of louveterie and pests will not be able to slaughter 660 foxes this year.