Hunting: One Voice is at the Grenoble Administrative Tribunal on 18 October for mountain Galliformes

One Voice is attacking the decree on the basis that it authorises the slaughter of these three species of bird. The novelty in this case file, in relation to others on mountain Galliformes, is that we have chosen to fight not only for lagopus and black grouse, but also for rock partridges that are classified as ‘near-threatened’ and for which the figures from the Mountain Galliformes Observatory [Observatoire des Galliformes de Montagne] (in charge of the in situ inventories) are not good.

Each hunter in each area can kill a rock ptarmigan, while the fate of black grouse and rock partridges is left to the indiscretion of the individual hunting plans which can kill up to 414 individuals for black grouse and 190 for rock partridges.

Is this short-term vision that authorises hunting to continue normal? Is it normal that the quotas are established according to the data collected in the previous year? We do not calculate a provisional budget there: this is not theoretical, lives are at stake, and that is not all! Mountain Galliformes are disappearing bit by bit. If we allow more of them to be slaughtered in years where, finally, they can live and reproduce in peace, this is not how we will ensure that they survive when they are already having such trouble doing so without being in the line of fire. If we add to this that the hunting season is particularly long in this department, we could end up believing that there is a desire to make them disappear as quickly as possible.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice