After foxes being hung... foxes stuffed?
The body of a fox that most likely has been stuffed has been exhibited for passers-by to see at the edge of a road in a village in Aisne
Hunted down for their whole lives, humiliated to death: foxes suffer unbearable harassment which is maintained by the State and hunters leading to the worst indignities. On 8 February, One Voice received a new report of the desecration of a cadaver, stuffed this time, and in full view of everyone in the village of Berlancourt (02).
But what did foxes do to suffer such harassment?
After the bodies hung in Dracy-Saint-Loup and Vallet, on 8 February, we received a witness statement from a shocked walker after having found themselves face to face with a corpse abandoned by the side of a country road in Aisne.
With this fox still being there several weeks later, our witness had a closer look and was able to see that it was in all likelihood… stuffed. What explanation is there for this senseless act if not the pure and simple desire to reign terror in the countryside?
The State and hunters’ responsibility for the increase in these acts is immense: by dint of knowingly maintaining hatred against these animals related to dogs, despite them being intelligent and sociable and essential in maintaining biodiversity, they give free reign to the most despicable acts.
Because for foxes, life now can only be summed up as permanently trying to escape from hunters who are eager to exterminate them. Their obsession for these animals is matched only by the cruelty of the methods used to kill them.
Foxes can, of course, be hunted with guns during the hunting season. Like badgers, they can also be dug out from their burrows: dogs are sent underground and, once the foxes and their young are cornered, hunters dig holes in the ground to drag them out with the help of pincers before killing them, sometimes with a knife, sometimes with a gun, but always laughing at the pain these dying animals suffer.
But the massacring does not end there. Classified as a ‘species likely to cause damage’ in many departments, they can also be trapped with torture instruments that no longer have a place in our countryside (ovitraps, foot snares, or body-grip traps) but which litter the ground of the woodland and have many collateral victims.
And if this is not enough, prefects regularly authorise official hunts during which foxes can be massacred, and also their young. There is truly no limit to the cruelty.
Faced with the increase in these events, we are alerting the Mayor, Prefect, and the French Office of Biodiversity again: in the name of foxes, in the name of the safety of our countryside, we must act to identify the guilty party, punish them, and put an end to these despicable acts! Sign the petition so that foxes can be taken off the list of ‘species likely to cause damage’ (previously ‘pests’).
Translated from the French by Joely Justice