Foxes killed and abandoned in a Jura river: hearing on May 23!
Every year in France, nearly a million red foxes are slaughtered. Hunters, trappers, poachers… all have just one wish: to kill more and more of them, using methods each more appalling than the last. Last March, a lieutenant of louveterie and pests, commissioned by the prefect to carry out yet another massacre, simply abandoned dozens of fox corpses in a river. Together with the Centre Athénas, we filed a complaint. On May 23 at 9am, at the Besançon judicial court, we will be present to ensure that justice is done.
Update of May 23, 2024:
In a decision dated May 23, 2024, the Besançon judicial court sentenced the lieutenant of louveterie and pests who had killed dozens of foxes and dumped their bodies in a river to a €1,000 fine, of which €500 was suspended. A weak penalty, but one that sends a clear message to all those who consider nature to be a dustbin and animals to be waste!
In the Jura department, a lieutenant of louveterie and pests takes foxes for garbage and nature for a dustbin.
In March 2023 in the Jura department, a lieutenant of louveterie and pests, not content with killing foxes, piled their lifeless bodies on the banks of a river and left them to decompose on the spot. Quickly identified thanks to the complaint we filed with the Centre Athénas, the culprit, who acknowledges the facts, will be tried on May 23 at 9am at the Besançon judicial court.
Such actions show a blatant lack of respect for animals. What’s more, their decomposition in a waterway poses a serious pollution risk for all the creatures living there, as well as a major health hazard. We expect an exemplary sentence to send out a strong signal to all those who use nature as their garbage can and morbid playground.
A relentless attack on these cousins of dogs
The foxes of our forests are targeted from all sides: in addition to hunting and administrative beats – which are often illegal – they are victims of underground hunting. Hunted down where they think they’re safest, they are killed with pliers, among other things, after hours of stalking, as we showed in our undercover investigation. As if that weren’t enough, the State has classified them as “ESOD” in dozens of departments. With a simple authorization from the prefect, anyone can ask to have those present on their land killed! We have challenged this iniquitous classification.
While awaiting the decision of the Besançon court, and to say stop to this relentlessness, sign our petition to remove foxes from the “ESOD” list and demand a radical reform of hunting.