Hearing on 7 February 2024 for an urgent suspension on tenrec hunting in Réunion
Despite the cancellation of their decree in 2022, the Réunion Prefect has persisted in authorising tenrec hunting once again for 2024. For two months, these little mammals run the risk of being hunted down into their burrows. We will defend them at the Saint-Denis Administrative Tribunal on 7 February at 2:30pm to get this law urgently suspended.
Updated 12 February 2024
Respite for tenrecs! Although several thousand of them will be killed in coming weeks, the Saint-Denis Administrative Tribunal has just suspended the Réunion Prefect’s decree before the hunting season has even opened. The urgent applications judge confirmed that there was serious doubt surrounding the legality of the way in which this law was passed. Above all, in substance, the ruling confirmed that this type of hunting puts young tenrecs danger, who are still present in the burrows at this time.
But victory has not yet been achieved for these animals who are victims of a cruel type of hunting and are still widely poached. With the decree only just having been suspended, the Réunion Prefecture have already announced that they are going to publish a new one to authorise a massacre of tenrecs despite everything. In addition to contempt for animals, there is also contempt for legal decisions! We invite you to participate in large numbers in the consultation that has just been launched!
Photo: A tenrec in a garden by Maryline P, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED
Just a few days ago, the Réunion Prefect took out a decree authorising a new tenrec hunting season on the island. From mid-February to mid-April, hunters will release their dogs to pursue these little animals. Once extracted from their burrows, those who have not succumbed to the initial attack will be killed by those who hunt them down…
Illegal laws that put the young in danger
We reject this situation which once again favours hunters’ hobbies to the detriment of wildlife. On 29 December 2023, the Saint-Denis Administrative Tribunal had already proven us right by cancelling the decree targeting tenrecs in 2022. Not only had the prefect not taken the trouble to justify his fatal law, but he also endangered the young present in the burrows up until spring. Why do we allow the Environmental Code to constantly be trampled on to please hunters?
But, fortunately, times are changing: in cities, more and more tribunals believe that it is unacceptable to hunt animals in their burrows while the young can be found there. Along with ourselves, 84% of French people are also calling for a ban on this practice, no matter how old the animals being targeted are (Ipsos/One Voice survey, October 2023).
So that no tenrecs, who are already victims of poaching and the growing disappearance of their habitat, are killed in 2024, we will loudly and clearly give them a voice at the Saint-Denis Administrative Tribunal on 7 February at 2:30pm.
Translated from the French by Joely Justice