In Brittany, 21,000 jackdaws are being targeted: we demand an end to the shooting

Protected birds, but slaughtered by the thousands

Every year, the prefectures of Brittany authorise the slaughter of jackdaws during the nesting season. In 2025, 7,000 individuals are targeted in the Côtes-d’Armor, 6,000 in Finistère, 1,500 in Morbihan and 500 in Ille-et-Vilaine. This is the last straw for these cousins of rooks and black crows, which we recently succeeded in having removed from the scandalous ESOD classification in certain regions.

While protected, they already face a daily struggle against climate change, the scarcity of insects due to the proliferation of pesticides, and the destruction of their habitats. Not to mention poaching, as in the case of the hunt at the authorities’ initiative in Riom against which we filed a complaint after jackdaws were shot and discreetly collected by the shooters under the gaze of stunned witnesses.

We call for massive investment in alternatives to killing!

Year after year, our campaign is gathering momentum. In 2022, our legal actions helped to save 27,000 birds at the last minute. Since then, and despite the mixed decisions in 2023 and 2024, quotas have been decreasing, as in the Morbihan region, where they have fallen from 3,000 in 2022 to 1,500 in 2025. But the prefects continue to choose slaughter, against the animals and against science.

These methods are all the more absurd given that shooting is not effective in reducing damage, as scientists have confirmed. However, rather than investing heavily in the implementation of effective alternative solutions such as chimney grating, the State is once again opting for the easy way out in order to appease angry farmers.

Together with Bretagne Vivante and LPO Bretagne, we will be present at the Administrative Court in Rennes on 17 June at 2.30pm to seek an immediate halt to the operations. While waiting for the next suspensions, sign our petition to demand a radical reform of hunting!