In court to save 16,000 Western jackdaws in Côtes-d’Armor and Finistère: hearing on 22 June in Rennes
One Voice is asking for two decrees authorising the massacre of thousands of Western jackdaws in Brittany to be suspended.
At the end of May, the Côtes-d’Armor and Finistère Prefectures published two decrees, each authorising the killing of 8000 Western jackdaws in the months to come. To stop this planned massacre on these birds that are relentlessly targeted, we are asking for an urgent suspension of these decrees, and eventually the cancellation of these delusional authorisations. The hearing will take place on 22 June at 10am at the Rennes Administrative Tribunal.
Updated 22 June
The decision is expected at the end of next week.
The prospect of a mass killing again threatens jackdaws. Under the pretext of protecting the interests of farmers and their crops, the Côtes-d’Armor and Finistère Prefectures do not hesitate to sacrifice them. However, public powers often find it difficulty to explain how the damage caused by these birds would make these decisions essential. What does it matter! Not only do they fail to justify themselves, but to continue killing animals as they please, they conveniently forget that this policy has proved ineffective.
The young are doomed
As if the death of thousands of individuals targeted was not enough, these decrees also threaten young jackdaws that are still dependent on their parents during this nesting and rearing period. Alone in their nest, they are condemned to die of hunger without their protectors having returned, lying somewhere after having been killed by being shot mid-air or having succumbed to a trap…
A permanent fight
The persecution of these jackdaws is not new in the west of France. In spring 2022, we had already attacked four prefectural decrees authorising the killing of more than 27,000 birds. Thanks to our legal action, the three laws issued in Brittany were suspended and the majority of the animals were spared.
To prevent more carnage among Western jackdaws in Côtes d’Armor and Finistère, we will speak in favour of an urgent suspension of the prefectural decrees for them at the hearing which will take place on 22 June 2023 at 10am at the Rennes Administrative Tribunal.
Translated from the French by Joely Justice