Justice: six associations are filing a plea against marmot and mountain hare hunting in Savoie

The Association Justice Animaux Savoie (AJAS), ASPAS, Animal Cross, AVES France, FNE Savoie, and One Voice are filing a plea against the prefectural decree authorising the hunting of marmots and mountain hares, emblematic animals in the Alps. These two species, protected by the Bern Convention, are in decline due to the destruction of their reproduction habitat and climate change. However, hunting them is still authorised! An interim hearing has been set in the coming days in Grenoble while a petition having gained almost 80,000 signatures is asking the government for a pure and simple ban on hunting marmots throughout the country.

A scandalous type of hunting on species that are protected and are threatened by global warming

Banned since 1992 in Italy, hunting marmots is still allowed in France where it caused the death of 427 animals in Savoie last year. Marmots are, however, protected by Annex III of the Bern Convention. Their ‘management’ must therefore “be regulated in order to keep populations out of danger”. The problem: to this day, there has not been an official count allowing us to know the exact state of their population, and this lack of knowledge is used to continue to authorise them being hunted.

However, marmots are doing badly as they are victims of the effects of global warming and many scientists are sounding the alarm, such as the Vanoise Scientific Council in the statement that they delivered in May 2023. An alarming finding also for mountain hares since, in 2017, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) revised their status in order to classify them as ‘near threatened’ given the marked decline in their population in the country.

A trophy hunt far from the discourse of hunters as “the first ecologists of France”.

Hare hunting joins that of 24 species with an unfavourable conservation status in France, or 27% of huntable species. In reality, far from being the first ecologists in France, hunters are gravediggers for biodiversity. They hunt for pleasure and with a taste for trophies, with marmots being no exception. But French people are not fooled.

The Savoie Prefect authorised marmot hunting in opposition to citizens’ views

As part of the public consultation prior to the publication of the 2023-2024 hunting plan for Savoie, 88 citizens expressed that they were explicitly against this practice. The Prefect was thus forced to justify himself, putting forward arguments each more absurd than the last! According to the Prefecture’s official documentation, “burrows dug in meadows cause injuries to cattle, sometimes to farmers with sprains, breakage of mowing equipment, damage to watering hoses, etc..” Furthermore, in the document presented following the public consultation by the Savoie Prefect, there is no official count allowing us to know the exact state of the mountain hare and marmot populations. Neither Prefects nor hunters are above the law, which is why our associations have decided to file an appeal against the prefectural decree allowing the hunting of marmots and hares in 2023.

Legal action and a petition to the government

While these practices are not banned on a national level, each Prefect can decide arbitrarily whether or not to authorise these types of hunting. This is the reason why our associations have been rallying in a forum since 2022 to ask for an end to marmot hunting. The aim? To go from 78,000 to 100,000 signatures on the petition in order to get the government to ban marmot hunting throughout France once and for all.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice