One Voice is bringing a civil case to the tribunal against a bird poacher in Montauban

One Voice is bringing a civil case to the tribunal against a bird poacher in Montauban
25.10.2023
Tarn-et-Garonne One Voice is bringing a civil case to the tribunal against a bird poacher in Montauban
Wildlife

On 26 October at 9am, we will be at the Montauban legal tribunal for the blue tits, great tits, goldfinches, and blackcaps who are victims of a poacher that lives in the south of Tarn-et-Garonne. The man, not content with capturing and killing protected birds, resorted to illegal traditional hunting methods. We will be there once again against these cruel practices and for all the animals who continue to be a target of them.

It was a macabre spectacle that the agents from the French Office of Biodiversity (OFB) discovered during their search of this poacher’s home in Tarn-et-Garonne. There they found that seven goldfinches were being kept prisoner to attract other birds with their song, while twenty-three individuals from other protected species were found lifeless in traps. Their capture is performed in the trapper’s garden, where the victims, who cannot resist the calls of one of their own, have had the misfortune to land, only to find themselves trapped in nets or stuck to perches covered in glue. The distress and agony that these tits and blackcaps have to endure before they take their last breath is unimaginable.

Faced with a resurgence in traditional hunting, we are keeping the pressure on

As well as having been killed while belonging to a protected species, these birds have been killed using methods that are themselves prohibited. Have we forgotten that glue hunting was ruled illegal by the State Council in 2021, following a decision made by none other than the European Court of Justice? And that the French institution once again proved us right a few months later by suspending and cancelling ministerial decrees relating to traditional hunting several times following this, after the government’s stubbornness in relation to persecuting birds?

Obviously caring as little about justice as they do about animals, those killing these little birds stubbornly go out of their way to continue to use these methods again. To the point where the government has given them the gift of ‘experimentation’, intended to show that the use of cages, nets, and decoys would be well and truly selective, which would justify these killings happening again in their eyes.

Zero tolerance for poachers

We will not let either the attempts to revive traditional hunting or the slightest complacency regarding poachers lie. In September 2022, we already succeeded in getting a man who had killed and sold thousands of robins sentenced with a six-month suspended prison sentence and a €25,000 fine. In February 2023, a repeat offender had to defend their actions in front of the courts.

As a civil party in the trial, we will once again give a voice to all of the birds that were killed and will ask for the highest possible penalty for this massacre at the Montauban legal tribunal on Thursday 26 October.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Ipsos survey for One Voice 2023. French people and hunting: the gap is increasing

Ipsos survey for One Voice 2023. French people and hunting: the gap is increasing
24.10.2023
France
Ipsos survey for One Voice 2023. French people and hunting: the gap is increasing
Wildlife

One Voice has, in October 2023, published the fourth gauge of French people’s opinions regarding hunting, carried out by the Ipsos Institute* (the previous ones are dated 2018, 2021, and 2022). The percentage of French people declaring themselves in opposition of hunting has reached the highest ever seen (53%), which is an increase of five percent in one year. For the first time, the majority of people living in rural areas have said that they oppose hunting. Having been committed for almost thirty years to a single vision for animals, humans, and the planet, One Voice is delighted with this growing dislike between French people and hunting, born from an awareness of what this hobby is: a deadly problem. An analysis of the results.

Deploying a varied legal arsenal for animals…

One Voice (alone or with its partners) has recently won many legal victories against the State on a local and/or national level: the repeated suspension and cancellation of decrees for traditional and glue hunting, the one authorising the digging out of badgers in the period surrounding reproduction, and the protection of bears just to mention the main ones.

Among the cases in progress is the defence of protected species such as mountain Galliformes, but also the unloved: those species that are labelled as ‘likely to cause damage’ (ESOD in French).

… and humans

Guaranteeing safety for walkers and countryfolk in their entirety is also an essential consideration for the One Voice team (as it is for 89% of respondents to the survey who believe that hunting poses safety issues). Also, proceedings at the State Council have been initiated to ask the Prime Minister to do what is needed as quickly as possible. French people approve measures to ban or control hunting, specifically the implementation of an annual medical check with an eye test (93%), but also a ban on hunting for two days a week and during the school holidays (85%). Why not do this?

This survey allows us to objectify the population’s massive support for all of these fights.

Below, you can find the main lessons from the survey, and at the bottom of the page, the results in the form of a graph with a comparison of the results for previous measures for the issues concerned.

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The main lessons

• The percentage of French people declaring themselves in opposition of hunting has reached the highest ever seen (53%), which is an increase of five percent in one year. For the first time, the majority of people living in rural areas state that they are opposed to this practice.
• Specifically, hunting is always associated with several negative views, in particular when it comes to safety for walkers (89% believe that it poses safety problems).
• Despite this negative perception, French people continue to share certain arguments in favour of hunting and specifically the idea that it can have a useful role in controlling wildlife.
• Critical of hunting, French people approve measures to ban or control it, specifically the implementation of an annual medical check with an eye test (93%), but also a ban on hunting for two days a week and during the school holidays (85%).

The share of people opposing hunting reaches an unprecedented level

After a slight decrease in 2022, the share of French people stating that they oppose hunting has reached its highest level (53%, of which 25% say that they are completely opposed to hunting). This proportion is 5 percent higher in relation to 2022. We have also seen a decrease in the number of respondents stating that they are indifferent to this issue (22%, down by 4%). For the first time, this opposition to hunting has become a majority among those living in rural towns (51%, an increase of 3%).

The perception gap between men and women on the subject of hunting has reduced this year. Although there are still more women who state that they are opposed to this practice (60% versus 45% of men), this proportion has remained relatively stable (increased by 1%) while the men’s has significantly increased (up by 8%).

Specifically, hunting is still associated with negative views

Hunting is still perceived by the vast majority of respondents (89%, up by 2 percent) to pose safety issues for walkers during their strolls in nature, with 58% even being completely in agreement with this idea.

This safety issue was experienced in concrete terms by a large number of French people. 74% of them also stated that they were already concerned by the possible presence of hunters while they were walking in the forest, and 73% have already avoided walking in the forest or in certain areas for fear of a hunting accident. This concern is experienced even more strongly for those residing near a hunting area (respectively 81% and 80%, an increase in relation to 2022).

At the same time, hunting is not considered to be a hobby like any other (64% do not believe that this is the case) and seven in ten French people associate it as a cruel practice (an increase of 5% in one year).

This negative perception is often shared by women, but a clear majority of men also believe that hunting poses safety issues and deem it a cruel practice. On the other hand, we see few differences between those living in rural and urban towns.

Hunting also represents a risk for the environment. For 82% of French people, the amount of lead generated by hunters’ shots is a significant threat to nature, with 39% even believing that it is a very significant threat. Young people are shown to be the most sensitive on this subject: 89% of those under 35 years old believe that it is a significant threat, versus 75% of those over 60 years old.

However, some arguments in favour of hunting are still subject to approval by French people

Although French people have a negative perception of hunting, they still agree with some arguments in its favour. First of all, they believe that it can have a useful role. 66% believe that it allows animal populations to be managed, and 60% believe that it allows ‘damage’ caused by wildlife to be limited.

Those residing in rural areas have more of tendency to find a useful role in hunting: 72% of them believe that it allows animal populations to be managed (versus 64% of those living in urban areas) and 67% believe that it allows ‘damage’ caused by wildlife to be limited (versus 58%).

Beyond this useful aspect, hunting is associated with a rural way of life by 62% of French people, with no big difference between urban and rural people: 65% of those living in rural areas share this idea versus 61% of those living in urban areas.

Measures aimed at supervising hunting are still largely voted for

With the majority in agreement with critical arguments regarding hunting, French people approve measures aiming for a better control of the practice by a large majority. The majority of them state that they are favourable towards the implementation of each measure, and for most of those people, a majority even state that they are completely for it.

The measure that was most voted for is the establishment of an annual medical check visit, with an eye test, for a hunting licence (93% are for, of which 72% are completely for), ahead of a ban on penned hunting (92%, of which 79% are completely for), and a ban on hunting in protected areas (91%, of which 70% are completely for). Regarding these three elements, we note an increase in agreement (respectively up by 1%, 13%, and 3% in relation to 2022).

Another measure that sparks approval by the vast majority of French people is a ban on hunting or trapping for two days per week and during the entirety of the school holidays (85% are for this, an increase of 4%, of which 59% are completely for it).

A ban on hunting with horses and hounds is also supported by the vast majority of respondents (83%, of which 61% are completely for it), just like the ban on hunting animals in their burrows (84%, of which 57% are completely for this), or breeding animals that are destined to be released for hunting (78%, of which 54% are completely for this).

The ban on exemptions allowing lethal shots on wolves or scaring shots on bears was approved by the majority of respondents (70% and 64% respectively), but in these two cases only a minority of respondents stated that they were completely against it (43% and 37%).

Beyond these different measures, a vast majority of French people are in agreement with the principle of banning hunting in regions that have suffered from drought this summer (87% are in agreement, of which 53% state that they are completely in agreement). Although those living in rural areas are mainly for, they show that they are less favourable of this ban than those living in urban areas (81% versus 89%).

* The Ipsos survey was carried out from 4 to 6 October 2023 with 1000 people, comprising a national representative sample of the French population aged from 18 to 75 years old. The group was asked via the Internet using Ipsos’ Access Panel Online (quota method: sex, age, profession of the person being questioned, urban area category, region).

 

Detailed results of the survey

Télécharger

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Traditional hunting: the government chooses to force their way through a hidden door

Traditional hunting: the government chooses to force their way through a hidden door
20.10.2023
France
Traditional hunting: the government chooses to force their way through a hidden door
Wildlife

We thought they had been buried once and for all, but the government has got their shovel out to give them a second chance. Since 2018, dozens of legal decisions have proven us right and have meant the massacring of hundreds of thousands of birds could have been avoided. But the government will stop at nothing to please hunters. Disguised as ‘scientific experiments’ (that do nothing to advance science, only hunting), they decided to pave the way for the return of cages, nets, and decoys in our countryside. While lapwings, golden plovers, and even field larks already spend their lives avoiding being shot, we will do all we can to get these decrees cancelled and so that this cruel hunting remains a relic of a bygone past.

Unbearable suffering for animals in the name of ‘tradition’

A hunter-trapper traps a small field lark that is struggling, hooking a small string around its leg or wing and shutting it into a cage before going into hiding. Then he pulls on the string. The pain makes the lark screech, it tries to escape but it is held fast by the trap. Hearing its cries, dozens of other larks – and other species – fly to its rescue. It is at that moment when the trap closes up: nets fall on both sides, trapping them all without distinction. The selected individuals are then killed one by one, methodically, and never mind if the others are injured in the process…

In the name of ‘tradition’, hunting with glue, cages, nets, or decoys was still authorised until recently. But that was without including our action (and that of the LPO, with whom we have fought alongside with the same perspective). Since 2021, One Voice has obtained a ruling by the European Union Court of Justice, followed by many rulings by the State Council, which have all proven us right: these types of hunting are quite simply against the ‘Birds’ Directive. Although glue hunting is nothing but a sad memory, the government is persisting and the legal battle continues for other types of hunting. In October 2022, the State Council urgently suspended the hunting of field larks with nets and cages in the south-west. We are awaiting the final ruling. And in May last year, they even insisted that the government revoke the 1989 decrees authorising the very principle of these hunts.

But the minister is clearly ready to do anything to please this lobby and does not hesitate to brush aside legal decisions from the highest of administrative authorities in the country to allow them to kill animals.

Hunters, these well-known ‘scientists’, are judge and jury!

To allow the killing of several thousand more birds, the government has, or will, launch an ‘experiment’ in five departments to show that these types of hunting are selective. And this even though, regarding net and cage hunting, the State Council has already settled the matter. And of course, these experiments will be led by… the departmental hunters’ federations. You are never served better than when it is by yourself, right! And they pride themselves on being great scientists too…

No need to be a specialist to clearly see that these experiments are only scientific in name. Led by hunters for hunters, this masquerade has a sole aim: to pave the way for the return of nets, decoys, and cages. In Ardennes, there are no less than 500 lapwings that will therefore be captured, and 15 golden plovers. In Lot-et-Garonne, 1000 field larks will end up in nets and cages. Three other departments (Gironde, Landes, and the Pyrénées-Atlantiques) are still to publish their decrees. We are planning to attack them too.

They will hide behind ‘science’, they will say that birds will not be killed, and they will allude to ‘tradition’. But no matter: we will always give these animals, and the 83% of French people who want these practices to disappear, (Ipsos/One Voice survey 2022) a voice against these barbaric types of hunting. We are attacking these decrees and will be at the Châlons-en-Champagne Administrative Tribunal on 26 October at 11:30am (for Ardennes)

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Stuffed animal trafficking: three men are going before the Nancy Legal Tribunal

Stuffed animal trafficking: three men are going before the Nancy Legal Tribunal
18.10.2023
France
Stuffed animal trafficking: three men are going before the Nancy Legal Tribunal
Wildlife

It is not the season for animal trafficking. This abominable practice continues to thrive all the time, all year round, everywhere. Most often remaining in the shadows of the networks that cover them, traffickers enjoy unbearable impunity. Fortunately, their sordid and illegal activities are sometimes brought to light. A poacher-dealer and two of his buyers from eastern France had to answer for their actions before the Nancy magistrates’ court on October 13. One Voice was the plaintiff.

Circuses and poaching at the heart of concealing skins for taxidermists to use

This case is sadly reminiscent of the one linked to the trainers from Nouveau Cirque Triomphe as well as the taxidermist that our investigation led us to, and for which a case will once again be brought before the courts on 18 October in Grenoble. Coming from circuses, breeding farms, zoos, or trophy hunts, lions, tigers, giraffes, and monkeys in particular are the subject of a very lucrative underground trade. To fight against this, we have successfully attacked the ministerial decree allowing the relaxation of authorisations for keeping wild animals.

Once again, here is a perfect example of the fact that wild animals never benefit from any respite. At any moment, they can find themselves torn from their natural environment. Even when they are not killed immediately, it won’t be long before there is no one to witness their ordeal. Disorientated and terrorised, they find themselves far from their own kind, in hostile territory, kept in conditions that are not compatible with their needs, and with the sole aim of waiting for death.

The sole objective of these intolerable massacres is to satisfy the morbid aesthetic tastes of a few people and to increase the wealth of others who, devoid of empathy, would trade anything as long as it makes them money.

An investigation with a thousand twists and turns

The investigation led by the OFB brought to light large-scale trafficking. More than 500 skins of ‘stuffed’ animals from species as varied as they are rare have been rescued throughout the whole of France.
The defendants were tried last Friday for the purchase, importation, keeping, and unauthorised transfer of CITES and protected species non-domestic animal species. Two of them were buyers, and the third a dealer and poacher.

Of course, we were there to demand justice for all of the animals sacrificed at the altar of profit.

The deliberation is set for 18 October. We hope that the decision will live up to our expectations. It is high time that these animals’ daily lives are not fear-filled for traffickers’ gain!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Wolves: Coordination Rurale (CR87) in Haute-Vienne tries to silence One Voice by banning a protest

Wolves: Coordination Rurale (CR87) in Haute-Vienne tries to silence One Voice by banning a protest
12.10.2023
Haute-Vienne
Wolves: Coordination Rurale (CR87) in Haute-Vienne tries to silence One Voice by banning a protest
Wildlife

To demand an end to the massacring of wolves in our country, One Voice is organising militant action in different towns in France throughout the month of October.On Saturday 14 October in Limoges, an event has been planned by our volunteers to inform the public on wolves, their sensitivity, their intelligence, their way of life, and the importance of their place in biodiversity. The Coordination Rurale in Haute-Vienne, terrified by a stand raising awareness, tried to get our protest banned using press releases. We wish them luck because One Voice has never backed down when it comes to defending wolves.

Packs are in reality true families, where each individual has its role to play for the survival of each of them. Contrary to what those who oppose them try to make people believe by demonising them, wolves do not represent a danger for humans: they try to avoid them as much as possible.

But clearly, at the CR87, rather than informing, they persist in spreading the same perpetual twaddle about wolves. Even when we give free rein to a boundless imagination, everyone will be able to read that “these wolves have been released, and even pro-wolf associations recognised the existence of clandestine breeding operations that were completely impenetrable and difficult to manage”.

A notoriously anti-wolf union

This same group that opposes an educational protest planned and authorised by the prefecture do not hesitate to incite their members to commit crimes. Thus, at the end of 2021, the Coordination Rurale 87 openly called for the poaching of wolves! “In Haute-Vienne, we have pellets and poison and will regulate ourselves!”, their representative said at the time in the press.

We will not give in to this attempt at intimidation by a deadly lobby, who each year send more than a thousand animals to the abattoir in France and campaign to exterminate wolves that are already in a critically vulnerable situation. We will be in Limoges next Saturday to defend their right to live in peace. 138 of them have already been slaughtered this year, 6 others poached, and unfortunately the massacre is not over. The State has effectively reviewed and increased the maximum number of exceptional shots, authorising the killing of 209 individuals in 2023. Without counting those who die ‘accidentally’ due to purely human reasons: traffic, trapping…

Come and meet us in Amiens (80), Digne-les-Bains (04), Montpellier (34), Limoges (87), Metz (57), Aix-en-Provence (13), Troyes (10), Flers (14) ; Rouen (76) ; Nantes (44), Bar-Le-Duc (55), and Strasbourg (67). While waiting for an end to shooting, sign our petition to ask that wolves be respected.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice