Underground hunting: are we moving towards a cancellation in Manche and Orne following the suspension?

Underground hunting: are we moving towards a cancellation in Manche and Orne following the suspension?
13.11.2023
France
Underground hunting: are we moving towards a cancellation in Manche and Orne following the suspension?
Wildlife

This year, the unbearable persecution that badgers are subjected to has taken a serious hit. Dozens of departments had authorised them being dug out as part of ‘additional periods’, outside of the hunting season, in spring and summer. The legal system has urgently suspended almost 30 decrees following our requests, allowing the lives of 4000 badgers to be saved. From now on, judges will rule on the merits of the case files and, we hope, will cancel the laws. On 14 November 2023 at 11:15am, the Caen Administrative Tribunal will open the hearings with three case files: Orne for the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons, and Manche.

Underground hunting with hounds

In these departments, hundreds of badger cubs that have only just been born are preparing themselves to be subjected to the hell of underground hunting with hounds. Year after year, the State has shown their extreme familiarity with the hunting social circle. Underground hunting with hounds sadly illustrates this statement: despite rulings, prefectures persist in authorising this cruel practice for the pleasure of a small number of people, at the risk of resorting to ruses that do not fool anyone.

In Manche and Orne, this is exclusively with intervention by us and AVES, our partner on this case file: on 10 May and 4 August 2023, the Caen Administrative Tribunal suspended the prefectural decrees. Clear decisions that have swept away authorities’ arguments and immediately put an end to the additional digging out that was requested. And the results were the same almost everywhere in France, making 2023 a record year for badgers.

The stake: a pure and simple end to additional periods

On 14 November, the Caen Administrative Tribunal will definitively decide on the decrees that they themselves suspended, a few weeks before the State Council unambiguously stated an absolute ban on killing young badgers. Although the Nantes Administrative Court of Appeal has just confirmed that the additional period for underground hunting with hounds in 2021 in Calvados was illegal, we are hopeful that the one in Caen will not retract their statement and that they will cancel the decrees.

And we will not stop at national jurisdictions: because this morbid hobby violates the Bern Convention, which protects badgers, we have filed a complaint alongside ten other associations against France before the Bern Committee. More than ever, these actions allow us to envisage the end of digging out badgers in spring and summer.

Today, 84% of French people oppose hunting animals in their burrows. To help us to give them a voice and to save as many badgers and their cubs as possible, support us and sign our petition to say stop to underground hunting with hounds, including outside of the additional periods!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Mountain Galliformes: more than a thousand birds spared from hunting

Mountain Galliformes: more than a thousand birds spared from hunting
06.11.2023
France
Mountain Galliformes: more than a thousand birds spared from hunting
Wildlife

So that the birds at the mountain tops get some respite, we have made sure that hunters did not get any. Since the end of August, we have attacked numerous decisions made by prefects or directly by hunters’ federations with emergency interim proceedings. Their aim is to allow the killing of black grouse, rock partridges, hazel grouse, rock ptarmigans, and grey partridges in the Pyrénées. Judges have announced numerous suspensions, thus sparing the lives of a considerable number of mountain Galliformes.

In the Alps, more than a thousand birds will not be riddled with bullets

The Grenoble and Marseille Administrative Tribunals (ATs) have suspended hunting, sometimes based on our reasoning linked to the intolerable nature of hunting animals that are already shaken up by the consequences of global warming and the constant disruption linked with tourist numbers in mountain ranges, and sometimes on more technical arguments. More than once, prefects have simply given carte blanche to hunters and left them to determine the quotas of animals to be killed themselves.

The absurdity of continuing to kill individuals whose species is in a poor state of conservation also hits home when it comes to hazel grouse in Isère and before the Marseille judge whose rulings made it possible for black grouse and rock partridges to be spared in their masses.

Despite a few steps back, the fight continues

There are unfortunately several downsides when it comes to the Pyrénées and Alpes-Maritimes departments, where we clashed with the against-the-tide line of reasoning from the Montpellier, Toulouse, Pau, and Nice Administrative Tribunals, who rejected our requests. The disappointment is particularly bitter because, due to a lack of suspension, the bloodbath of partridges, grouse, and rock ptarmigans has in fact happened.

But we are not discouraged yet. Although the cancellations that we will obtain a posteriori will not bring the birds back to life, they will be used in future appeals to potentially spare the next ones. In fact, given the energy used by the State to pander to hunters’ every whim – as evidenced by a new decree just after the suspension of the previous one in the Pyrénées-Orientales, where questionable experiments were aimed at reviving the traditional hunting of larks, lapwings, etc. – there is no doubt that the massacring of mountain birds, even though they are threatened everywhere, will be authorised for the 2024-2025 season.

In total, the lives of 20 hazel grouse in Isère, 422 rock partridges (6 in Haute-Savoie, 219 in Savoie, 35 in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, and 162 in the Hautes-Alpes) and of 723 black grouse (201 in Haute-Savoie, 404 in Savoie, 45 in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, and 73 in the Hautes-Alpes) will be saved with our actions! How is it accepted that we, animal defenders, have to end up hindering the prefectures who authorise this themselves?

Our rallying helps to give these fragile animals visibility, silent witnesses to their own decline, and to protect them from guns. No bird or animal has to die at the hands of a small group of humans for their entertainment. We will continue to hammer this home until the State listens to reason.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Stella, the wolfdog threatened with death in France, could live safely in Italy

Stella, the wolfdog threatened with death in France, could live safely in Italy
05.11.2023
Italy
Stella, the wolfdog threatened with death in France, could live safely in Italy
Wildlife

At the beginning of May 2023, we received a concerning report: a wolfdog found herself in a pound and was at risk of being euthanised if no solution was found. After the initial misunderstandings, we put a chain of solidarity in place in order to find a placement solution. On 3 June, Stella arrived at our Animanatura sanctuary in Italy. Thus begins a new life, sheltered from all danger.

On 2 May 2023, we were contacted by a wildlife specialist. A pound asked her to take charge of a hybrid wolf, dependent on specific legislation. Due to lack of space, she cannot take the animal, named Stella, in, and has already contacted a number of approved establishments, which do not have the possibility – or the desire in some cases – to participate in this rescue.

In France, problems are regulated with lethal injections

In the pound since March and with no opportunity for placement, time was running out for Stella who was at risk of being slaughtered if a solution was not found quickly.

Faced with the urgency of the situation, we got ourselves organised and in less than twenty-four hours, a place was secured in our Animanatura Wild Sanctuary which already welcomed lions Céleste, Hannah, Marli, and Patty in May 2022 who we saved from the Cirque de Paris Circus three years ago.

A new life in Italy

Stella’s transfer was finally authorised by the authorities with some difficulty! After having taken her in and scheduled her vaccinations and neutering, issued her with a passport, organised transport, built a temporary welcome park in Italy, even though everything was ready, we thought that everything was going to be cancelled due to an internal disagreement within the administrations responsible for approving her departure, with some comparing Stella to a wolf or a hybrid, and others to a dog… This would have all been for nothing without our willpower and the determination of our local ally, who we thank warmly.

Stella was finally authorised to leave French soil on Friday 2 June in the morning. After a long journey, she arrived in Tuscany the next day. She is currently living in her transition park. Soon, she will find herself in a more spacious park that we are building for her, where she will spend the rest of her life in semi-freedom, cared for and protected from any dangers.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Traditional hunting: thousands of birds will be trapped in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and in Landes

Traditional hunting: thousands of birds will be trapped in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and in Landes
03.11.2023
France
Traditional hunting: thousands of birds will be trapped in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and in Landes
Wildlife

The Pau Administrative Tribunal has just rejected our two pleas and those by the LPO. Even though the State Council already considered the use of these devices to be illegal, shameful experiments paving the way for the return of hunting field larks with cages and nets was therefore able to continue in Landes and the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Hunters’ vociferations before the Tribunal, after the suspension of the first three decrees in Ardennes, Lot-et-Garonne, and Gironde, were heard. Pathetic!

Whatever the result of these experiments may be, the government takes it for granted: if they once again authorise hunting next year, we will be there, as we have always been since 2018, to ensure that the law is being followed and, above all, to protect birds from hunters, who impatiently wait to be able to capture and kill thousands of field larks with their bare hands once again.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

We are asking for the complete cancellation of the decree listing species likely to cause damage before the courts and on the streets

We are asking for the complete cancellation of the decree listing species likely to cause damage before the courts and on the streets
31.10.2023
France
We are asking for the complete cancellation of the decree listing species likely to cause damage before the courts and on the streets
Wildlife

On 4 August 2023, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition published a new decree naming the list of ‘species likely to cause damage’. For the next three years, prefects in each department can authorise the trapping and slaughter of these targeted animals, even outside of hunting periods. We are asking the State Council to cancel this cynical law and we are rallying our volunteers in eighteen towns throughout the month of November.

Foxes, martens, weasels, stone martens, carrion crows, rooks, magpies, starlings, and jays… Named as ‘pests’ since 2016, the Ministry is now using the term ‘species likely to cause damage’ without this changing anything about the persecution that they are victims of. Targeted by a new ministerial decree valid for three years and created due to demands from agricultural and hunting lobbies, all of them risk being tracked, trapped, and massacred even outside of the hunting periods that are already authorised, in all departments where the prefects have given this gift to shooting enthusiasts who wish to practise their hobby all year round. Even though 71% of French people are in favour of a ban on trapping these animals according to our recent survey (Ipsos/One Voice Survey, October 2023).

We are referring to the State Council

We have attacked this law since it was published by filing an emergency interim proceeding, then, like other associations, a plea before the State Council. Today, we are continuing this momentum and reinforcing our initial request with an even more developed case file requesting a pure and simple cancellation of this law which rules that economic interests or human comfort take precedence over animals’ lives and biodiversity by de facto allowing hunting outside of the season and the continual trapping of the species concerned. In particular, our request targets around thirty cases* dependent of the species on a departmental level, and above all the pure and simple removal of foxes, rooks, and martens from the ministerial list of species likely to cause damage on a national level.

Throughout the month of November, we are organising coordinated action in around fifteen towns

We will be in Aix-en-Provence, Amiens, Gap, Limoges, Metz, Montpellier, Paris, and Troyes on the 11^th, Bordeaux and Nice on the 12^th, Bar-Le-Duc and Lille on the 18^th, and in Nantes on the 25^th, as well as in Angers, Falaise, La Rochelle, Rouen, and Strasbourg to defend these unwanted animals against the government’s destructive obsession (NB: check the event online before going).

The majority of you supported us in our fight during the public consultation. Continue to oppose these massacres of animals that populate our forests and our countryside along with us!

*One Voice’s requests for de-classification

• Martens in the following departments: Aube, Aude, Haute-Garonne, Hautes-Pyrénées, Pyrénées-Orientales, Saône-et-Loire (6)
• Stone martens: Ain, Allier, Landes, Morbihan, Vendée (5)
• Weasels: Pas-de-Calais (the only department where the species is classified) (1)
• Magpies: Ariège, Aveyron, Charente-Maritime, Gironde, Loiret, Maine-et-Loire, Mayenne, Morbihan, Tarn (9)
• Carrion crows: Aveyron, Hautes-Alpes (2)
• Jays: Corrèze, Tarn-et-Garonne (2)
• Starlings: Corrèze, Eure, Gironde, Loiret, Meuse (5)

Translated from the French by Joely Justice