Digging up badgers: legal victories… and prefecture shenanigans!

Digging up badgers: legal victories… and prefecture shenanigans!
05.08.2024
Digging up badgers: legal victories… and prefecture shenanigans!
Hunting

Thousands of badgers saved thanks to our emergency procedures, dozens of decrees declared definitively illegal by the courts… and panic on the part of hunters and prefectures! As the last hearings of the season approach and the victories multiply, the hunters and the authorities are looking for every possible way to keep this cruel pastime alive. Here’s an example from the Haute-Marne department, where the prefecture is more interested in defending hunters than in respecting animals and the law.

2024: another emergency suspension, more than 4,000 badgers saved

In the Deux-Sèvres department, we intervened with a real associative front: together with AVES, ASPAS, LPO, Deux-Sèvres Nature Environment and Veterinarians for Biodiversity, we obtained from the court the suspension of the digging a few days after its opening.

A logical decision, given that the prefecture had acknowledged that “during the supplementary period […] almost all the young are taken“! And this at a time when we have obtained confirmation from the State Council that it is forbidden to kill young badgers…

In all, over 4,000 individuals were saved by our actions in 2024. And, department by department, after the emergency, the courts are confirming the illegality of this cruel hunt in spring and summer: in Charente-Maritime and Vienne (where we were attacking with the LPO and Vienne Nature), the 2023 authorizations have just been definitively annulled. A new hearing will take place on September 6 at 10:30 a.m. at the Rouen administrative court for the Eure department (with AVES, FNE Normandie and LPO Normandie).

In the Haute-Marne department, scheming that won’t go down well!

We know that prefectures will do anything to allow hunters to continue killing badgers, who are systematically accused of all evils. Even if it means opening giant administrative beat hunts, as in the Ain department, where we have counter-attacked, or simply trampling on a court ruling, as in Haute-Marne.

In this department, in April 2024, the Châlons-en-Champagne administrative court ruled in our favor, definitively canceling the supplementary period scheduled from May 15, 2024 to September 14, 2024. The prefecture then rushed to prepare the adoption of a new decree, authorizing a complementary period from June 1… but this decree was never published! We now understand why: in the middle of summer, an authorization has just been issued for a supplementary period from August 1 to September 15.

This behavior on the part of the Haute-Marne prefect is unacceptable on three counts: it illustrates a senseless attack on animals, the shameless violation of a court ruling, and a maneuver in the sole interest of hunters, far removed from the defense of the general interest. With AVES and ASPAS, we attack this decree, and solemnly denounce this behavior!

Speak up for badgers with us! Sign our petitions for their protection, a ban on digging up badgers and a radical reform of the hunting system!

Turtle-dove hunting: a moratorium is good, a ban is better!

Turtle-dove hunting: a moratorium is good, a ban is better!
01.08.2024
Turtle-dove hunting: a moratorium is good, a ban is better!
Hunting

Thanks to our long-standing fight for turtle doves, every year the government adopts a suspension of their hunting. For the 2024-2025 season, we invite you to participate massively in the public consultation organized by the Ministry. We call on you to support this solution, which gives respite to the thousands of birds that would have perished under hunters’ shotgun pellets… while reminding the government that this measure is not enough: we are now calling for their outright removal from the list of huntable species.

A long-term battle for turtle doves

As early as 2020, we were alerting public opinion to the fate of these birds on the brink of extinction, classified as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. For them, the threats are everywhere: disappearance of their habitats, noise pollution… not to mention hunters who, until 2020, were killing nearly 17,500 individuals every year. 

With the LPO, we therefore launched an appeal against these unacceptable authorizations, and in 2020 obtained their emergency suspension by the French State Council. Convinced by our arguments, the judges were particularly severe with the State: small steps were insufficient, and only a moratorium could be envisaged. A landmark victory that saved thousands of birds!

For an outright ban on turtle-dove hunting

Since then, the State has suspended their slaughter every year. The Ministry of Ecological Transition has just opened the public consultation on the decree relating to the 2024-2025 season: we invite you to massively voice your support for this proposal! 

In particular, you can point out that turtle doves are in a very worrying state of conservation, and that their populations are declining due to climate change, habitat destruction and numerous other anthropogenic pressures, notably agriculture.

Killing animals for pleasure at a time when biodiversity is collapsing is no longer an option. At a time when France holds the European record for the number of species that can be killed, it’s high time to step up a gear and demand a radical reform of hunting!

Badgers: in the Ain region, no to administrative beat hunts to replace digging up!

Badgers: in the Ain region, no to administrative beat hunts to replace digging up!
31.07.2024
Ain
Badgers: in the Ain region, no to administrative beat hunts to replace digging up!
Hunting

Our legal actions are bearing fruit: everywhere in France, the supplementary periods of underground hunting have been suspended. But as we anticipated, the prefectures are adapting to continue pleasing the hunters, by allowing more and more massive administrative beats against badgers. In the Ain region, for example, the prefect has just authorized the lieutenants of louveterie and pests, accompanied by the hunters of their choice, to crack down throughout the region… for more than 7 months, even outside the hunting season! A way of avoiding having to publish a decree for each operation, and of preventing us from taking legal action… We are challenging this decree.

Prefects and hunters adapt… so can we!

After a record-breaking 2023 season against spring and summer digging, the successes continue in 2024, with numerous suspensions across France and nearly 4,000 animals saved. More than ever, this practice to which hunters are so attached, and whose cruelty we demonstrated thanks to our undercover investigation, is in the hot seat. And they seem to be panicking!

We knew they’d react, once again with the support of the State. In the last few weeks, we think we know how: in several regions, prefects have adopted decrees authorizing administrative beat hunts against badgers. Thousands of animals could be killed by lieutenants of louveterie and pests! But we’ve been expecting this reaction, and we’re ready to attack these decrees.

Administrative beat hunts often illegal, always unacceptable!

In the Ain region, the prefect has “offered” a giant administrative beat hunt, covering the whole region for almost 7 months. By authorizing these massacres over an extended period, the authorities are distorting the purpose of these measures, which are supposed to be reserved for exceptional cases, but which are unfortunately becoming the norm. Even though they are often illegal, as our recent victory for the foxes in the Nièvre region shows.

As usual, to justify killing animals, the authorities accuse them of all kinds of evil. And as usual, the prefect doesn’t put forward a single piece of data to justify her decree: nothing about agricultural damage, nothing about infrastructure damage! In short, killing on the basis of lies, in response to pressure from hunters.

These decisions not only flout the legal framework, but are also ethically unacceptable. A few days after having challenged 12 decrees issued by the Prefect of the Indre-et-Loire region targeting foxes, we are once again going to court! To support this fight, sign our petition for a radical reform of hunting.

When prefects gag judges, animals pay the price! We’re going to court!

When prefects gag judges, animals pay the price! We’re going to court!
26.07.2024
When prefects gag judges, animals pay the price! We’re going to court!
Hunting

From traditional bird hunting to the underground hunting of badgers, by way of derogations to scare and kill animals of protected species, our legal actions save thousands of lives every year. But as always, the authorities know how to use their boundless imagination to put obstacles in our way. So we’ve decided to tackle the particularly unfair ploy of prefectures to publish animal-targeted decrees after they’ve come into force. We have lodged an appeal with the French State Council and launched new proceedings today.

To protect them, every minute counts. Once the decree has been issued, even under emergency procedures, it is difficult to obtain hearings for at least ten days. In the meantime, hunters have plenty of time to kill with impunity.

Prefectures that publish their orders….. after the animals have died!

In some departments, prefectures have got into the habit of publishing decisions the day before they come into force, or even… several days later! In Indre-et-Loire, for example, in June 2024 the prefect issued twelve deeds authorizing an administrative fox beat hunt… in the month of May! We took the matter to court all the same, but it was impossible for us to prevent the massacre, even though the administrative beat hunts were illegal. In Ariège, in 2023, we challenged the decrees authorizing the scaring of bears, which are regularly made public after the start of operations, which last only a few days… Just like in the Haute-Garonne department, where the prefect issued three decrees this month, deliberately published late. The aim of this unfair strategy is clear: to prevent bear defenders from challenging prefectoral measures. We have taken urgent legal action to put an end to these fraudulent maneuvers.

As soon as January 2023, we launched a legal action against the Pyrénées-Orientales prefecture. Our aim: to have this practice recognized as illegal. In dozens of other departments, decisions permitting the killing of animals are still made public far too late.

To combat these discreetly committed massacres, we are taking our case to the French State Council.

Even though the law is already largely favorable to hunters, allowing them to kill without limit all year round, including through cruel practices such as digging up, it is all the more intolerable to prevent our action. Because once the decrees have taken effect, the badgers, foxes, birds, etc. (the list goes on and on) are dead, and no court decision can bring them back to life.

The shenanigans have gone on long enough! In January 2023, we asked the Prime Minister and the Minister of Ecological Transition to ensure that the law was respected. After several months of waiting, and in the absence of any response from them, we referred the matter to the French State Council. Our demands are clear: that the government respect the law, so that we can, whenever necessary, go to court to save lives.

To support this fight, sign our petition for a radical reform of hunting!