Jackdaws are being spared in Brittany!

Jackdaws are being spared in Brittany!
14.06.2022
Bretagne
Jackdaws are being spared in Brittany!
Wildlife

Joy and relief. That was what we felt after hearing the decision that has just been made by the Rennes Administrative Tribunal. The hearing took place on 25 May 2022 and related to One Voice’s emergency interim proceedings in the Côtes-d’Armor, Finistère, and Morbihan departments: the three prefectural decrees have been urgently suspended. Some have unfortunately already been killed due to the delay between the publication date of the orders and their implementation being shorter than before, and not allowing the procedure to happen as quickly as we would like. Jackdaws will therefore be spared from today!

During the hearing dealing with the three cases concerning the Breton departments involved in our emergency interim proceeding suspensions, the president wanted us to address the prefectural decrees one after the other because the prefectures each had two representatives who wished to speak. She asked them several questions and was surprised by how vague their responses were.

She wanted to know in particular, in very concrete terms, the methods for implementing alternative solutions and of slaughtering jackdaws and, among other things, the election of the points of contact in each department in charge of observing the damage.

Her surprise that the prefectures could not give objective criteria of the ‘insurmountable’ character of the damage noted, which could ‘justify’ (in the name of the law in any case) the plea to massacre jackdaws, gave us hope.

But this did not end here! She also learnt on this occasion that the points of contact did not follow up, little by little, year after year, on their responses and the demolitions. Classic. The Crow Life Association, also present, also spoke to support these corvids, supposedly protected by law.

Côtes d’Armor:

«1st Article: The execution of the Côtes d’Armor Prefect’s decree of 6 May 2022 derogating from article L. 411-1 of the Environmental Code and the authorisation of the destruction of 8000 Western jackdaws (Corvus Monedula) by shooting or trapping is suspended until 30 September 2022, until the merits of its legality have been decided by a collegial formation of the court.»

Finistère:

«1st Article: The execution of the Finistère Prefect’s decree of 3 May 2022 derogating from article L. 411-1 of the Environmental Code and the authorisation of the destruction of 16,000 Western jackdaws (Corvus Monedula) by shooting or trapping is suspended until 31 March 2023, until the merits of its legality have been decided by a collegial formation of the court.»

Morbihan:

«1st Article: The execution of the Morbihan Prefect’s decree of 26 April 2022 derogating from article L. 411-1 of the Environmental Code and the authorisation of the destruction of 1800 Western jackdaws (Corvus Monedula) by shooting or trapping in the year 2022 is suspended until the merits of its legality have been decided by a collegial formation of the court.»

After years of jackdaws being repeatedly shot down for deceptive reasons, we are delighted that once again the prefectures’ arguments that do not seek animal-friendly solutions will be ruled out by our proceedings. In Brittany, jackdaws will therefore be spared from today. Unfortunately, they did not get this chance in Maine-et-Loire.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Badgers will not be dug out in Haute-Garonne this summer!

Badgers will not be dug out in Haute-Garonne this summer!
13.06.2022
Haute-Garonne
Badgers will not be dug out in Haute-Garonne this summer!
Wildlife

One Voice filed a request to the Toulouse Administrative Tribunal on 20 May to urgently suspend the Haute-Garonne prefectural decree authorising an additional period for underground badger hunting with hounds from 15 May this year in their department. We will win for these badgers: the urgent applications judge suspended the decree on 13 June 2022!

This was urgent. The badgers were going to be massacred deep in their setts, where they feel safest, in the period when they are raising their young (babies that are weaned but not yet independent). All of this during four months with no limit on numbers, while the state of their population is being ignored… there was therefore a risk of jeopardising it.

According to Muriel Arnal, Founding President of One Voice:

«Badgers are protected in numerous countries such as England, Wales, the Netherlands, Denmark, Greece, and Hungary. It is implausible that, every year in the majority of departments, hunters succeed in lengthening the hunting season, which is already too long and unbearable for the animals as it is for those who love nature; all this to have something to do in the summer when they cannot shoot and the earth is loose and easy to dig.»

Consulting the public who are kept totally in the dark…

What did it matter to the Prefecture when providing the necessary elements to be able to form an opinion during the public consultation for their draft decree…?
Everyone, to make an informed opinion, should have the means to judge a project with concrete information. Especially those enabling an assessment of reality and the extent of the damage attributed to badgers, the state of their population in the department, as well as the repercussions of the order on the environment… but where are they?!

The young still in the setts and unlimited hunting

On the other hand, the Prefect has not only authorised the hunting of an unlimited number of badgers, but what is more is that they have done it during the reproduction period and the scientifically proven presence of young still in the setts in this period (an argument rarely listened to by courts in the past) without proving that there will not be an impact on the equilibrium of the species. We know however that a litter of badgers is rarely more than two and that their weaning time is a lot longer than it is for other species. These are therefore an animal whose population is growing very slowly. A combination which could turn out to be harmful for badgers in Haute-Garonne.

The order did not even purport to defend farmers with the hypothetical excuse of damages

It is not the agricultural interests of the department that are being defended here — since it is not a question of damage to crops — but the private interests of the hunting hobby of underground badger hunting with hounds in the spring… a frank power-lobby collusion to the detriment of the animals.

Badgers are good neighbours!

Lastly, badgers often cohabit in the same burrows as other animals, such as foxes, wild cats, or European otters. The last two are threatened and therefore protected. This implies that the setts ripped open by hunters in search of outdoor activities in the summer could have endangered these even more vulnerable animals.

The violence of underground hunting with hounds is equal to our pleasure to be able to save badgers!

We are delighted with the decision of the urgent applications judge at the Toulouse Administrative Tribunal, after the one in Corrèze. The Haute-Garonne badgers will be saved this summer. But we can only regret that the prefects stubbornly want to flatter hunters’ cruel desires and fantasies.
Because so-called ‘small-game hunting with hounds’, which consists of locating badgers in their setts, ‘terrier’ dogs being sent into the tunnels then digging abruptly, thus ripping open the woodland or the field concerned with no hesitation in slicing open the tree roots if they are impeding the diggers, features among the cruellest of hunting practices. The animals have no chance of escaping. As we well know with our investigators having led an undercover investigation some time ago alongside a crew and having brought back supporting footage.

Since 2018, we have been calling for a radical hunting reform consisting of around ten measures including a ban on underground hunting with hounds. We are also calling for a ban on badger digging in particular. Continue to sign these petitions! And do not forget the one on the Senate’s website.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

In Corrèze, there will be no digging out this year; the badgers will live!

In Corrèze, there will be no digging out this year; the badgers will live!
03.06.2022
Corrèze
In Corrèze, there will be no digging out this year; the badgers will live!
Wildlife

The Limoges Administrative Tribunal has just ordered an urgent suspension of the Corrèze prefectural decree which anticipated the authorisation of an additional period for underground badger hunting with hounds from 15 May to 14 September. It is a truly wonderful victory, which will allow the young badgers from this year to take their first steps surrounded by their parents, sheltered from the risk of being driven out and killed by diggers, surrounded by dogs, something we have continuously condemned since our undercover investigation.

At the hearing on 1 June, we faced the Corrèze Prefecture. The hunters themselves did not come and did not send a lawyer either. After the report from the urgent applications judge, we could express ourselves.

Yes, it was urgent for the badgers in Corrèze

The first thing was to assert the urgency for badgers being threatened with imminent death. The order was from 11 May, the request had been filed on 13 May and the opening date for the additional hunting period was 15 May, for a hearing two weeks after, during which badgers had undoubtedly already lost their lives…

Especially as the Prefecture itself recognises that it is possible that young badgers still depend on their parents and are living in the setts at this time. On the other hand, the state of the badger population is uncertain, to the point where we are asking for them to be classified as a protected species. Finally, as usual, the grounds on which damages are attributed to badgers by the Prefecture are precarious to say the least. And other animals, whose species are protected, can find themselves in setts, which would be drastic.

According to Muriel Arnal, Founding President of One Voice:

«Badgers are intelligent, social beings, they have an essential role in our ecosystems. It is implausible to massacre them. What’s more, in such a barbaric way! We have clearly demonstrated this during our infiltration of a crew. There is no reason to authorise additional periods for this bloody hobby other than as a convenience for hunters because the soil is looser in the summer, and they lack hobbies. Now is the season when the young are still totally dependent on their parents. A disgrace for the authorities who compromise themselves out of complacency! We maintain that, on the contrary, it is necessary to protect badgers, as is the case in numerous neighbouring countries such as England, Wales, the Netherlands, Denmark, Greece, and Hungary.»

Prefectural arguments blasted — as always — by hunters

After the Prefecture revealed their arguments, the President posed questions to their representative on the duration of the hunting period (initial and additional); on the damage caused specifically by badgers, to which the Prefecture responded by hiding behind a graph; and on their choice to spread the decree out throughout the whole department and not only to one part of the area.

Released in open countryside by the hunters, the Prefecture was neither able, nor knew how to, convince

But for us, the important thing was that the decree had been made on the basis of insufficient and incomplete information. On one hand, hardly a third of the local authorities had responded to the survey by the hunters’ federation; on the other hand, the graph released by the Prefecture confirms that the damage that they attributed to the badgers was decreasing! Finally, the Prefecture did not show an absence of other satisfactory solutions instead of killing animals, innocent by definition, again and again.

After this hearing, the urgent applications judge therefore decided that the Prefecture’s arguments did not hold water: the figures were biased and other solutions must exist. In Corrèze, badgers can therefore spend their summer in peace.

This really great news comes as a culmination to extend the first International Badger Day, celebrated in mid-May with our partners. It was an occasion to raise awareness among the public of these very sociable builder animals and to call on them to take part in three petitions that you can of course continue to sign:

• the one on our dedicated website presenting the reality of digging out and calling for badgers to be protected,
• the one calling for a radical reform on hunting, notably with a ban on underground hunting with hounds, supported by more than forty other organisations and voted for by more than eight in ten French people (IPSOS/One Voice survey from September 2021), and finally,
• the one on the Senate’s website.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice