Penned hunting is like a lottery win!

Penned hunting is like a lottery win!
13.04.2021
France
Penned hunting is like a lottery win!
Wildlife

There is hunting, its millions of victims, its devastated countryside. And there is worse: penned hunting. Animals that are fenced in cannot flee. It takes only a few hours and even less effort for their killers to have a big win. Those who like quick wins are 100% satisfied.

Do you know what penned hunting is? Our investigators were able to go behind the scenes. This very specific pastime consists in the serial killing of all sorts of animal that have no chance to escape. Trigger-happy hunters gather for the occasion on private property surrounded by fences and, in unison, strafe the wildlife caught in the trap.

Bloodbath guaranteed

On these properties everything is designed to guarantee the hunters a maximum of ‘trophies’. Concentrated on a few hectares, their prey have no alternative but to attempt in vain to flee and take their last breath backed up against a wall or wire fence more than two metres high. ASPAS was the first association to denounce this system . Amongst the main victims are ‘fur’, one of the terms used by the ONCFS (Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage – National Office of Hunting and Wildlife), in other words those that can’t fly: rabbits, hares, does, red deer, fallow deer, mouflon, inter alia. And of course wild boar! You know, those public enemies number one that apparently destroy crops. For those fond of penned hunting there are never enough. They are even willing to spend astronomic amounts of money to feel the thrill of massacring them by any means possible: rifle, spear, pack of starving dogs…

Masters of their domain

Therefore anyone lucky enough to own a dwelling with a fully enclosed piece of land attached to it may, if in possession of a hunting permit and the required insurance, shoot anything that moves on it. For such people there are no quotas, no hunting plan nor hunting season to comply with for fur animals and no limit on feeding. They do whatever they want without breaking any rules! In law, mammals in an enclosure are deemed to be ‘res propria‘: ‘things belonging to a person‘. And if those persons want to kill them, they can go right ahead! They may even invite as many friends as they like to join in the carnage provided they too have valid permits. Destroying the wildlife is not a problem: the breeders are there to top it up. A simple prefectoral order, is sufficient to obtain the release of deer, rabbits, pheasants, ducks and partridges reared in captivity that will be used as the next targets.

It’s only one step from enclosures to enclosed hunting estates

Obviously one could reassure oneself by thinking that this type of practice is merely anecdotal. You don’t have to own a grand country house or even a house with a large piece of land attached to it: the law also caters for ‘poor’ hunters who own ‘only’ a small piece of land. They may, if they fence it properly, turn it into a ‘hunting enclosure’. There are no exemptions for them and they are subject, as are EPCCs (see box), to the opening and closing dates laid down in the regulations. In theory. Because how is it possible to monitor what really happens behind those walls, which are too high for anyone to climb over? In the opinion of Jean-Noël Rieffel, Regional Manager of the French Office for Biodiversity in Centre-Val de Loire, quoted in the newspaper La Montagne: « The right of the inspectors of the French Office for Biodiversity to enter hunting enclosures remains limited. » A very interesting, albeit not exhaustive, register gives details of almost 150 enclosures and hunting estates in France, thus providing some idea of how many there are. And how many corpses are there still to go? Please sign our petition!

Death can lead to big rewards

Many have smelled the money and are managing hunting enclosures for a living. In this case they are deemed to be EPCCs (établissements à caractère commercial en terrain clos – establishments of a commercial nature on enclosed land) and therefore can no longer claim exemption from regulatory hunting seasons. On the other hand, since the French Office of Biodiversity (OFB) was set up, amending the missions of the federations of hunters and strengthening environmental policy, they have had the ‘privilege’ of being allowed to release wild boar, which is prohibited in non-commercial hunting enclosures. The only constraint on these structures is not to exceed more than one hoofed animal per hectare, otherwise ‘the enclosure’ would no longer be an ‘enclosure’, legally speaking, and would be deemed to be a livestock farm. Hunting is prohibited on farms because it is deemed to be an ‘act of cruelty’. Thus, in the eyes of the law, the concept of ‘cruelty’ is measured in figures: the area of the piece of land and the number of animals on it. Never mind the wire fences, the wildlife shut up behind them, the bloodbath of victims. No doubt these are merely ‘details’.

Glue-trap hunting: the Court of Justice of the European Union comes to the rescue of birds!

Glue-trap hunting: the Court of Justice of the European Union comes to the rescue of birds!
17.03.2021
Europe
Glue-trap hunting: the Court of Justice of the European Union comes to the rescue of birds!
Wildlife

We were at the Court of Justice of the European Union on Thursday, November 19, 2020 to hear the submissions of the assistant public prosecutor following our complaint to Europe as part of our appeals to the Council of State on the 2018 and 2019 glue-trap hunting in France. Today, Wednesday March 17, the European Court handed down its decision, and it goes our way: it supports the birds! They needed it so badly.

End of playtime for blackbird and thrush gluers!

A great victory! Following in the footsteps of Spain, Malta and Cyprus, where the tradition of glue-trap hunting was also firmly established, the European Court of Justice has ruled that glue-trap hunting must come to an end in France too, and not just by reducing the quota to zero.

According to the European Court of Justice, “A Member State cannot authorize a method of capturing birds which results in by-catches if it is likely to cause other than negligible damage to the species concerned. The traditional nature of a method of capturing birds, such as hunting with glue, is not in itself sufficient to establish that no other satisfactory solution can be substituted for it”.

“For the hunters who had fun gluing robins, blackbirds and song thrushes to eat them, it’s the end of playtime! This magnificent victory shows just how important it is never to give in to this lobby, which is so entrenched in its cruel and destructive practices. The fight for birds is not over, they remain threatened by other traditional hunts. We’ll be there! » Muriel Arnal, President of One Voice

As we’ve explained many times over the years, hunting with glue is cruel, because the birds are stuck to the branches where, in panic, they struggle, plucking feathers and breaking limbs. It is also non-selective, meaning that it traps all birds that land, and not just those of the species that the hunters want to capture to make them endure a life in captivity as decoy-birds.

A “cultural importance” that just doesn’t measure up

The Court did not follow the opinion of the assistant public prosecutor. For the European Court, “It is very likely […] that the birds captured will suffer irreversible damage, the birdlime being, by its very nature, liable to damage the plumage of all the birds captured.”

In this decision, the gluing process is clearly condemned. Regional tradition is therefore not in itself a criterion for derogating from the European Birds Directive. Capture with glue damages the plumage of the birds captured, and is therefore prohibited. The EU Court of Justice does not require certainty: the very fact that this hunting method can kill or cripple them is sufficient. In the end, the technique is condemned as much as the tradition.

We’ll soon be before the Council of State again

We said it was up to the hunters to prove that glue-trap hunting did not harm birds. In the end, the hunters’ argument that they were releasing birds of non-targeted species was swept aside… Because, in fact, glue does not make any selection between birds! So there is real hope for birds affected by other types of hunting, particularly traditional hunting!

Now it’s up to the Council of State, a national jurisdiction, to take a stand.

Read the press release from the Court of Justice of the European Union

Avian influenza: investigation into duck hunters caught red-handed

Avian influenza: investigation into duck hunters caught red-handed
09.02.2021
France
Avian influenza: investigation into duck hunters caught red-handed
Wildlife

What do hunters do when the law goes against them? They blatantly trample all over it. Our investigators filmed wildfowlers carrying live ducks in order to use them as decoys in the Somme even though it is dangerous and prohibited. Spreading bird flu? They just don’t care. The almost permanent special privileges that they benefit from have become an inherent part of their leisure activity, to the extent that it puts us in danger. We are lodging a complaint and are writing to Julien Denormandie and to the Prefect of the Somme department!

At the end of January our investigators went to the baie d’Authie Sud (estuary of the River Authie) and the baie de Somme. They brought back edifying images taken over only two half-days and in only two parking areas. Live birds are transported unceremoniously and quite openly in boxes and jute bags, by hunters, shotguns on shoulders, ready to use them as decoys or returning home from a night in the hide. This practice is widespread, as can be seen from the Facebook pages of the hunters’ associations in the Somme and newspaper articles on the subject.

Neither respect for the law nor common sense

Over the past few months cases of bird flu have become so common in France that hunting waterfowl, including ducks in the Somme department, has been banned. After standing up to and publicly threatening the authorities in the territory concerned, the hunters have decided to ignore the law and to defy the authorities. They have even set up an on-line appeal for funds to pay their fines and legal costs if they are challenged, which is also prohibited.

No observance of precautionary measures

They just don’t care that the law is there to protect the majority. They carry on, despite the hunting of migratory birds and others known as ‘waterfowl’ having been totally banned throughout the country in order to prevent the spread of deadly viruses that can be transmitted to humans. Moreover, although we’re in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, none of them was seen to be complying with the precautionary measures: no masks, no social distancing.

A practice prohibited for several months in the public interest

As ascertaining the level of bird flu and the means of monitoring and preventing it have been the responsibility of the Minister of Agriculture and Food since 2016, and as it was he who strengthened the preventive measures in October 2020, it is to him that we are turning to draw attention to the ban on transporting and releasing wildfowl and the ban on the use of decoys. This ban was promulgated in November in Somme, then a few days later at the national level. We have written to him and to the Prefect of Somme, the latter being the direct target of the violent show of strength made shamelessly by the hunters.

Those who have the public interest at heart must show strength and determination to ensure that the rules introduced to protect both humans and animals are observed. Every effort must be made. In view of the unauthorised display boards in the Bay, there’s still a long way to go.

It is one thing that some of our political representatives are totally indifferent to the fate of wild animals trapped, hunted down and massacred in the countryside and on the coasts of France, but the blatant violation of the laws that apply to everyone, in particular those that protect our health, is another. In our opinion both are important. But even for those who couldn’t care less about the fate of animals, consideration for other people and respect for the law that applies to everyone without distinction should at least be a priority.

In addition to our letters to the executive and administrative authorities, we are lodging a complaint against an « unspecified person » for infringing the health regulations, and for the ducks, for « placing them in a situation likely to cause suffering ». Please sign our petition for the radical reform of hunting.