Two hearings in Périgueux against the breeder of “hunting” dogs

Two hearings in Périgueux against the breeder of “hunting” dogs
28.04.2021
France
Two court appearances in Périgueux for the gundog breeder
Wildlife

We will be in Périgueux on 28 and 30 April for the hearings, at which Mandral, the hunter and breeder of gundogs, will be made to face up to some of his actions. We filed criminal complaints against him for his refusal to comply with instructions from the authorities. At the first hearing, he is accused of not having reduced the number of his dogs below the authorised limit of 50 (operation of a notifiable classified facility for the protection of the environment not in compliance with a formal notice). The second concerns his failure to stop the dogs breeding. Our complaint on acts of cruelty and mistreatment committed by an operator is still in progress.

Since early 2019, we have repeatedly complained about this breeder who mistreats and, we hold, is guilty of cruelty to his dogs. We have supporting images from our investigations. When we rescued 16 dogs in February 2020, it was very obvious. Some of bitches were cowed by fear and suffering from serious untreated health problems. The puppies were infested with worms and fleas.

Richard Mandral will therefore appear in Périgueux twice this week: on 28 April at 13.30 at the criminal court (tribunal correctionnel) and two days later at 09.00 at the police court (tribunal de police).

This breeder was already in the news in the 1980s for trafficking dogs to laboratories. He now risks a year in prison and a €15,000 fine for the offence of failure to comply with a formal notice to satisfy a regulatory requirement in relation to his business as a breeder; and a fine for the second, summary, offence of intentionally continuing to breed dogs, although he was well aware of the limit on the number authorised. The dogs were kept in unacceptable conditions. We paid veterinary fees of over €13,000 in 2020 for the 16 dogs we rescued. We are asking for €1000 in damages.

Richard Mandral has been summoned by the public prosecutor to appear before the court for operation of a notifiable classified facility for the protection of the environment (ICPE) not in compliance with a formal notice. As we filed the complaints, we have joined the proceedings as a civil party.

Richard Mandral kept his dogs tied up in bare kennels, in yards where the water freezes in winter and evaporates in summer. He neglected them and left them to die, to the point where they were eating each other. Not content with this, he enclosed females and males together in cages and vans, for mass-breeding, when he already had over a hundred dogs! It was our complaint, accompanied by the images we published, which enabled the prefecture to issue a formal notice to comply with the regulations on breeding facilities, followed by a referral to the public prosecution service for criminal proceedings against the breeder, who refused to comply.

For One Voice, this is not just about failure to comply with ICPE standards. It is above all about the ill-treatment suffered by the dogs.

Our January 2020 complaint on abandonment, acts of cruelty and ill-treatment committed by a breeder is still in progress. No hearing has yet been fixed.

Translated from the French by Jo Durning

New investigation! Penned hunting infiltrated by One Voice

New investigation! Penned hunting infiltrated by One Voice
13.04.2021
France
New investigation! Penned hunting infiltrated by One Voice
Wildlife

Hunting animals in pens allows them no opportunity to escape. In fact they are shut in and have nowhere to escape to. Our investigators infiltrated the hunters in the winter of 2020-2021. Despite Covid-19 hunting parties continued. Euros poured into the coffers of the breeders, owners or tenants of enclosures. These are hunting reserves where clients pay by the day and/or per animal shot. The animals are slaughtered without pity, day after day, by groups of hunters for whose pleasure everything is laid on. We are urging the Ministry of Ecology to put an end to it.

Using the images taken during the winter season just ended by our investigators who had infiltrated the hunters, we can shed even more light on the extent of the horror suffered by the animals targeted by this merciless type of hunting, which even some hardened hunters disapprove of. One of these is the president of the National Federation of Hunters himself, Willy Schraen, who expresses some previously unheard of thoughts during filming by our undercover investigators. The horror of penned hunting has already been written about in the French media and by ASPAS, the first association to have unmasked it.

Muriel Arnal, Chair of One Voice, declares: « Penned hunting is canned hunting made in France! Our investigators who infiltrated the hunters saw them in pursuit of animals that were almost tame, unsurprisingly since humans raise them and feed them, only to sell them to the guns. The final betrayal! Pregnant sows are hunted down mercilessly. Roe deer, does, fallow deer flee in terror from the bullets. Orphaned piglets are left to certain death. Trap shooting using live animals ended more than a century ago because it was deemed to be shameful. We are asking the Ministry of Ecology for an immediately ban on penned hunting. »

Wild boar fœtuses emerge from the sows at the celebratory meal at the end of the drive

Humans raise them, release them in enclosures surrounded by walls or wire fences and organize hunts from which they can never come out alive. What our investigators heard is revealing.

“In any case, the animals are shut in. The aim is to satisfy everyone.”And: “There are enough fine wild boar in the enclosure to keep everyone happy”, and “If the tally this evening includes a pregnant sow weighing 130 kilos, it’s not a problem. It calls for a celebration. If she’s in the enclosure she’s there to be killed. Today all the sows are pregnant, so it goes without saying that if there is a sow that’s pregnant it’s not a problem. There’s no fine, no slaughter tax, nothing like that. It is your day, full stop.” Because “if there are any sows there, in the enclosure, it’s because we breeders don’t want them any more … So we have them killed.”

And in fact our investigators were able to film sows being cut up at the end of the day, immediately after being killed, their amniotic sacs intact and containing several fœtuses.

Not everyone is in favour of penned hunting

The organizers who stand in front of the board showing the tally for the day are not making a mistake in insisting: “No photos on the Internet, I don’t want any on Facebook“. They also ask that faces not be shown either, on the orders of Willy Schraen, president of the National Federation of Hunters. These hunts and in particular the displaying of the corpses are not acceptable to the public at large, and quite rightly!

The hunters don’t even use the pretext of regulating numbers, they just kill purely for pleasure! These animals, who regard humans as sources of food, having been reared in or near the enclosure where they spend their last hour, are given no quarter.

The young ones, unable to look after themselves, are left to die

The young wander through the wood at random, alone, with no chance of surviving. Wandering about in search of their mothers, who have been killed, they will become dehydrated and will die in agony. Knowing how intelligent, aware and sensitive pigs are, how important family ties are to wild boar, provides a glimpse of the extent of the massacre.

An organizer explains: “At nightfall, what a noise those little ones make, oh!” “They are crying for their mothers.” And in the case of those who don’t find them, “I have some in the room over there, every three hours they have to be given a drink, you know, otherwise they die.”

An agonizing death for the babies.

A hard life for the dogs

At the beginning of the day one of the organizers warns, because it often happens: “Watch out for the dogs when they’re among the wild boar. You don’t just shoot anywhere, anything, anyhow.”

One of the hunters explains, about one of his dogs, who had previously had twelve stitches and had just been wounded in the leg: “That dachshund over there, as soon as he gets close to one he goes for it! Little fucker! The little ones can get their faces ripped off.” Transformed into weapons, they are used as tools or hunting accessories, just like rifles or camouflage jackets, put away after use and thrown away when they become useless.

After the drive they are shut up, squashed together in a dark trailer where the largest cannot even stand up.

The hunters who adapt the regulations to suit themselves

In the midst of the Covid pandemic no precautions are taken during the drives nor at mealtimes. No social distancing, no hand-washing … and the few masks one notices are, at best, worn under the chin. Finally, discussions about ways of contravening the curfew reveal how little attention is paid to the public authorities and to the general interest. They always expect special privileges.

To get penned hunting banned we have written to Barbara Pompili, the Minister of Ecology. Please sign our petition and let’s appeal to the Ministry! Urge them to put an end to it!

Translated from the French by Patricia Fairey

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