The administrative court of Strasbourg takes the side of the foxes!

Wildlife

09.02.2019

Strasbourg

The decree of July 10th 2018 by which the Prefect of the Moselle regulated the organization of hunts particular foxes by the specialist hunters of the Louvre has been cancelled. In way of compensation, the State will pay 1500 euros to the association One Voice.

Muriel Arnal, Founding President of One Voice, says:

«More than half a million red foxes are slaughtered each year on our territory, they are sentient beings and are essential to the balance of our ecosystems. They are persecuted, there is no other word for it. They can be killed all year round, right down into their burrows, including during the breeding season! No need to say more. This wonderful victory will allow the funds recovered to be allocated to the defence of wildlife and to foxes in particular.»

The court took the defence of the red foxes, who were wrongly accused

For an order that was relaxed to authorize these continued hunting periods, it is therefore necessary not only for the State to provide proof of the “absolute necessity” of these additional hunts, but also to prove the “significant damage” caused by foxes, which it does not need to do, but eventually did not succeed.

For the court,

«The Prefect does not provide any evidence to establish the need for special fox hunts, whereas the latter are already classified on the list of game species to be hunted for the 2018-2019 season. Moreover, the only circumstance that the department of the Moselle, as is apparent from the articles and press releases in the file, intends to favour the poultry farms «Red Label». They could not further justify the contested order, in the absence of any evidence that foxes would be likely to cause significant damage to these otherwise protected and closed farms. »

Victory after victory against the hunt, One Voice hits the mark

This is the second time in a row that a Prefectural order in process is cancelled following a request from the One Voice Association to defend the foxes, wrongly accused of all ills. Previously, only expired bylaws were found to be illegal, making the victory bitter because the foxes had already been slaughtered.

Damage? But what damage?

To keep red foxes on the list of species classified as likely to cause damage (pests), it is still necessary to estimate their number. One Voice has therefore made the request to all the French departments of the list of damages caused specifically by these small canids.

We must believe that this request from our association worries more than one: the FDSEA Loir-et-Cher has reminded all its members, including through the press, the importance of these statements by the operators. Because without damage, it would call into question the necessity of the wanton destruction of foxes …

And for good reason, they are falsely accused of all evils and suffer from a bad reputation, the opposite of all reality! Or how to take a problem backwards, that is to say to seek justification for the maintenance of a morbid “past time”.

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