The bird poacher has been convicted! One Voice triumphant
The Toulon Tribunal’s deliberation on the case of the bird poacher was given yesterday, 27 February 2023. They agreed with One Voice.
The deliberation of the case of the robin and blackcap poacher was given on the same evening during the hearing at the Toulon Tribunal yesterday, 27 February 2023. The octogenarian has been convicted and hundreds of birds have thus been spared in the process! We are extremely happy with this decision.
The man, accustomed to breaking the law for years and a repeat offender was confronted with his actions during the hearing: photographs of the birds found dead after having been trapped, tricked by the sounds of their fellow birds being played on a tape player, were shown, and they were very telling. The chairperson pointed this out. Inspectors from the French Office of Biodiversity, who had drawn up the offence report and whom the accused had attempted to bribe, were themselves very moved on the stand.
Just one step from poaching to blackmail.
At the hearing, the defendant tried to argue that he had learnt to hunt robins and Eurasian blackcaps with his grandfather (as if this would be more excusable…) and that he could not do without it.
Unashamedly, the accused even gave the court a doctor’s note, which the chairperson read out loud, in which the doctor argued that the old man needed to hunt small birds for both his psychological well-being and his protein intake! And that depriving him of it could lead to great psychological distress or even suicide. The chairperson said that they were outraged by such a note, stressing that the doctor did not need to threaten the court or blackmail them with suicide.
A sentence worthy of the crimes!
He received a good legal sentencing: a six-month suspended prison sentence; a criminal fine of one thousand euros and a contravention fine of five hundred; publication of the ruling at his expense for two months (town hall, newspaper, and website); withdrawal of his hunting licence and a three-year ban on another being issued; a ban on possessing a weapon for three years; and, finally, the confiscation his seals.
Small birds, in France, when they are not victims of famine, disturbed by the lights and sounds of urban spaces, or even taken by glue and othertraditional hunting traps, areoften poached. We are celebrating this decision, which drives home our commitment against a France that kills birds.
Translated from the French by Joely Justice