The end of traditional hunting? Hearing on 4 April at the State Council!
Each year, tens of thousands of birds are killed under the context of so-called ‘traditional’ hunting methods. For several years, we, One Voice and the LPO, have been obtaining one victory after the next, but, as always when it comes to killing animals, the government are set against us. On 4 April 2024 at 9:30am, One Voice will be at the State Council to demand the definitive cancellation of the decrees authorising cages and nets in Landes, the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Gironde, and Lot-et-Garonne. If the judges rule in our favour, traditional bird hunting in France will be over!
Massacring field larks in the name of tradition: that’s enough!
The principle of nets and cages is simple. Step one: capture a field lark, tie it up by the leg, and shut it into a cage. Step two: pull on the string so that it emits distress calls. Step three: quietly wait for the other field larks to come closer, then activate the mechanism. The cages or nets fall, and hundreds of birds are captured before being killed, often by hand or with a knife.
In 2022, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, still concerned about preserving this deadly hobby, authorised the capture of almost 110,000 larks in Gironde, Landes, Lot-et-Garonne, and the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. A planned massacre for these birds whose population decreased by 22.9% between 2001 and 2019… Fortunately, our emergency appeals once again allowed the two decrees authorising hunting and the two authorising the very principle of nets and cages to be suspended!
After year of pleas, the end of traditional hunting has never been so close
The south-west is not the only place concerned: there is also Lozère and Aveyron with stone traps, or Ardennes with bird traps. For years, we have been leading a frenzied fight to put an end to these hobbies from another era. Faced with the unbearable persistence of the Ministry, who take out new decrees every year despite our chain of victories, we are now asking for a definitive cancellation of the decrees authorising even the principle of these traps!
Victory has never been so close. After getting glue hunting abolished in 2021 and stone traps in 2023, we have referred to the State Council so that they will get nets and cages thrown back into the oblivion of history, as they did already for all other types of traditional hunting. And, each time that the Ministry tries to scheme to sneakily authorise these practices, as it did recently through scientific pseudo-experiments that we attacked, we will be there!
On 4 April at 9:30am, we will give field larks a voice at the State Council. To say stop to this, sign our petition for a radical reform of hunting!