The masquerade has lasted long enough! Stop underground hunting

A draft decree under the influence of hunters

Make no mistake, this is a proposal for hunters, endorsed by the services of François de Rugy, while 83% of French people are for a ban on unearthing animals from their homes. The Department rarely asks animal lovers for help in writing an order for “species classified as likely to be a pest”. He prefers to be advised by self-proclaimed “field ecologists”, basically advocates of the trigger and knife. Analysis of the text.

Here is what the draft decree from the Minister for the Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition, a man who is supposed to be the chief protector of wildlife. Hang on.

The public was told from the outset: « Today, and in order to respond even more to the consideration of animal welfare, hunters have proposed complementary measures to those decided in 2014 ».

Seeking improvements in well-being

We are talking about “well-being” here and we are looking for it! Where is well-being mentioned in this text, only changes in the way to kill without questioning anything?

See for yourself: the draft decree “prohibits the direct capture of animals by dogs and limits the suffering of animals that are captured“. When they say “captured”, what do we hear? it means “biting” and “ripped apart” by dogs. From now on foxes, badgers and their young will still be captured with iron tongs, after suffering long hours of anguish at the bottom of their burrows, hearing the dogs and then the pick axes of the hunters who dig to reach them.

Because the unearthing process is just that: the methodical and merciless hunt for foxes and their terrified cubs.

Renaming simply to justify

The project specifies the means that are authorized for digging. Are you ready for this?

Among these, “the prohibition of championships and competitions, now replaced by training days for the hunters and their dogs” farewell to “competitions”, now we say “training days” … nice euphemisms. In other words, we take the same people, the same events, and instead of calling it “events”, we will now speak of “training”, instead of giving medals, we will now give certificates. We can now justify continuing to do the same things, with the argument that: hunters, we are training!

Promises of sanctions in case of discrepancy. How was it before?

A mention is made of “the need to stop digging when a protected species is present“. Still happy! We understand, for those who did not know, that this was not the case in the current decree … Remember that 83% of the French want to prohibit the hunting of animal species “in risk of extinction”, and 77% believe that this is already the case.    

The last change is “the possibility for the Prefect to suspend or withdraw the certificate for a pack in case of a serious breach of the prescriptions regarding the decree”. Good grief! Still happy (bis), so it’s new. What happened in case of non-compliance with the decree? Nothing visible. Great princes, these hunters! And who will control each pack in each meadow?

For foxes and badgers who just want to live in peace, just like us. Please take part in this public consultation, take the time to give your opinion on this draft Ministry order, conceived by hunters!

Advice:

• No copy and pasting of text, this will not be taken into account.
• No offensive messages
• No overly general messages calling for the outright abolition of underground hunting.

Help to argue (be careful, without copy and pasting text, use your own words):

Cruelty:

• This is the cruellest mode of hunting in Europe
• For obvious reasons of animal abuse, all other European countries have banned the practice of underground hunting on their territory
• The capture, before killing the animal (or its entire family) can take hours, mistreatment of these hunted individuals (badgers, foxes …) and dogs are used by hunters

Biology:

• This practice takes place even during the breeding season and the rearing of their young
• Badgers, of which this species is considered as game, “benefits” in this project from a complementary period allowing hunters to dig them up during the breeding season. This measure exists only for their species!
• Foxes are tracked also all year round, their species passing from the status of game to that of “pests”, thus excavated according to this practice. Where is the so-called proof of their destructive damage, on the contrary, their presence helps fight against Lyme disease, and they regulate their population without the need for human intervention.
• Badger burrows, mainly, can host protected species (forest cats, small horseshoe bats, …). The digging destroys a large part of these burrows, destroying the habitats of many protected species.

An unnecessary measure:

• In most European countries (Ireland, United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands), badgers are classified as protected species. In Germany hunting is allowed only three months in the year. Switzerland and Liechtenstein have banned the practice of unearthing without causing an overabundance of the badger population, badgers self-regulate their own populations.