The Saint-Avold deer: welcome to absurdity
Killing twenty deer and reintroducing twenty more a few metres further away: in Saint-Avold, the absurdity of hunting has reached its peak
The Moselle Prefect has authorised, on the same day, the killing of twenty deer and the introduction of twenty other deer a few metres further away. Far from the alleged ‘regulations’, the State has lost their mind, hunters are delighted, and animals pay the biggest price as always.
Updated 27 January 27 2023 at 9:15am
Following the publication of our article, the Moselle Prefecture and the ONF [French National Forests Office] have assured us that no deer will be killed during operations (France Bleu and Le Républicain Lorrain). A commitment that we are celebrating, but which does not explain the use of the term ‘collect’ rather than ‘capture’. Another example of how, when it comes to hunting, words no longer have any meaning. And as the last hunting day in this part of the St Avold state forest was set for 21 January, the deer released will have some respite… until the next season.
Updated 25 January 2023 at 9:35am
The word ‘collect’ in general in hunting signifies ‘killing’. If the prefects were authorising ‘captures’ then they would use the word ‘capture’. Here, it is the decree that is actually authorising the killing of twenty deer. We are campaigning on our side for deer to be moved and not killed. We have published this article to warn of this situation. If the Prefecture clarifies and reveals that these twenty ‘collections’ are actually captures, even better. They could also have indicated it in the decree: why choose the word ‘collection’ and not ‘capture’? To be on the safe side, we would rather act and if we obtain a clarification then this action was justified.
The town of Saint-Avold (Moselle) is home to the biggest American cemetery from the Second World War in Europe: a park measuring 46 hectares and largely wooded to the delight of several deer who have taken up residence there and spend time peacefully alongside fallen soldiers.
But these visitors are not welcome: in March 2022, the Moselle Prefect authorised the killing of thirty of them within the cemetery grounds. This was not enough to wipe them out: so on 17 January 2023, he allowed another massacre to slaughter twenty more deer.
To compensate these killings, a decree was signed on the same day to reintroduce twenty others, without a doubt from breeding farms, into the Saint-Avold national forest. This forest is only separated from the cemetery by a road which obviously will not stop roebucks, doe roe deer, and fawns. Be warned, however: if they cross it, the Prefect will jump at the chance to authorise a handful of lucky representatives to come and kill them among these tombstones.
Complaining about the damage caused by deer, killing them, then reintroducing deer in the same place: how far are they willing to go to satisfy a few peoples’ instinct to kill?
Additionally, do we need to remind the Moselle Prefect that alternatives to killing exist? These animals could be quite simply captured and released into the forest, as we do elsewhere in France. No need to make them suffer and die. Yet more proof of the total disinterest of State representatives for animals’ lives. To them, killing twenty individuals and reintroducing twenty others a few metres further away is the same as not killing any of them.
Let’s continue to demand a radical hunting reform to fight this absurdity!
Translated from the French by Joely Justice