Traditional hunting: prefects always quick to flatter hunters at the expense of birds.
While One Voice and the LPO had obtained a ban on traditional hunting with “matoles” (cages) and “pantes” (nets), the State is finding new strategies to allow hunters to continue their despicable hobby: prefectoral decrees that authorize the capture of Eurasian skylarks “for scientific purposes” for more than a month. One Voice is taking the matter to court to request their urgent suspension and annulment.
On May 6, 2024, we achieved a decisive victory for the protection of Eurasian skylarks: the Council of State annulled the decrees of October 4, 2022 authorizing the capture of these birds with archaic and cruel devices, such as matoles and pantes, in several departments of south-west France. This decision marked the definitive end of traditional hunting, after the courts had repeatedly ruled in our favor. But the State spares no effort to satisfy the hunters. Under the guise of “scientific experimentation” – as if hunting had anything to do with science, the moon or green cheese – the prefects of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Landes regions have taken the decision to reauthorize these means of trapping larks in our countryside.
Hunting federations, these scientific organizations…..
No one is fooled: these “experiments” are nothing more than a maneuver to discreetly reintroduce practices that had been formally banned by the courts. And which, by a strange coincidence, will be carried out… by the hunters themselves. Who said “scientific neutrality”? The aim is obvious: to make people believe that these procedures are justified, so as to revive their use under the guise of pseudo-scientific legitimacy.
All this is orchestrated by the departmental hunting federations, whose objectivity is, of course, totally questionable. In the Pyrénées-Atlantiques region, these decrees authorize the capture of almost 2,000 Eurasian skylarks. In the Landes region, 16,000 birds will suffer the same fate, caught in nets and cages. Outrageous cynicism!
We already know the results that this “research” will produce: it will attempt to demonstrate that pantes and matoles are selective tools, when we know full well that these traps do not differentiate between the species captured. This means that not only Eurasian skylarks will be endangered, but also other birds, protected or not, collateral victims of these devices. Many of them risk being injured or even killed in accidental captures, an unacceptable risk for biodiversity. And all will suffer fear, panic and intense stress.
These prefectoral decrees are not only dangerous for wildlife, they are also illegal. Indeed, they were issued without any public consultation, thus depriving citizens and animal protection associations of the opportunity to react and make their voices heard.
We are determined not to let “traditional” hunting make a comeback. That’s why we’re taking our case to the administrative court, calling for the immediate suspension and annulment of these decrees.
The fight against these traps is far from over. We will continue to defend animals and to make the voice of the 83% of French people who want to see an end to these practices, which should be a thing of the past (Ipsos/One Voice 2022 poll), heard. We need your support: sign our petition for a radical reform of hunting and to prevent the return of these very cruel methods!