The polecat can no longer be hunted all year round. With the exception of this species, the new list, published Friday August 4 by the government, of “species likely to cause damage” (ESOD), formerly qualified as “pests”, is almost identical to that established in 2019.
In the new version of this list, which will be valid until 2026, weasel, weasel, marten, fox, rook, magpie, jay and starling can be “trapped the year” or “destroyed by shooting” with prefectural authorization, according to the text published in the Official Journal following a public consultation. Some species can also be “dug up”, i.e. captured by destroying their burrow.
These eight species belong to group 2 of the ESODs, which includes two others: one concerns invasive alien species (nutria, muskrat, etc.) and the other is defined according to local specificities (wild rabbit, wood pigeon, etc.). ). The polecat was included in this group 2 until now, but following a decision by the Council of State dated July 2021 judging the species to be in an “unfavorable state of conservation”, it no longer appears there, as the previous Secretary of State for Biodiversity, Bérangère Couillard, had committed to it.
Various NGOs question the legitimacy of the ESOD orders, deeming the idea of ??authorizing the “unlimited” killing of animals “in the context of the ecological emergency and the collapse of biodiversity” archaic, and castigating the method establishment of the list, which results from simple declarations not subject to any checks, both on the veracity of the facts and on the estimate of the damage.
Hunts suspended for three ‘dying’ species
“It’s a gift to hunters, who blame a lot of ESOD for attacking the game they are going to release,” immediately denounced Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, president of the League for the Protection of Birds. (LPO). The association filed a “legal appeal” against this new order on Friday. “We will have a double action locally before the administrative courts and on the other hand at the national level”, announced to Agence France-Presse (AFP) its president. He also denounced the “contempt with which we treat all contributors” to the public consultation, 71% of whom opposed the draft decree.
The office of the new Secretary of State for Biodiversity, Sarah El Haïry, told AFP “want to initiate a reflection to make the framework more readable and effective in accordance with the expectations of the actors”. A mission of the general inspectorate of the ministry is planned to “identify how the other [countries] are doing and to be able to compare and fuel the collective reflection”.
The government also published three decrees on Friday to suspend the hunting of three species of birds until the end of July 2024: the Eurasian curlew, the black-tailed godwit and the turtle dove. These are “particularly endangered” species, argued Sarah El Haïry’s entourage. “These three moratorium orders are part of the doctrine which is that when science tells us that the state of the species does not allow it, the State does not issue hunting quotas and can take moratoriums,” said we explained from the same source.
But for Mr. Bougrain-Dubourg, this is not enough: “We are giving a year’s reprieve for these species which are dying when at least we should give them five years’ respite to try to stem their decline and hope for a rebirth. »
