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Seine-Maritime: justice validates the elimination of 1,430 foxes

2020-08-20T16:10:14.467Z


According to the judge, the interruption of regulatory activities during the state of health emergency "contributed to the growth of the population


Some 1,430 foxes will be slaughtered by 2021 in Seine-Maritime. The justice rejected Thursday the summary appeal of the One Voice nature protection association against a prefectural decree authorizing the elimination of these animals, considered too numerous.

"The fox sees its population grow in the department of Seine-Maritime in a significant proportion", estimates Patrick Mine, the summary judge of the administrative court of Rouen, contrary to what the association asserts, which evoked "a slight decrease ”during a hearing Wednesday.

The number of foxes trapped between 2014 and 2019 is "constantly increasing, from 6,654 to 8,010 animals," argues the magistrate, also highlighting the upward trend in the kilometric index of abundance (method of counting the fauna) from 2017 to 2020 for this species.

"Cases of sarcoptic mange"

"The interruption of all regulatory activity" during the state of health emergency linked to Covid-19 "has contributed to the growth of the fox population", also notes the judge.

However, "the protection of human and animal health, the preservation of fauna such as small game, even though this game is also hunted by man, and the prevention of damage to farms [...] constitute as much of public interests whose existence is sufficiently justified in the present case ”, adds the magistrate in his written decision.

During the hearing on Wednesday, Alexandre Herment, head of the environment service of the departmental direction of territories and the sea (DDTM), had reported "cases of sarcoptic scabies reported quite significantly in the department" and "foxes were found in a very poor sanitary condition ”.

The association considered that this health risk was "not argued" by the prefecture.

No damage on professional farms

As for the impact of the fox on poultry, also mentioned by the decree of July 20, the legal director of DDTM Sophie Messmer had recognized Wednesday that there was "no damage to professional farms", but on "special farms".

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The annual amounts of damage communicated by the administration in view of the claims reports of which it was aware from 2014 to 2018 reached "the average of 32,282 euros", according to the judge.

In a press release published after the court decision, the prefecture stressed that "the authorized number is a maximum" and that it "is of the order of 15% of the annual departmental withdrawals noted".

For its part, One Voice does not envisage an appeal in cassation before the Council of State, the only possible recourse against the summary. The association is awaiting the examination of the appeal on the merits which will not take place for several months.

The court therefore decided that the foxes were too numerous in Seine-Maritime. The massacre planned by @ Prefet76 will come to an end for the 1430 individuals concerned. Maybe we will win the action for annulment but they will be dead #JAimeLesRenards # LaChasseUnProblèmeMortel pic.twitter.com/lRt7sgWUSh

- One Voice (@onevoiceanimal) August 20, 2020

One Voice is the only complainant. But the decree had also been strongly criticized by the deputy mayor EELV of Rouen, Jean-Michel Bérégovoy and by France nature environnement (FNE).

During a public consultation organized from May 29 to June 19, 2,468 people spoke out against this draft decree, 832 in favor, according to the prefecture. One Voice assured the press on Wednesday that similar orders had been canceled in summary proceedings in 2019 in Eure and Moselle, as well as in 2018 in Meurthe-et-Moselle.

Source: leparis

All life articles on 2020-08-20

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