The public rapporteur of the Rouen administrative court on Friday requested the annulment of a 2019 prefectural decree authorizing the slaughter of foxes in the Eure, while the court is due to rule soon on a similar case in Seine-maritime.
Read also: Should we kill the foxes?
“
The prefect does not demonstrate the need to authorize (...) the additional destruction of foxes.
We suggest that you cancel this decree
”, concluded the public rapporteur Ludivine Delacour during a hearing on the merits.
"
In principle the judgment is rendered within a fortnight,
" said the president of the court Frédéric Cheylan.
On Wednesday this magistrate had examined the summary appeal of associations against a decree taken on July 20, 2020 by the prefect of Seine maritime to authorize the elimination of 1,430 foxes by 2021. He then promised to render his decision in the "
as soon as possible
”.
A request against this same Seine-maritime decree was rejected on August 20 by another judge.
The order of the prefect of Eure, which authorized the elimination of night foxes without giving a quantified limit, had been suspended in summary proceedings in 2019. Friday neither of the two parties (the association One Voice against the State) was not present at the hearing on the merits.
In his decree of February 8, 2019, the prefect of Eure highlighted, like the prefect of Seine-maritime in July, the decrease in the partridge population.
Read also: Justice validates the elimination of 1,430 foxes in Seine-Maritime
But according to Delacour, a study however put forward by the prefecture, indicates on the contrary "
that there is no obvious correlation between the abundance of foxes and the rate of predation of the partridge
".
“
It does not appear from the file that the fox would abnormally threaten the gray partridge,
” she continued.
As for the damage observed on poultry, they do not justify the order according to the rapporteur.
“
In two years, 148 incidents were recorded in 110 municipalities for a declared damage amounting to 23,195 for 2017 and 2018. These elements alone do not allow to establish that the damage in the farms would have been of such magnitude as this would justify carrying out (...) an additional destruction, since the fox is already the subject of a hunting plan
, ”argued Ms. Delacour.
A prefectural decree authorizing the elimination of 1,430 foxes in Seine-Maritime by 2021 due to the impact of foxes "
on small game
" and a "
risk of the spread of diseases transmissible to humans
" is he also challenged in court.
