It is the end of a long soap opera.
The Council of State annulled the ministerial decrees on glue hunting, effectively banning this traditional practice in south-eastern France.
Much decried by some associations, glue hunting consists of trapping living birds with glue so that they serve as callers.
They are then released.
Read also: Emmanuel Macron bans glue hunting for thrushes and blackbirds this year
This decision puts an end to a long series started in 2009. The European directive "birds" had prohibited the hunting of the glue, except if "
there are no other satisfactory solutions to allow, under strictly controlled conditions and of selectively, the capture, keeping or any other judicious exploitation of certain birds in small quantities
”.
In 2019, the Government authorizes by decree the hunting of the glue of thrushes and blackbirds in five departments (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Alpes-Maritimes, Bouches-du-Rhône, Vaucluse and Var).
Decision contested by the
One Voice
associations
and the French League for the protection of birds which seized the Council of State.
Pending its decision, the Government refuses to authorize glue hunting for the 2020 season. In turn, this refusal is attacked by the National Federation of Hunters before the Council of State.
Tradition or animal welfare?
The answer comes from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on March 17, 2021. It rules that “
the traditional character of a method of capturing birds, such as that of glue hunting, is not enough , in itself, to establish that another satisfactory solution cannot be substituted for it
”.
The court also notes that hunting with glue is "
likely to cause non-target captured species damage other than negligible
".
Read also: Hunting wants to evolve so as not to disappear
By three decisions, the Council of State observes that the government and the National Federation of Hunters have not "
provided sufficient evidence to confirm that hunting with glue only leads to the capture of birds in small quantities. belonging to species other than those sought
”. He notes that it is not possible to say "
that birds caught accidentally would only suffer negligible damage, once released and cleaned, in particular to their plumage
". Finally, the Council of State that "
the sole objective of preserving these traditions is not sufficient to justify a derogation from the prohibitions in principle posed by the directive
".
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Hunting: Barbara Pompili does not want to oppose"
bad hunters
"and"
nice ecologists
"
