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He sold protected birds on skewers

2020-09-17T22:04:51.638Z


A sixty-year-old was tried this Thursday in Dax for having captured 10,000 small birds protected in ten years, which he sold for 25 euros per skewer


It is the story of a tradition that crosses that of reason, ecological.

In the courtroom of Dax (Landes) this afternoon, fifty years seemed to separate the bench of defense from that of environmental associations.

At the helm, Bernard Fargues, 68, a small-time poacher who captured, between 2011 and 2019, 10,000 birds of the passerine family: robins, sparrows, finches, "but not chickadees, they, I released them, ”says the accused learnedly.

In four fields located in the town of Dax and its surroundings, he invariably set a glue trap, or matole, a small bird trap typical of the Landes region.

To the president of the court, this former retired electrician tells that his catches complemented his meager pension of 900 euros.

“His mother paid him for his car,” adds Maître Lonne, his lawyer.

From November 2015, he was in the sights of the Hunting and Wildlife Office, which had noted the presence of matoles in a field.

Monitoring then begins.

His movements, his phone, his car are monitored.

"It feels like a case of terrorism with insane resources", apes the defense.

It was not until last November that the poacher was arrested while he was finding traps.

The captured birds, protected species, are found in his freezer.

Each year they were plucked, emptied and frozen in skewers of twelve before being sold at a price of 15 euros per skewer "then 20 euros in 2018 and 25 euros from 2019", specifies Bernard Fargues, without appearing to be realize where it is.

In a carefully kept notebook, the sixty-year-old recorded the names of the buyers and the type of birds sold.

The rugby player reimbursed on skewers

Among the names that keep coming back, that of Jean-Pierre Bastiat.

Former US international Dax, 71, is a star in the area.

"JP Bastiat is cool with everyone, but it is not enough to look nice, when you eat protected species, you are not nice", estimates the local president of Sepanso (La Société pour l ' study, protection and development of nature in the South-West) before the hearing, exasperated by this practice.

"They say that you eat ortolans as you park your BMW, it's a kind of snobbery," adds the Sepanso activist.

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The former rugby player explains.

He met Bernard Fargues at the Dax celebrations in 2013, the two quickly hit it off.

A few weeks later, the poacher - to whom he had lent 500 euros - reimburses him… in skewers.

“He paid off his debt, with rods on which there were emptied, plucked and frozen piafs.

Then I continued to buy it from him ”.

Between 2013 and 2019 he bought 134 skewers for 3350 euros.

He intended his purchases for a “very generous” annual meal with friends, perpetuated since 1968, “where we consume crustaceans, furry and feathered animals” and which he has been responsible for organizing since 2006. Du top of his double meter, the rugby player explains himself, calmly.

To the prosecutor he replies that no, he did not know what species made up the kebabs.

"Maybe the lark because I have a lot of knowledge who hunt that here," says the former second line.

"The larks are at least a third larger than these birds and their beak is different", answers the prosecutor.

The rugby player dries up, “a little bird is a little bird.

I know how to recognize a live lark but empty, not plucked ”.

The two other buyers, friend or neighbor of Bernard Fargues, wood pigeon hunter for one, novice in hunting for the other, admit not having been able to distinguish the protected species pinned on their skewer either.

"You really should never open the local newspaper to ignore these debates," suggests the chairman ironically.

"When I buy a steak I do not do it in a parking lot, in cash, the buyers could not ignore that they were leaving the legal circuits", underlines the lawyer of the LPO (League for the protection of birds) and FNE (France Nature Environment).

"If it was another illegal product, with twenty kilos a buyer would take ten years in prison," says Master Sandrine Gelis before recalling that in 2018 poachers of pibals, protected eel fry had been sentenced to closed prison.

"It is not the market value of these birds that counts," she continues, "but the heritage value, it is an attack on biodiversity.

"

A third of birds less in 15 years

For Sepanso, "hunting small birds in the Landes is not a tradition" insists Maitre François Ruffié, "bullfighting has its music, its literature and is practiced at a given period so yes, that's a Landes tradition. ".

Above all, the association recalls the ecological damage.

"30% of the population of small country birds has disappeared in fifteen years", specifies François Ruffié, CNRS report in support.

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Aude Le Herissier, the prosecutor, for whom the public hearing must also have an educational virtue, required two years in prison, a million euros fine and the publication of the verdict for two months in a newspaper of legal announcement.

The judgment has been reserved, it will be delivered on November 19.

Source: leparis

All tech articles on 2020-09-17

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