THE BARBARIC USE OF STONE CRUSH TRAPS IN FRANCE MUST AGAIN BE BANNED
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| Chaffinch in stone trap |
French Environment Minister authorises the reintroduction of stone crush traps
Back to the Stone Age
Since November 2005 thousands of songbirds may once again be trapped and crushed to death under stone slabs - and subsequently
eaten as delicacies. The traps, set out on the limestone plateaux east of Avignon, are among the most brutal instruments in
the European hunter's arsenal.
A trap consists of a limestone slab weighing several kilograms which is propped up on twigs and wood slivers and strewn
with juniper berries as bait. Birds coming to eat the berries brush against the twigs and are squashed under the slab or trapped
in a cavity under the slab. The victims of this literally stone age hunting method are above all Thrushes, Robins, Pipits
and Finches. As many of these species are protected under EU legislation the use of these indiscriminate traps (in French
'tendelles') was up until now forbidden throughout the EU. Under no external pressure, the French Minister for Ecology and
Sustainable Development Mme Nell Olin signed a law in November 2005 which permitted this brutal hobby to be practised again
in the Départements Lozère and Aveyron. From the beginning of November until the end of January 'tendelles' can once again
be set out in 31 communities between the Central Massif and the Tarn Gorge. The Minister justified the lifting of the ban
with the development of a new form of trap in which the birds are only "trapped alive" under the stone slab "but
not killed".
CABS on the spot
In the course of only a few days a Committee team found and documented several dozen trapping sites with more than 2,000 stone
traps. Traps were even recorded on the boundary of the Cevenne National Park. Checks in the vicinity of the towns of Millau
and Florac found numerous Song and Mistle Thrushes, Fieldfares, three Robins, a Meadow Pipit and a Chaffinch which were all
released. An exponential projection of the area searched in relation to the total area of the plateau gives a total of between
75,000 and 125,000 stone crush traps in which countless migrant birds meet a painful end every season. Many victims are not
killed outright but bleed to death, suffocate, die of thirst or die as a result of stress. Those which survive relatively
unharmed have their neck broken by the hunter later.
The conclusion is that what the French hunters 'sold' the Minister as 'discriminate', 'humane' and 'traditional' is in
reality cruel and environmentally-alien barbarism.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Support the CABS protest action by sending an email to Minister Nelly Olin (email link and text below):
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