REINTRODUCTION OF BARBARIC STONE CRUSH TRAPS IN FRANCE

PROACT FRANCE

UPDATE: PROTEST AGAINST STONE CRUSH TRAPS IN FRANCE

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NEW PROTEST EMAIL ACTION AGAINST THE USE OF STONE CRUSH TRAPS IN FRANCE

Chaffinch in stone crush trap

Support the CABS initiative to ban this brutal practice

The background - a reminder
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 Nelly 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".
Following an on the spot investigation by CABS an exponential projection of the area searched in relation to the total area of the plateau gave 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/Proact protest action by sending an email to the European Commission and the new French Minister for Ecology (email link and text below):

MAIL TO EC & MINISTER JEAN-LOUIS BORLOO

To: stavros.dimas@ec.europa.eu, ministere@ecologie.gouv.fr

bcc: proact.campaigns@online.de

Many thanks for your support,

David Conlin

for Proact International and Komitee gegen den Vogelmord

Subject:

BAN THE CRUEL AND NON-SELECTIVE USE OF STONE CRUSH TRAPS/STOPPEZ LES TENDELLES

To:

Commissioner Stavros Dimas

Cc:

M. Jean-Louis Borloo,

Ministère de l'écologie, du développement et de l'aménagement durables

Dear Commissioner Dimas,

The continued authorisation of the French stone crush trapping practice must be rescinded.

This trapping method, reintroduced after a 100 year gap on the basis of the use of a new, 'selective' trap, is in practice non-selective and inflicts unnecessary pain to many birds (a lingering death from fractures, hypothermia, suffication or permanent disability).

I(we request that you thoroughly examine all existing and any new evidence on this matter and take the appropriate action with the French Government to abolish this out-dated ‘traditional’ trapping practice as soon as possible.

In anticipation of swift action on the part of your directorate, and feedback on the progress of your progress I/we remain.

Yours sincerely,

Name and address

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