THE BARBARIC USE OF STONE CRUSH TRAPS IN FRANCE MUST AGAIN BE BANNED
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):
MAIL TO MINISTER NELLY OLIN
To: ministere@ecologie.gouv.fr
bcc: info@proact-campaigns.net
Subject:
BAN THE BARBARIC AND CRUEL PRACTICE OF KILLING SONGBIRDS IN STONE TRAPS
To: Mme Nelly Olin Ministère de l’Ecologie et du Développement Durable
Madame la Ministre,
depuis novembre 2005, des milliers d´oiseaux ont été tué par des tendelles sur les causses à l´ouest du parc national des Cévennes avec votre permission. La légalisation de cette méthode de chasse tellement cruelle, non sélective et quasiment incontrôlable est, vu du terme de la préservation et de la protection des animaux, un scandale que je condamne sévèrement. Je vous somme d´interdire immédiatement cette forme de chasse aux oiseaux et de mettre en oeuvre la directive européenne sur la protection des oiseaux en France.
Je vous prie d´agréer, Madame, l´expression de mes salutations distinguées.
Dear Minister,
With your express authorisation, thousands of song birds have been killed by stone crush traps on the limestone plateaux west of the Cevenne National Park since November 2005. The legalisation of such a indiscriminate, cruel and practically uncontrollable hunting method is, from the point of view of species and animal protection, a scandal and I/we condemn this practice unreservedly. I/we demand that you ban this outdated and barbaric form of bird trapping immediately and ensure that the EU bird protection guidelines are rigorously implemented in France,
Sincerely,
(Name and address)