A blackbird (illustration photo) -
Javier Garcia / REX / SIPA
Glue hunting causes "irremediable" damage to all captured birds, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on Wednesday, paving the way for a ban in France of this controversial hunting method, which has been suspended for the moment. .
"A Member State cannot authorize a method of capturing birds leading to incidental catches when they are likely to cause the species concerned other than negligible damage", the Court indicated in a press release, a judgment welcomed by the Bird Protection League as "a great victory".
A suspended method
At the end of August 2020, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron announced the suspension of this hunting method which consists of trapping birds on stems coated with glue.
The small birds thus captured are put in cages and serve, by singing, to attract others for the hunters.
But the method intended for thrushes and blackbirds leads to the capture of other species, a non-selectivity denounced for a long time by the defenders of the environment.
The Court ruled Wednesday that "despite a cleaning, the captured birds suffer irreparable damage, the slime being by nature likely to damage the plumage of all captured birds."
European justice has also rejected the cultural argument: "the maintenance of traditional activities cannot constitute an autonomous derogation from the protection regime" of the "birds" directive.
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