Brigitte Bardot Fights for Foxes
A "massacre" — that is how Brigitte Bardot describes the decision by the prefect of the Oise department, who a week ago approved the killing of 3'000 foxes.
In the French département Oise, 3,000 predators are to be hunted, but the former actress is determined to stop it.
«Murderous decree»
Brigitte Bardot is outraged. The former diva of French cinema and now radical animal rights activist says she wants to prevent a «massacre». 3,000 foxes are to be shot in the coming months north of Paris, in the French département Oise. In an open letter, Brigitte Bardot condemned on Wednesday, 18 August 2021, the «stupid decree».
Your murderous decree is nothing more than submission to the hunting lobby.
Brigitte Bardot
«These animals are a treasure for biodiversity», writes Brigitte Bardot to Corinne Orzechowski, the prefect of the region.
The recreational hunters push back against the accusations
Guy Harlé d'Ophove, the president of the recreational hunters' association of Oise, concedes that of course no animal in the forest is truly harmful. But beyond a certain number, it becomes problematic. «The fox has no natural enemies and reproduces quickly», explains Guy Harlé d'Ophove with his hunters' yarn.
Petition aims to stop recreational hunting
Brigitte Bardot and her fellow campaigners consider this a hollow argument, however. For the recreational hunters, foxes represent an unwelcome source of competition. A petition has so far gathered nearly 45,000 signatures against the decision by the Oise prefecture.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In our dossiers on the criticism of recreational hunting gather fact-checks, analyses and background reports. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
