Protest planned in Paris for wildlife protection

A demonstration is set to take place on October 24 beginning at 1:30 p.m. from Place Saint-Sulpice in central Paris. The event is organized by approximately forty environmental protection associations, including Aspas and One Voice, to demand a response from the state for the protection of sentient beings and to call for an exemplary commitment for the protection of wildlife strongly affected and disoriented following the summer's heatwaves and fires.

Petition against hunting gains support

The protest follows the "No Guns on Ashes" petition, launched in July to demand the suspension of hunting in forest areas devastated by the fires, in order to "grant the necessary respite to surviving animals." The petition has gathered more than 530,000 signatures, making it the most signed petition on Change.org in France this year, according to the platform.

Petition author criticizes government inaction

Bruno Valentin, the author of the petition, who states he is "not politicized," laments the lack of action by public authorities. The mobilization statement emphasizes the need to affirm solidarity with the "martyred wildlife, the residents also directly victims of the cataclysms of this summer and the entire French citizens in a context of increasing eco-anxiety."

Hunting season begins amid ongoing restrictions

The general opening of hunting in France takes place around mid-September. During the summer, "at least twenty" departmental prefects had issued decrees to suspend or limit hunting after the drought and exceptional fires, some of which "now lifted," said Mathieu Lefèvre, the minister in charge of Ecological Transition, at the beginning of September. No department has issued a modification of dates.

Local restrictions remain in place

Lefèvre had asked the prefects to suspend locally the hunting of waterfowl, which begins at the end of August, in case of "disaster." However, he considered that "national measures were not adapted to the differences in territorial realities." No department has issued a modification of dates, according to hunters and environmental associations.

Some areas still closed to hunting

In Gironde, where more than 40,000 hectares of forest have burned, some burned areas remain closed and therefore "inaccessible" for hunting in fifteen communes, according to the prefecture. For Bruno Valentin and the associations that will be mobilized, "it is up to the government to urge the prefectures (to) take their responsibilities."