A reward of 5,000 euros has been promised for any testimony allowing to find the poacher of a stork, found riddled with lead in the forest of Double (Dordogne) on November 15th. The announcement by the NGO Sea Shepherd posted on social networks on Tuesday is starting to get a lot of attention. The animal, a protected species, had to be euthanized.
Although sometimes called into question, Sea Shepherd’s initiative is completely legal. This is not the first time that the association has used this process. “In France, we launched a reward of 10,000 euros when two seals were found decapitated in the north of France, then after the death of a bear in Ariège, explains Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd France. It doesn’t work every time, but it is effective. This had helped to find the author of the decapitation of the seals. »
The reward only given if the perpetrator is convicted
The initiative also allows “to shine the spotlight on a practice, poaching, which must stop” continues Lamya Essemlali, who adds that there is “often an omerta around this kind of act”.
On the terms, “we first sort, then the testimonies that we consider interesting are transferred to the investigators who take over,” explains Sea Shepherd. “The reward is only given if the testimony results in the conviction of the person. “The association specifies that it does not replace either the investigators or the courts, “who obviously remain decision-makers. “An investigation has also been opened by the Bergerac prosecution, in the case of the death of the migratory bird.
Lamya Essemlali also points out that in the case of the bear killed in Ariège, “several people had gone further to inflate the reward of 10,000 euros that we were offering. We ended up blocking when the sum reached 50,000 euros. It’s interesting, because offering rewards is not common, we sometimes hear dubious comparisons with denunciation, and at the same time France is the only country where this has happened to us. »