A good rabbit is a dead rabbit. This is in essence the message from the mayor of Baillargues, a town in the metropolis of Montpellier, specialist in provocative communication campaigns. Jean-Luc Meissonnier (DVD), known for its quirky greeting cards, wanted to emphasize, in its own way, the proliferation of the wild rabbit in several municipalities.
“It’s me who destroys your land, your fields, your railway line every night,” proclaims the poster, with the photo of public enemy number one. On the back, the recipe… for rabbit stew. The mayor wants to “encourage hunters who no longer know what to do with rabbits to offer them to their neighbors and residents to eat.”
Rant from the prefect
For several years, the wild rabbit has proliferated spectacularly in the market gardening plains to the east of Montpellier. In March 2023, the prefect of Hérault Francois-Xavier Lauch classified the animal as a species likely to cause damage. And there are many of them, in the agricultural lands, under the railway tracks, as on the football field of Saint-Brès, recently ravaged. “There are tens of thousands of rabbits, we even see them during the day even though they are a rather nocturnal animal,” explained to 20 minutes, in March 2023, Bernard Ganibenc, delegate of the departmental federation of hunters for the east of Hérault. “In the Mauguio area, their number is really something. »
A year later, the situation has not improved. To the point that the State representative requested action in a letter to the mayors of 12 municipalities particularly affected by the phenomenon. “My services have been alerted by farmers to the fact that certain unmaintained land is invaded by brambles, Provence cane or abundant tall brush,” he explains. These lands therefore serve as a refuge for rabbits, without trappers and hunters being able to intervene effectively due to the protection provided by the bush. »
The prefect asks them to increase controls and possible sanctions. “Several provisions of the General Code of Local Authorities could be used by you to impose maintenance on the owners of this land to reduce this nuisance,” he says.
The Animalist Party denounces hypocrisy
The rabbit, designated public enemy number one. This is what makes the Animalist Party jump. “The hypocrisy of the state is twofold. It authorizes the breeding of rabbits and other animals that are purchased by hunters to be released to serve as live targets, released to 20 minutes Eddine Ariztegui, elected in Montpellier. But it also allows the slaughter of rabbits’ natural predators. » “In Hérault, 5,781 foxes have been trapped over the last three years,” confirms Christian Perrenot, from the Sauvage collective.
As you can imagine, the recipe for rabbit stew from the mayor of Baillargues was not really to the taste by Eddine Arizteguideputy mayor responsible for animal welfare in Montpellier.