On Wednesday, the European court of justice ruled the practice was not selective and contravened EU rules. The ECJ called on France to ban glue-stick hunting of birds definitively.
The ruling was welcomed by French environmental groups. “It’s wonderful news. Now France cannot use the pretext of an opt-out to allow glue-trapping to happen,” said Yves Verilhac, of France’s Bird Protection League (LPO). “The judgment is very interesting because it says that tradition is no excuse for this and that it is absolutely not selective, which is what we knew and argued.”
verguettes with glue and use caged songbirds to lure birds into the traps. Once the birds land on the sticks they are stuck; the more they struggle to escape, the more stuck they become. They are used as “callers” to attract other birds for shotgun hunters.