Brest, Dec 02: Christmas is coming -- time for little robin red-breasts to pose on spade-handles and gladden hearts. Except in France, that is, where they spit them on kebabs. Two poachers were caught red-handed in Brittany on Friday trapping robins for the dinner table, according to the national office for hunting and wildlife (ONCFS) in the Finistere department.
"At this time of year we get a lot of hunters from the south who come to shoot woodcock. But this is something else. It is absolutely shocking," said the agency's Yannick Huchet.
The poachers, who were both from southern France, were caught near the town of Morlaix with 25 traps in their knapsacks baited with flying ants. ONCFS officials found five more traps already laid, with two dead robins in them.
"We have never had a case of robin-poaching here in Brittany before, but when I described the traps to my colleague in the VAR department (in the south) he said - yes, that's a robin-trap," said Huchet.
And officials in the VAR confirmed that robin-hunting there is a major problem.
"It comes in two waves here -- in October and then again in May," said Daniel Matthieu of the ONCFS's VAR office.
Bureau Report