menuMembers of the Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux (LPO) were on a routine mission to liberate a bunch of chaffinches from some illegal traps. That’s when the owner of the property arrived on the scene brandishing a shovel and wearing only a t-shirt and some stylish briefs.
Chaffinches are a protected species of bird, but the president of the LPO, Allain Bougrain-Douberg, said that the French government isn’t doing enough to prevent what he says amounts to a death toll nearing 900,000 a year. The unknown resident, seeking to protect his property and willing to risk liberating his own flightless bird, clashed with members of the LPO and a group of journalists accompanying them.
Bougrain-Dubourg said that several of the LPO’s numbers were “whacked three or four times with a spade.”Another local allegedly smashed cameras, slashed tires, and inflicted bodily harm with what is being reported as a hoe-like instrument. It is unknown what state of undress the second man was in.
The group managed to free twenty chaffinches and elevate the Landes man to meme status, with the shovel-wielding folk hero standing with William Wallace and swapping his weapon for selfie sticks and light sabers.
It is unknown if charges were filed against the two men, but Twitter has already judged and sentenced them to infamy.
