Wolves in the Saône-et-Loire region: refusing to live together means choosing regression
The recent publication of the Saône-et-Loire FDSEA’s (one of the region’s agricultural unions) open letter to the Prefect takes us sadly back to a time when the only response to nature’s challenges was extermination. While the last survivor was killed in February (under dubious conditions which are still under investigation and for which we have lodged a complaint), a new individual has apparently been spotted, and immediately the old refrains come to life: “We have to kill it”. No reflection, no hindsight, no desire to build a lasting coexistence. Just the Pavlovian reflex to shoot.
Photo: OFB
Since their return to Saône-et-Loire in 2019, all the wolves that have settled there have been shot one after the other: in 2020, 2021, 2023. The last one was found suspiciously dead in February 2025. Despite this, a new individual has just been spotted in the department this May: proof that culling is ineffective, and that cohabitation is the only solution.
Protecting farm animals? Unthinkable for agricultural lobbies
Certain villages have been classified as circle 1 (zone eligible for the herd protection measure), enabling farmers to benefit from financial aid to implement them: dogs, electrified pens, reinforced guarding, etc. But instead of seizing this opportunity to revise their practices, the farming unions prefer to ask for… a downgrading! In other words, they’re refusing aid so they don’t have to take responsibility for their herds. At this point, it’s no longer negligence, it’s deliberate sabotage of any policy of cohabitation.
The message is clear: no compromise, no dialogue, no evolution. Just the outright extermination of wolves, a species that is protected at European level and whose return to France is both a strong signal of ecosystem restoration and a crucial test of our ability to live in harmony with the wild world.
To reject existing measures is to exploit animal suffering for ideological ends. It’s playing the fear card to maintain an agricultural model that refuses to be called into question. Cries of psychological distress when faced with the corpses of sheep are unacceptable when, at the same time, you refuse to accept your responsibilities.
We repeat loud and clear: the presence of wolves is not a threat, it’s a challenge. A challenge to our collective intelligence, to our ability to adapt, to our sense of responsibility towards biodiversity. Killing this wolf won’t solve anything. Others will come, as history has proven since 2019. It’s a trick to believe that a protected species can be eradicated by means of derogations and political pressure. On the other hand, setting up electrified parks, having dogs and being physically present on site for some, supporting breeders for others, and preserving living things for all – this is a path that makes sense.
We therefore call on the public authorities not to give in to pressure from the most retrograde agricultural lobbies, to maintain the villages in circle 1 and to extend it to others, to reinforce aid for protection and, above all, to pursue a policy based on science, law and ethics. Living things cannot be managed with a rifle. Nature must be respected.