Anti-wolf law: the ‘licence to kill’ has been passed

In Corrèze, Truffe and Girolle, the cubs of Milo and Mina, are growing up in fear of being hunted. In February, in the Cantal, a wolf was shot dead. In April, in the Haute-Marne, one of the cubs of Aria and Charlie lost his life in a hunt. Pomme, the female wolf caught in a trap in Seine-Maritime whom we had rescued, was shot this summer in the Alps… Whether they live alone, in pairs or in packs, throughout France, wolves are relentlessly hunted down, a situation acknowledged by the authorities themselves.

Presented as a permanent threat to herds, responsible for the agricultural crisis, the wolves serve as scapegoats, while the facts tell another story.

Licence to kill

And yet today, the livestock and hunting lobbies have just secured an unprecedented expansion of the powers to cull them. Article 14, passed on 21 July, legalises this war—which is already very much a reality on the ground—and targets a persecuted species, whose protection status has already been downgraded at the European level, from ‘strictly protected’ to ‘protected’ in 2024.

Under this new legislation, protection becomes the exception and culling the rule, through a number of devastating measures, such as:

Ø The possibility of killing wolves even within national parks and nature reserves.

Ø The possibility of firing using thermal imaging goggles, meaning shooting at night.

Ø The carry-over of unused quotas to the following calendar year.

A law based on hatred and lies

This law is founded, first and foremost, on hatred. The hatred felt by trigger-happy individuals who see animals merely as targets to be shot or pests to be eliminated. In addition to Article 14, which targets wolves, Article 15 further facilitates the trapping of foxes, badgers and all other animals. A practice which, it must be remembered, makes no distinction between animals, whether they are domestic, wild or protected.

But this law is also based on a lie. Contrary to the image of the shepherd living in harmony with nature, pastoralism leads to real environmental degradation, including soil erosion, the deterioration of water quality and the depletion of forests… At the same time, wolves have never been hunted in such large numbers, while attacks on animals destined for slaughter continue to decline. The parliamentary report on pastoralism establishes this beyond any doubt: the losses account for less than 0.15 per cent of the sheep population.

A senseless policy of terror

Whilst the agricultural crisis is real, killing more wolves will solve nothing. This policy of terror merely disrupts the packs and may even contribute to an increase in attacks, as young wolves still learning the ropes find themselves left to fend for themselves, without the support of their elders. Scientific studies show that culling is not a sustainable solution. Essential to ecosystems, wolves are sentient and intelligent creatures that have every right to be in our mountains.

For Truffe, Girolle and their parents. In memory of Pomme. For the wolves still living in the wild, One Voice will not back down. In the face of the law of guns, we will continue to defend the law of life. Sign and share our petition.

Anti-wolf law: the ‘licence to kill’ has been passed

Article 14 of the Emergency Law on Agricultural Protection and Sovereignty aims to orchestrate the disappearance of wolves. Wolf protection is deteriorating dangerously. One Voice will not abandon them.