Friday 08 November 2019 | 21

Wolves, the prey of the French State

Wolves, the prey of the French State

Mis à jour le 21 April 2020

In politics, if you want to be credible, you have to be concerned with consistency. Difficult for the Ministry of Ecology to assume the persecution of a protected species. So, in order not to burn their fingers on sensitive material, they delegate their management, they strengthen the skills of a Prefect, as though they pass on a hot potato. But when an association like ours takes offense, it is forced to show its true face and recognize its position ... Yes, in France, the massacre of wolves is carried out with the consent of government officials who are supposed to defend them!

Hr blog

Since the wolf population has painfully reached the threshold of 500 individuals, more and more our country seems not to care about its role in protection, but to work to decimate it.

From speeches to action, the big gap

Officially, however, the government is keeping up with the hype. They say they feel concerned about the decline in the biodiversity and the preservation of the wildlife. They claim to encourage cohabitation between wolves and humans ... But it is with guns that he settles the question! Because in reality, it is by legitimizing the large-scale massacres of wild canids that the leaders put breeders and hunters in their pockets.

It's not me, it's someone else

To avoid having too much blood of a species – especially one who is protected - on their hands, and to be caught in the act of contradiction, the central power has found the parade ... By the decree of September 12th 2018, it designated a Prefect to coordinate the national wolf action plan. Until December 31st 2023, it will be the Prefect of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, who "drives and coordinates the action of the Prefects of all the departments concerned by the national action plan on wolves for the implementation of the said plan”. Among other prerogatives, the magistrate was given unusual skills. He can "specify" the conditions for applying the decrees of the ministers responsible for ecology and agriculture. More prosaically, it is empowered to make exceptions to measures to protect species of wild fauna and flora. And decide, in this case, to joyfully increase the rate of "removal" of wolves, within the "limit" of 2% of the average size of their population estimated annually. But why stop there? Beyond this threshold, shootings called "simple defence", have been approved by the Prefects of the departments and are still possible! A wolf around? Hunters are called to the rescue! Let us recognize that this delegation of the “license to kill”, this dilution of responsibilities at all levels of the state apparatus, opens the door to the worst abuses… Without anyone - and this is the whole perversity of the system - being directly incriminated.

Recourse to the State Council

In November 2018, by a gracious appeal, we called on the Prime Minister to cancel his decree of September 12th. Our request having remained literally a dead letter, we seized the State Council in March 2019. For the moment, the latter has not yet been decided. But we already know that the Ministry of Ecological and Inclusive Transition is neither on our side or that of the of wolves. On October 7th, he sent a letter to the President of the Council asking him to reject our request. Thus, even the institution is supposed to be officially in charge of protecting the nature in our country, though it prefers to submit to the demands of farmers and hunters! Rather than establishing an alternative and an ethical solution to pastoral problems, rather than giving back their full place to these marvellous and sentient beings whose ancestors we have already persecuted, it lets lobbies take hold of the subject, put pressure on local elected officials (and in turn on state representatives) to spread slander!

Fanaticism and obscurantism

The return of wolves to France has raised deeply archaic fears. Even if, God and devil are not as much invited to the debate as in medieval times, the great predators find themselves as formerly hunted down on all sides, victims of terrible prejudices born of simple ignorance or skilfully maintained by those who want their skin. Treated like “monsters”, “game” or just like bulky competitors, they fall one after the other. These wolves, who have barely risen from the ashes, are dying again on the earth where, however, their ancestors and ours knew how to live together in peace, in the distant past ... It was a very long time ago, during Prehistory. Long before Homo sapiens, under the influence of frenzied beliefs, believed himself one day to be the king of "Creation" and suddenly saw in the eyes of the wolf, his brother from a yester year, the look of the "Evil one" in his eyes. Do we want to once again stray from the path of wisdom? Do we really want to exterminate everything that reminds us of our wild origins and our own animality? The French government can always argue that 500 individuals are enough to make a species viable, we know, as well as scientists, that this is not the case. In fact, the Court of Justice of the European Union has just extended the precautionary principle to protected species. Doubt must therefore benefit them! Above all, like everyone else, the right to exist.

Until this hearing

While waiting to be at the State Council to defend them, we will in November 2019 be in these places:

  • 11/19/2019 at the Lyon Court of Appeal against the Prefect of Savoy who appealed the decision of the Grenoble administrative court to have declared illegal his decree of September 10, 2015. This judgment had saved three wolves out of the 6 planned to be shot.
Marie-Sophie Bazin
Hr blog

In the subject

Let’s rally for the wolves: we are participating in great numbers in the ministry’s public consultations! Persecution of animals’ bodies: but how far will they go?

Comments 21

I accept that publication of my comments is subject to the code of conduct.

Olivia | Friday 15 November 2019

Cela fait des décennies que je pleure sur le massacre des loups. Ce 12 novembre, j'ai lu un article intitulé "dans les traces de la brigade loup". Notamment, "on ne tue pas un loup pour tuer un loup, on le fait pour protéger un troupeau". Ainsi, en témoignant dans la presse à la portée de tout un chacun, on justifie la tuerie des loups, comme une "œuvre d'utilité publique". Les populations sont manipulables, ils le savent. Peu ont suffisamment d'esprit critique pour s'interroger sur le pourquoi des choses. Créer des corridors dans la nature, pour que les loups puissent plus facilement avoir accès aux mouflons et autres proies, seraient une meilleure solution.

ANNICK | Friday 15 November 2019

Je pense que ce sont souvent des chiens qui attaquent les troupeaux.
Des vérifications sont faites, mais nous n'avons jamais les résultats !
Je pense qu'il faut laisser les loups vivre librement, quitte à les amener dans un autre pays, où ils seront protégés.
Moi ce ne sont pas les loups qui dérangent mais les politiques, qui parlent de tout et de rien, puisqu'il est évident qu'ils n'ont aucune connaissance sur le sujet.

justiceanimale | Friday 15 November 2019

Honte à ce gouvernement qui autorise et soutient le massacre des loups !Je suis profondément écœurée par toutes ces personnes qui privilégient les chasseurs et les éleveurs au détriment des animaux sauvages ! Quand je pense que le prix du permis de chasse a été divisé par deux, c'est tout simplement révoltant!

Marie-Paule | Friday 15 November 2019

Sous le ministère de l'écologie S. Royale, les tueries annuelles étaient de 32 loups, sous celui de N. Hulot, 38, sous celui de De Rugy 60, aujourd'hui sous celui de E. Borne : 100 loups ! Jusqu'à une extinction totale ! Qu'attendons-nous pour saisir le Conseil de l'UE car la France ne respecte pas la convention de Washington ?!

machae13 | Friday 15 November 2019

Tout à fait, ce gouvernement est plus que lamentable quand on voit le Ministre assister à une corrida !