Let’s stop scaring off bears that have been reintroduced in the Pyrenees!

The protection of animals called into question

In France, we protect species that have disappeared or nearly disappeared. Just like wolves, bears are part of a species whose members are not supposed to be hunted (Berne Convention, Washington Convention, European Directive ‘Habitats’, and the decrees of 23 April 2007 and 9 July 1999). Well that is the theory; the reality is quite different. Their species is not kept safe because their members are non-existent on French soil. As soon as one of them arrives, either naturally for the wolves, or by being ‘reintroduced’, farmers and hunters wait for them no matter what, weapons in hand. How absurd to tear these animals away from their homes to release them in a country that is hostile towards them!

We can legitimately question the government's logic, who arrange for warning shots on the bears that they themselves uprooted... The aim was however that they reproduce and settle in long-term, with all of the risks that this brings.

Warning shots authorised

Yes, you read that right. Since 2019, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food have authorised the cancellation of scaring measures ‘on a trial basis’. These measures can be ‘simple’ (sound, olfactory, visual scaring) or ‘intense’ (double detonation cartridges, plastic bullet cartridges). These decrees are said to be ‘executive’. They then let the Prefects issue additional decrees, authorising scaring when they consider the regular conditions set by the executive decrees to have been met and therefore to be insufficient. The interests of the farmers, who send their herds of animals to the abattoir, always come before wildlife.

A battle waged for years!

The decree of 27 June 2019, which put in place scaring measures for brown bears in the Pyrenees on a trial basis to prevent damage to herds, as well as that of 12 June 2002, have been attacked by many associations who defend the environment and animals and have both been partially annulled by the State Council, respectively on 4 February 2021 and 25 April 2022. This second partial annulment is explained by the fact that when the 2019 decree was partially annulled, the 2020 one had already been issued. These are therefore two similar decrees, with measures relating to intense scaring not having been revised...

We therefore hope that this year, the decree of 31 May 2021 will be completely annulled. We have filed a plea and still do not have the date of the hearing. At the same time, a public consultation opened on 19/05/2022, for a decree proposal

that plans to make bear scaring a success. Join us in rejecting this proposal!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice