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

Anti-wolf law: the ‘licence to kill’ has been passed
24.07.2026
France
Anti-wolf law: the ‘licence to kill’ has been passed
Wildlife

Kill wolves by day. Kill wolves by night using thermal imaging goggles. Kill wolves even in national parks and nature reserves. Kill wolves at any cost and abandon efforts to protect livestock.
Passed on 21 July, Article 14 of the Emergency Law for Agricultural Protection and Sovereignty aims to orchestrate the extinction of wolves. We will not let them get away with it.

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.

Wolf poaching: Press release

Wolf poaching: Press release
31.07.2026
Hautes-Alpes
Wolf poaching: Press release
Wildlife

A mass grave as a lure, firearms, photographs of dead animals: on 28 July, the French Biodiversity Agency announced the dismantling of a poaching ring in the Hautes-Alpes. Nine wolves were killed there. Three people are due to stand trial in January 2027, and One Voice is a party to the proceedings. Ten days after Pomme’s death, and one week after the adoption of the Emergency Agricultural Law, our organisation states this unequivocally: this massacre is the result of a climate of hatred fostered by the State.

It all began with a report in April 2025 in the north of the Hautes-Alpes. After nearly a year of surveillance, the searches carried out by the OFB and the local police uncovered a mass grave of animals – presumably intended to lure wolves – numerous firearms and the carcass of a wolf. The seized mobile phones contained photographs of dead animals. On 28 July, simultaneous searches resulted in three people being taken into police custody and six voluntary interviews: nine wolves killed illegally, three people placed under judicial supervision by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Gap, and a criminal hearing set for January 2027 for the destruction of and complicity in the destruction of a protected species.

One Voice is a party to the proceedings, alongside its solicitor, Maître Caroline Lanty. Nine wolves in a single French department. And meanwhile, 85 others have been legally killed in France since January, out of a national quota of 227 — for a population estimated at 1,082 individuals, a long way from the viability threshold that scientists place at a minimum between 2,500 and 5,000. There are not poachers on the one hand, and public policy on the other: there is the same slaughter, part of which is punished and the other part funded.

First they kill. Then they provide evidence. Or not

On 16 July, Pomme was shot dead in La Bréole, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. Data from her GPS collar shows that she was not responsible for the damage cited to justify the shooting: she was hunting wild animals and had not attacked any flocks. Yet the president of the department’s Young Farmers’ Association claimed to the press that she had been killed in the act. She had done nothing. She was killed all the same, and lies were told afterwards.

Everywhere, it is the same distortion of facts. In the Morbihan, the OFB merely states, regarding the sheep killed around Ploërmel, that the possibility of a wolf ‘cannot be ruled out’: on the basis of that single phrase alone, calls are already being made for a wolf to be killed, even though predation attributed to wolves in Brittany has fallen significantly this year. In Alsace, only two males have been identified in Kiffis; the Hunters’ Federation of Haut-Rhin suggests there are more of them and blames them for the collapse of the amount of game, based on its own estimates. Two wolves accused of having emptied the forests: that is the level of the debate.

On the Millevaches plateau, two wolf cubs have just been born: Girole and Truffe. There, too, attacks are on the decline – five, involving eleven animals, in six months. Yet this has changed nothing: a documentary by the Carduelis association was withdrawn from screening twice in fifteen months – first at a secondary school in Corrèze and then in a municipal hall in Creuse – until the Administrative Court of Limoges ruled against the mayor. It is not just about killing wolves. They want to silence those who defend them.

Article 14 sets the tone

On 21 July, Parliament gave final approval to the Emergency Agricultural Law. Article 14 classifies herds of cattle, horses and donkeys as ‘unprotectable’, replaces prior authorisation for defensive shooting with a simple declaration, and authorises shooting even within nature reserves. Not a single line on the protection of herds. When the State itself organises the killing and removes all oversight, how can it be surprised that others take matters into their own hands at night?

Coexistence is necessary, but is it desired?

Because the system is working backwards. A farmer is compensated as soon as the wolf’s responsibility ‘cannot be ruled out’ — and it is these very same findings that are then used to justify the shootings. In Corrèze, out of 87 reports drawn up in 2025, 50 concluded that the wolf’s responsibility had ‘not been ruled out’ — never that it had been established — and yet 7 cases of undetermined cause were nevertheless put forward for compensation ‘in view of the local context of predation’. Dogs, on the other hand, have always killed sheep: yet a sheep killed by a dog entitles the owner to no compensation. So the wolf is singled out, and it is the wolf that pays with its life.

One Voice calls for this logic to be reversed. Public money should go towards measures that genuinely protect flocks – fencing, guard dogs, shepherds, night-time grouping – and compensation should be conditional upon the effective implementation of these measures, without any derogations or exceptions. Killing must cease to be the simplest and most financially rewarding solution. Wolves ask for nothing more than to be left to live: coexistence is possible wherever there is a will to make it happen, and it is a political choice, not an inevitability.

“They want us to believe that wolves are monsters, and nine of them have been killed in secret by those who shout the loudest against them. Enough lies: we do not believe them. What we want is a country that finally accepts living alongside them. Politicians must stop being in the pocket of organisations that have made biodiversity their enemy, and wolves must finally be left in peace,” says Muriel Arnal, President of One Voice.

Our organisation is renewing its call for witnesses: anyone with information about wolves killed in France can pass it on to us. Complete and absolute anonymity is guaranteed.

Wolf poaching: Press release

Nine wolves poached in the Hautes-Alpes: One Voice will be at the trial in January 2027

New hearing for the badgers: Press release

New hearing for the badgers: Press release
28.07.2026
Indre et Loire
New hearing for the badgers: Press release
Wildlife

Since 15 June, badgers in the Morbihan have been subject to hunting right down to the bottom of their burrows, at a time when the cubs are still dependent on their mothers. One Voice, ASPAS, AVES and LPO-Bretagne are calling on the Administrative Court of Rennes to suspend the prefectural order authorising this digging-out until 14 September 2026. The hearing will take place on Tuesday 28 July at the Administrative Court of Rennes at 10am.

Underground hunting, or digging-out, is one of the most barbaric hunting practices imaginable: hours of terror deep inside the burrow, cornered by dogs, before being dragged out with tongs and killed. In the height of summer, the young badgers also pay the price. Still dependent on their mothers until autumn, they are killed in the burrow — or condemned to starve to death once the adults have been slaughtered.

To justify its decree, the Prefecture of Morbihan puts forward an argument that is as convenient as it is absurd: a young badger is deemed ‘adult’ as soon as it is weaned. This ignores the science — a weaned young badger remains incapable of surviving on its own for months — and it ignores the law itself, which has already ruled on the matter: the Administrative Court of Appeal in Bordeaux and numerous other courts have ruled that a young badger is an animal that is still dependent on its mother, and that the law prohibits killing it. Full stop.

Indeed, rulings are coming thick and fast in the same vein: in recent weeks, the courts have suspended the digging-out of badgers in the Aisne, Haute-Marne, Cher and Eure-et-Loir. Every day of victory in a court room means lives saved. The four organisations, represented by the law firm Géo-Avocats, are calling for the badgers of the Morbihan to be granted this protection as well.

One Voice will fight until the digging-out of badgers is permanently banned.

New hearing for the badgers: Press release

One Voice is defending the badgers of the Morbihan in court this Tuesday, 28 July

Badgers saved in the Aisne: Press release

Badgers saved in the Aisne: Press release
24.07.2026
Aisne
Badgers saved in the Aisne: Press release
Wildlife

Following a request by One Voice, ASPAS and AVES France, the Administrative Court of Amiens has suspended the prefectural order authorising an additional period of underground badger hunting in the Aisne from 15 June to 13 September 2026. The digging-out will cease immediately in this French department: badgers, including many young ones still dependent on their parents, have been spared a violent death.

Underground hunting involves cornering badgers at the bottom of their burrows with the aid of dogs, for hours on end, before extracting them with tongs and killing them. Taking place in the height of summer, the supplementary season also condemned badger cubs, who only become independent in the autumn.

The judge upheld the two conditions required for a suspension: urgency and serious doubt as to the legality of the order. Urgency, firstly, because the badger population in the department is unknown. Secondly, there is serious doubt, as it is forbidden to kill badger cubs.

This suspension, secured with the assistance of the law firm Géo-Avocats, follows a series of favourable rulings in other French departments: administrative courts have also recently suspended equivalent orders issued in Haute-Marne, Cher and Ille-et-Vilaine.

Opposed to hunting in all its forms, One Voice stresses that underground hunting is one of the cruellest practices: a torture lasting several hours, inflicted for leisure, on a slow-breeding species for which there is no justification for persecution. The organisation will continue its campaign, one department after another, until this practice is banned.

Badgers saved in the Aisne: Press release

The courts have ruled against the extended badger hunting season in the Aisne

The Court of Orléans on badgers: Press release

The Court of Orléans on badgers: Press release
26.06.2026
Orléans
The Court of Orléans on badgers: Press release
Wildlife

One Voice, avec l’ASPAS, AVES et Nature 18, demande au tribunal administratif d’Orléans de suspendre en urgence l’arrêté qui autorise le prolongement de la vénerie sous terre des blaireaux dans le Cher, du 1ᵉʳ juin au 14 septembre 2026. Audience lundi 29 juin à 15 heures. Une nouvelle fois, des familles entières de blaireaux — petits compris — sont promises aux pioches et aux pinces des déterreurs.

Représentées par le cabinet Géo-avocats, les quatre associations dénoncent un arrêté qui ferme les yeux sur la souffrance, pour le seul agrément et loisir d’une poignée de pratiquants.

La vénerie sous terre consiste à lâcher des chiens dans les galeries pour acculer les blaireaux au fond de leur terrier, avant de les déterrer à la pioche et à la barre à mine, de les saisir avec de longues pinces métalliques et de les achever. Une traque qui peut durer des heures. Parmi les victimes : des blaireautins encore dépendants des adultes. C’est cette violence que One Voice documente depuis des années, enquêtes en infiltration à l’appui.

Tuer les petits est illégal : les juges le répètent

L’article L.424-10 du code de l’environnement interdit de détruire les petits des mammifères chassables. Et le « petit », scientifiquement, c’est un animal qui n’a pas atteint sa maturité sexuelle. Chez les blaireaux, l’émancipation à l’égard des adultes n’intervient qu’à l’automne. La période complémentaire revient donc à massacrer des jeunes que la loi protège — directement, et indirectement en abattant les adultes dont ils dépendent encore. 

Les juridictions administratives retiennent ce critère de l’émancipation, et la cour administrative d’appel de Bordeaux l’a confirmé sans ambiguïté le 24 février 2026 : les jeunes blaireaux encore dépendants sont des « petits » protégés. Rien, ni de prétendus dégâts ni une prétendue surpopulation, ne justifie d’y déroger.

Dans le Cher, un arrêté en trompe-l’œil

Pour justifier le déterrage, la préfecture invoque « l’augmentation de plaintes de dégâts de blaireaux reçues ». Une réalité qu’elle n’a, de son propre aveu, jamais vérifiée.

Et si l’arrêté affiche quelques garde-fous censés répondre aux annulations déjà prononcées par le tribunal administratif d’Orléans, ce ne sont que des leurres :

• Un quota de 300 blaireaux — ce qui est énorme pour une espèce dont on ne connait pas les effectifs et au rythme de reproduction lent.
• Une chasse limitée aux week-ends, lundis et jours fériés — ce qui est déjà le cas depuis 2021 au moins, ce loisir se pratiquant de toute façon hors des jours ouvrés.
• Un périmètre étendu jusqu’à 250 mètres des terres agricoles, jachères, prairies, vignes et vergers : autrement dit, dans un département agricole à 60 % et bordé de bois, exactement là où vivent les blaireaux, en lisière de forêt et dans le bocage.

Sous couvert d’encadrement, l’arrêté livre donc aux déterreurs l’essentiel des blaireautières.

Les préfectures s’entêtent, la justice tranche

Cette audience s’ajoute à une longue série de revers infligés aux arrêtés de déterrage : suspension dans la Marne par le tribunal administratif de Châlons-en-Champagne le 7 mai 2026, annulation par celui de Limoges des arrêtés pris en 2024 dans la Creuse, la Corrèze et la Haute-Vienne. Partout, le même constat : les préfectures ne peuvent continuer à autoriser ce massacre. One Voice et ses partenaires entendent l’obtenir aussi dans le Cher.

Bird poaching: Press release

Bird poaching: Press release
23.06.2026
Haut-Var
Bird poaching: Press release
Wildlife

The Criminal Court of Draguignan has handed down its verdict in the bird poaching case in which One Voice had joined the proceedings as a civil party. The defendant was found guilty of the illegal capture, destruction and possession of protected species. He was sentenced to pay fines, had his hunting licence revoked and was banned from possessing a firearm for three years.

Since 2022, every autumn, dozens of birds were being trapped on a property in Vérignon, in the Haut-Var. Using glue-coated sticks — despite them being banned — and a device that played bird calls to attract thrushes, the man would capture or kill them. The live birds were kept in an aviary to be sold as ‘decoys’; the others were killed, frozen, processed or sold.

The search carried out in November 2025 revealed the scale of the trafficking: 600 frozen thrushes, 50 live thrushes in cages, 19 great tits — a protected species — killed and frozen, 160 tins of thrush pâté, 70 glue sticks and 15 iron traps, as well as 18 firearms, including two unregistered ones, and several dozen kilograms of cartridges. The defendant admitted the facts and acknowledged that he was aware of their illegality.

A sentence below the prosecution’s recommendations

On 3 March, the man had been ordered in the civil proceedings to pay €11,500, notably for environmental damage. In the criminal proceedings, the sentencing had been adjourned to take into account whether or not the site and its illegal hunting facilities had been restored to their original condition.

On 18 June, the Court sentenced the man to 90 daily fines of €10 (totalling €900), two fines of €400, the revocation of his hunting licence for three years, and a ban on possessing or carrying a weapon for the same period. The defendant ad been facing a fine of up to €150,000 and three years’ imprisonment.

The revocation of the hunting licence: a tangible protection for wildlife

One Voice considers the revocation of the hunting licence and the three-year ban on firearms to be the most significant aspects of the ruling. While the organisation would have preferred harsher penalties, it welcomes the fact that the case has been brought to a conclusion: for at least three years, this man will no longer be able to hunt. That means many birds saved.

For One Voice, this case goes beyond the actions of a single individual. Pressure to reinstate so-called ‘traditional’ hunting methods – foremost among these being the banned practice of glue trapping – fosters a sense of impunity that encourages such practices.

The organisation is all the more pleased with this conviction which serves as a reminder that poaching is not a tradition, but a criminal offence.

Bird poaching: Press release

Bird poaching in the Haut-Var: conviction and revocation of a hunting licence for three years