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

 

One Voice challenges the ESOD decree: Press release

One Voice challenges the ESOD decree: Press release
29.07.2026
France
One Voice challenges the ESOD decree: Press release
Wildlife

Every three years, a decree issued by the Ministry of Ecology designates, for each French department, the wild animals categorised as ESOD — ‘species likely to cause damage’ — which hunters and trappers are permitted to kill all year round, including outside the hunting season. The new decree has just been published: nine species are affected, covering ninety-three departments, and the classification has even been expanded for three of them. One Voice is lodging an appeal with the Council of State.

Foxes, stone martens, pine martens, weasels, carrion crows, magpies, rooks, house starlings and jays. This is the list of animals classified as ESOD – ‘species likely to cause damage’. The Ministry of Ecology has just published its new decree governing these ESODs for the next three years. And it is in no way lighter.

Foxes are now classified as ESOD in three more departments than in 2023, magpies in five more, and house starlings in four more. Other species have been downgraded, but with exceptions on a town-by-town basis. All in all, the list still concerns ninety-three departments.

The State authorises the killing of martens, despite their population being in decline in France

This is the most scandalous part of the text. Pine martens remain listed in fourteen departments: Aisne, Ariège, Aube, Cantal, Cher, Corrèze, Creuse, Indre, Indre-et-Loire, Loir-et-Cher, Puy-de-Dôme, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Saône-et-Loire and Haute-Savoie.

These animals benefit from special European protection: their killing may only be authorised if it is demonstrated, with figures to back it up, that the species is thriving. In May 2025, the Council of State had, in fact, revoked their ESOD status due to a lack of reliable and up-to-date data. The Ministry now claims to have this data. However, there is no recognised method for counting martens in France — a report by the Ministry of Ecology’s own inspectorate stated this in no uncertain terms back in 2024. Furthermore, their biology calls for caution: they reproduce late in life, have only one litter per year and few offspring. In the United Kingdom, intensive trapping was enough to wipe out the English populations. In France, sightings over the last twenty-four years and trapping figures from the last fifteen suggest that the species is in sharp decline.

Killing these animals does not reduce the amount of damage caused

The ESOD classification is supposed to protect crops, livestock, property or public health. No study shows that it achieves this, even though several institutions have examined the usefulness of this classification.

A study by the National Museum of Natural History published in 2026 concludes that these mass culls do not reduce damage — and that they cost more than the damage they are supposed to prevent.

The CARELI study provides the most compelling evidence of this. Between April 2021 and January 2025, researchers in the Doubs department compared towns where foxes were hunted with others where hunting and trapping had been suspended. Where killing had ceased, foxes did not ‘proliferate’: their populations regulate themselves. Nor did attacks on chicken coops increase. What really protects poultry is a well-designed fence and a secure shelter.

The General Inspectorate of the Ministry of Ecology (2024) compared France with seven other countries: none had made the same choice, and its recommendation was explicit: not to renew this decree, and to keep killing as a last resort. The Ministry finally renewed it.

Who benefits from the scheme?

The ESOD classification allows animals to continue to be killed when the hunting season is closed and extends the practice of trapping. In total, around 1.7 million animals are killed each year under this scheme — amounting to nearly 5 million over the duration of a decree.

And the methods used are all more barbaric and cruel. A trap leaves the animal to struggle, sometimes for hours, if it does not kill it outright, in a device incapable of distinguishing between species. A cat, a hedgehog or a protected animal may be caught in it. Foxes also suffer the ordeal of being dug out: dogs drive them to the bottom of their burrows, a hole is dug down to them, they are extracted using long tongs and then killed with a gun or a knife. The new decree perpetuates these practices.

For hunting federations and trappers’ associations, this is a matter of recreation behind their so-called civic act of ‘culling’. Indeed, it is these very same parties who fuel the system: the damage justifying the classification is reported by the parties concerned, then compiled by their federations, without any independent scrutiny or scientific expertise. A system that relies on the word of those who benefit from it cannot be considered objective.

Yet these animals provide services that are often overlooked: foxes consume thousands of rodents a year, and every species has its place in the food chain. Eliminating them en masse may actually exacerbate the very problems we were seeking to solve.

One Voice is lodging an appeal with the Council of State

Faced with an attacked henhouse or damaged crops, the State had a choice. It opted for guns, traps and snares, even though other solutions exist, are well-documented and offer better protection. The authorisation for the digging-out of foxes has been renewed. The continued inclusion of martens – the exact population size of which nobody knows – adds illegality to the injustice; but the problem is not that this list is poorly drawn up. It is that it exists at all. One Voice will lodge an appeal with the Council of State to have this decree annulled.

“The reports exist, the studies exist, the Council of State’s ruling exists. The Ministry has them all before it, and yet it is still signing off on a further three years of trapping and digging-out. We are not asking the State to believe us: we are asking it to demonstrate that these millions of deaths serve some purpose. It will not, because it cannot. We will fight to ensure that no animal is ever again considered a pest.”, says Muriel Arnal, President of One Voice.

One Voice challenges the ESOD decree: Press release

Foxes, martens, corvids… One Voice challenges the decree that condemns millions of animals regarded as pests

 

Victory for the foxes: Press release

Victory for the foxes: Press release
29.07.2026
Hauts de Seine
Victory for the foxes: Press release
Wildlife

In a court order dated 28 July 2026, the judge overseeing summary proceedings at the Administrative Court of Cergy-Pontoise suspended the order issued by the Prefect of Hauts-de-Seine, which authorised hunts at the authorities’ initiative in a private garden until 31 August. At least the four foxes who live in the vicinity of the property will be spared. Following an urgent request from One Voice, the judge dismissed, one by one, the justifications put forward for killing them: there was neither a health risk nor ‘significant damage’, and non-lethal alternatives were available.

One Voice had brought an urgent legal action against this order of 15 June 2026, which authorised two and a half months of trapping and night-time shooting in a private garden, based solely on a complaint from a local resident and without any alternative measures having been considered. The court’s decision echoes the organisation’s arguments, point by point.

No public health risk justified these killings. Alveolar echinococcosis, regularly cited to legitimise the culling of foxes, is not present in the Île-de-France region. Furthermore, reducing fox populations does not help to curb this disease; on the contrary, it could even enhance its spread. This finding is in line with the conclusions of the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES), which had already stated in its 2023 report that no culling of foxes could be justified on health grounds.

That left the so-called ‘nuisances’. A cat had taken refuge at the top of a cedar tree: the judge ruled that this did not constitute the ‘significant damage’ required to authorise such operations. Foxes do not kill cats, despite what hunters – who kill both cats and foxes whenever they get the chance – would have us believe. Excrement, burrows, a frightened cat: nothing that could justify killing a family of foxes.

Finally, the court noted that there was nothing to prevent the foxes from being captured alive and released in a less urbanised area. This is the real blind spot of the prefectural order: the death penalty was being authorised without any alternative having been considered.

A nationwide crackdown on foxes

This decision comes against a backdrop of widespread persecution: every year in France, at least 500,000 foxes are killed by shooting, trapping or digging-out, based on their being classified as a ‘species likely to cause damage’ (ESOD) in 88 French departments, a classification with no scientific basis.

The draft three-year decree for 2026–2029, which is open for public consultation until tomorrow, Friday 30 July 2026, proposes extending this classification to 91 departments – three more than at present.

“If the woman who demanded that the foxes be trapped cared even a little about nature and animals, she would have taken the time to find out that cats and foxes coexist very well if given a little time. This determination to have them killed by the cruellest means, this hatred of biodiversity – which has already suffered so much, particularly from wildfires and heatwaves – is deeply worrying. We will be present wherever we are needed.” Muriel Arnal, President of One Voice.

One Voice will remain vigilant. What the courts have just reaffirmed regarding a garden in the Hauts-de-Seine applies everywhere else: wildlife is not a nuisance; it is an asset.

Victory for the foxes: Press Release

Victory for the foxes of the Hauts-de-Seine: the courts have suspended the order authorising their killing in a private garden

Victory for the badgers: Press release

Victory for the badgers: Press release
28.07.2026
Indre et Loire
Victory 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

 

A court hearing for the badgers: Press release

A court hearing for the badgers: Press release
28.07.2026
Orne
A court hearing for the badgers: Press release
Wildlife

Since 18 July, badgers in the Orne may be hunted right down to the bottom of their burrows, in the middle of the rearing season. One Voice, ASPAS, AVES France and FNE Normandie are calling on the Administrative Court of Caen to suspend the prefectural order authorising digging-out until 14 September 2026. The hearing will take place on Monday 3 August at 11.30 am.

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. And in the height of summer, this non-selective practice also impacts the young badgers. Still dependent on their parents until autumn, they are killed in the burrow — or left to starve to death once their parents have been slaughtered. This is the central argument put forward by our organisations: the law prohibits the killing of young mammals, and the courts have repeatedly reminded the prefects of this, decision after decision.

As for the quota of 200 badgers set by the prefecture, it imposes no real limit, since in previous years an average of 300 badgers were killed over a much longer period. This so-called cap is therefore not truly restrictive.

In recent weeks, the courts have already suspended the summer digging-out in the Marne, Finistère, Ille-et-Vilaine, Aisne, Haute-Marne, Cher, Eure-et-Loir and Indre-et-Loire. Our four organisations, represented by the law firm Géo-Avocats, are calling for the badgers of the Orne to be granted this protection as well.

Opposed to hunting in all its forms, One Voice will fight until this unspeakably cruel practice is abolished once and for all.

A court hearing for the badgers: Press release

One Voice defends the badgers of the Orne in court on Monday 3 August in Caen

 

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

Victory for the badgers: Press release

Victory for the badgers: Press release
24.07.2026
Eure et Loir
Victory for the badgers: Press release
Wildlife

Their fate was sealed from the outset: 250 badgers were to be hunted with traps and dogs on and around all the farms in this French department, from 15 June to 14 September. Following a request by One Voice, ASPAS and AVES France, the courts ruled otherwise: on 16 July, the Administrative Court of Orléans suspended the order issued by the Prefect of Eure-et-Loir. The digging-out of badger burrows will cease immediately, and with it the planned slaughter of entire families in the middle of summer.

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

This is precisely what the courts have just reaffirmed: the law prohibits the killing of the young of huntable mammals, including those that have been weaned but cannot yet survive without their mothers. Following cases in the Aisne, Haute-Marne, Cher and Ille-et-Vilaine, this marks another victory for the three organisations, represented by the law firm Géo-Avocats. One department after another, the courts are ruling against the prefects who sacrifice badgers for the sake of a pastime.

And the fight continues. On 21 July, the organisations were back in the court in Orléans challenging an order scheduling the digging-out of badgers in the Indre-et-Loire for the next three years, starting on 15 May; then in Rennes, challenging the hunts at the authorities’ initiative targeting badgers in the Finistère. On 28 July, we will appear in court again in Rennes on behalf of the badgers of the Morbihan, which are under threat throughout the summer.

Opposed to hunting in all its forms, One Voice insists: nothing justifies subjecting a peaceful and vulnerable species to hours of torment. The organisation will fight until the practice of digging out badgers is permanently banned.

Victory for the badgers: Press release

Victory in the Eure-et-Loir: 250 badgers spared from being dug out

 

New hearing for the badgers: Press release

New hearing for the badgers: Press release
24.07.2026
Morbihan
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

 

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.