An extraordinary slaughter of wolves permitted in France
One Voice leads a nonviolent fight to defend animal rights and respect all life forms. The organization operates independently and is thus free to speak and act freely.
A decree providing for the terms of a “sample” quota of 100 wolves in 2019 has just been published. The public consultation was, as always, overwhelmingly against this decree. However, it has been published as it is in this state. We had warned that we would attack this decree in the case of publication. We have therefore filed an appeal to the Council of State to make the killing of wolves illegal.
In
the past few years, the Wolf Plan has seen the quota of individuals
who can be killed go from 40 in 2017 then to 43 and then up to 50 and
this year we see it rise to 100 ! The orders allowing more and more
shootings of wolves has become the norm in France, and the fact that
this species is protected is scarcely considered at all. With this
ministerial order, we go from a ceiling of 10% to a levy of 17%. The
President even dared to mention the prospect of “regulating”
more wolves (at the Salon of agriculture 2019) in a joking tone …
We will not let that happen !
Nous avions prévenu que nous attaquerions tout nouveau massacre de loups… @Min_Ecologie & @Min_Agriculture viennent de publier un arrêté autorisant de traquer et tuer jusqu’à 100 individus. Nous déposons un recours devant @Conseil_Etat! #FauneSauvage https://t.co/bRWs4noZgK pic.twitter.com/CbIgxIzaUD
— One Voice (@onevoiceanimal) July 29, 2019
The public is never consulted on the principles of the project but only on the modalities
The
public consultation of the ministerial decree has just ended, and the
analysis of the comments by the public is uplifting: everything is
there, yet nothing is taken into account, or so little. Because it is
only modalities of the implementation of the decree that are
discussed, not its very existence.
Last
year, 2,000 people took part in the consultation, this year they are
more than 9500. The results which show a decline in the percentage of
defenders of wolves is however underlined. We went from 87% to 81% in
the space of a year. It’s true that 7695 is so much less than that of
1740! Or is it? For farmers and pastoralists who still participate,
federations of hunters have also given their opinion (including the
federations of other departments even without wolves).
Hunters supressed behind the barriers of “protection”!
Little
comfort: the proposals from the hunters, to “regulate” the
wolf species by “hunting” are swept away. They are reminded
that wolves protected is a protected species, and therefore cannot be
considered as a pest. Even if their population has exceeded 530
individuals, the threshold of 500 is not the upper limit, on the
contrary. They would need to be five times more numerous than this to
at least guarantee the future maintenance of their population.
A change in the margin for appearances
The
only modification granted by the Ministry, to avoid an “excessive”
“levy” (their words not ours), is the use of tracking
devices during shooting operations, this will not be permitted, in
view of 45 wolves already killed on July 9th
versus 15 wolves last year at the same time.
We
are reminded that the number of attacks has increased between 2017
and 2018, the number of “victims” (animals raised to be
slaughtered) having decreased slightly. But during this time, the
number of other victims, like the wolves, increases! All animals are
losers in this story.
A
few months ago, our appeal on the wolf plan of 2017-2018 had been
rejected by the State Council. Even though positive, this decision
from the justice department to intervene would have been too late,
well after the death of these wolves …
This
year, we will do everything to finally be heard! We again file an
appeal to the State Council against this ministerial decree. Would it
not be better for this government to save lives, and save time and
energy for everyone to have not issued this kind of order from the
start ?