Haute-Savoie: goats in the Prefect's sights
With great inventiveness (or stupidity), prefects are now even organising hunts at the authorities’ initiative for domestic animals. Yes, yes, domestic animals, all in defiance of the law. The Prefect of Haute-Savoie has ordered the slaughter of goats roaming the municipality of Passy. The only reason? An alleged risk of hybridisation with ibex. It’s like something out of a bad science fiction movie. We are challenging these two orders in summary proceedings before the Administrative Court in Grenoble to get them suspended as a matter of urgency. The hearing will take place on 20 May 2025 at 2.15 pm.
An illegal order: goats accused
A few weeks ago, the Prefect of Haute-Savoie ordered an officially appointed huntmaster to slaughter a dozen goats in the municipality of Passy… until 15 July! These “feral” goats are not wild animals –which are regularly victims of hunts at the authorities’ initiative that are often illegal. Due to a lack of vigilance on the part of their owners, they simply escaped and were going about their business without harming anyone.
The authorities fear that these goats will reproduce with ibex, which need to be “protected”. This is boundless hypocrisy, given that they authorise their slaughter in the Bargy massif to reassure cheese producers. There is no logic to this!
Slaughtering stray domestic animals: a new trend
In addition to being imposed for absurd reasons that (very) poorly conceal a hatred of life in all its forms, these two orders are simply illegal. The Prefect cannot, under any circumstances, indiscriminately slaughter stray “domestic” animals. It is up to the mayor to have them captured or, as a last resort and only in cases of “serious and imminent danger”, euthanised. But what serious and imminent danger could six escaped goats possibly pose? It’s true that goats are ferocious, everyone knows that!
This is not an isolated case: animals abandoned by humans and left to fend for themselves are increasingly targeted by the authorities who no longer even pretend to seek alternatives. This is the case with the goats of Melles and the stray dogs of Haute-Vienne and Aveyron, whose slaughter we have stopped thanks to our legal action.
A respite for the goats of Passy!
While two of them had already been slaughtered on the Prefect’s orders, the administrative court has just ruled in our favour and suspended the operations. This sends a clear message to the authorities, who too often consider the law to be merely optional when it comes to killing animals: no, you don’t kill pets just because their owners let them escape!