Let’s rally for the wolves: we are participating in great numbers in the ministry’s public consultations!

Wolves are collateral victims of intensive farming practices. Demonised, they are killed in their masses under the pretext of legal shots in the name of protecting herds of animals destined for the abattoir. Unfortunately, wolves are little-known animals who wrongly suffer from a bad reputation. They are, however, sensitive and intelligent, and their ways of life are ultimately similar to our own: they are made up of real families, where each of them has a well-defined function in the wolf cubs’ upbringing. As for their role for such a fragile biodiversity, this no longer needs to be demonstrated! This does not prevent the government from taking ever more unfavourable measures against them, due to the power of the hunting lobbies and industrial agriculture.

Openly anti-wolf projects

The contents of the first consultation surpassed our worst predictions… The plan was void of any substance to the benefit of the sacrosanct interests of farmers. In fact, the document displays unfailing support for existing farming practices without ever questioning their negative consequences. The biggest losers here are clearly the wolves. Their protection is no longer at the heart of the project, in fact quite the opposite: they are appointed as targets to be slaughtered.

The second consultation relates to a draft decree whose purpose is nothing more or less than to reinforce the use of lethal shots. On the program: an increase in the number of shooters, a generalisation of the possibility of using thermal cameras to better target wolves, an end of the obligation to shine a light on them before shooting, the end of the suspension of shooting authorisations when an individual is killed… In short, the draft decree amounts to confirming the possibility of massacring representatives of a protected species.

Unbearable and senseless persecution

The two projects submitted to the consultation have received unfavourable opinions from the CNPN [Conseil national de la protection de la nature – French National Council for the Conservation of Nature]. Despite all of this, the government, committed to defending the worst agricultural interests, remains deaf to warnings from scientists and nature protection associations who recommend not killing wolves.

No matter how unbalanced the game is and how difficult victories are to come by, we will continue to fight for wolves. For more information on who they are and their situation, we invite you to consult our report. We need your support in this fight. This is why we are offering you, below, a ‘toolbox’ that will allow you to participate in the consultation up until 7 December 2023 and therefore to defend wolves.

TO SAY NO TO THE NAP PROJECT, CLICK HERE :

Protecting wolves is not addressed in the project:

• No protection aims for wolves appears in the project even though the species is classified as ‘vulnerable’ in France.
• Nothing is planned to guarantee that the wolf population will do well in the future.
• The NAP project even goes so far as to recognise the need to increase the use of lethal shots. It is hard to imagine anything less protective than this.
• As noted by the CNPN, continuing shots, including during the reproduction period, is contrary to the very essence of the status of a protected species.

The NAP project favours farming to the detriment of wolves:

• It reverses the logic of the NAP, supposed to be protective, and echoes the anti-wolf discontent of the farmers it defends.
• It maintains the unjustified principle of non-protectability of cow herds: a farmer can let his cow herd wander without any supervision or protection, then come and demand authorisation to kill wolves.

The NAP project does not insist enough on the protection of herds with non-lethal methods:

• No assessment/feedback on herd protection measures has been established.
• The NAP does not bother to strengthen checking measures on the implementation of herd protection measures.

The NAP project disregards the positive impacts of wolves within the ecosystem and does not even address them:

• Wolves, however, continue to maintain a balance in natural environments by limiting the development of deer and wild boar populations.
• Wolves assist biodiversity.

TO SAY NO TO THE DRAFT DECREE, CLICK HERE :

The draft decree reinforces the use of lethal shots to the detriment of alternative solutions:

• The draft decree includes a series of measures intended to ensure that shots kill even more effectively.
• This project indirectly paves the way for an unacceptable increase in the upper limits for killing wolves, a protected species.
• The draft decree contravenes the logic of “protected species” exemptions which must normally remain exceptional and a last resort.

The draft decree keeps ‘test shots’:

• ‘Test shots’ – which are similar to real wolf hunts – are part of the project. The government does not even intend to take even a small step in favour of wolves by ending this possibility.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice