Pomme has been killed: Press release

Pomme has been killed: Press release
20.07.2026
Alpes
Pomme has been killed: Press release
Wildlife

Last May, One Voice campaigned to save a female wolf trapped in the Seine-Maritime – one of the few wolves in Normandy – and succeeded in having her released into the wild in the Alps, despite demands from extremist farmers’ unions that she be put down. Pomme, the young female wolf, had adapted perfectly to her new home. One Voice has just learnt that she was shot dead during the night of 16–17 July in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, on orders following the deaths of animals from a herd for which, as her GPS collar data shows, she was not responsible. A scandal — and an illustration of what wolves are enduring throughout France.

We had named her Pomme, so that her origins – Normandy, that land where hunters and farmers wanted her dead – would never be forgotten. Rescued from a trap in the spring, transferred and then released in the Alps, she had immediately found her feet. For two months, her tracking collar told the story of a free, intelligent animal that posed no threat to livestock.

In the span of two months, Pomme travelled more than 500 kilometres and explored four French departments — Drôme, Isère, Hautes-Alpes and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence — before beginning to settle down south of Lake Serre-Ponçon. Throughout this time, no negative interactions with domestic herds were recorded: precise data from her GPS collar confirms that she had not been involved in any damage to livestock since her release. She fed exclusively on wild animals — young deer, roe deer, young wild boar and foxes — the very same animals that are hunted down and killed by any means available on the pretext that their numbers need to be ‘controlled’. She had also been observed on several occasions with at least one other wolf.

Genetic analyses further highlight her significance: Pomme was the result of a cross between the Italo-Alpine and German-Polish wolf populations. She was by no means a hybrid with the domestic dog, but rather a wild wolf, Canis lupus lupus. A rare genetic heritage, essential to biodiversity — that someone chose to destroy.

An ‘innocent’ animal, shot all the same

We know from a reliable source that the shooting was carried out in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence by a wolf hunter commissioned following the death of a farm animal. However, the data from her GPS collar shows that, in all likelihood, Pomme was not responsible for this damage. Furthermore, the DDT 04 had been informed the day before, that the female wolf had been photographed by hunters in the area.

We demand the truth. How many other wolves are wrongly accused, then killed in silence? Pomme’s story raises questions about all the others. Enough lies, enough propaganda; we want the facts, the documents, the evidence. One Voice will be lodging a request regarding these extremely serious incidents.

« They killed Pomme even though she had done nothing wrong, even though she was adapting perfectly, even though her data proved her innocence. This is an extremely serious matter. Pomme is not an isolated case: she is the face of all those wolves branded as guilty to justify killing them. We will not remain silent,” says Muriel Arnal, President of One Voice.

Scapegoats, even at the highest levels of government

Pomme’s fate speaks volumes about an era in which wolves have (once again) become the convenient scapegoats of a policy that has lost its way. Only around 1,082 wolves live on French territory, a far cry from the viability threshold estimated by scientists to be between at least 2,500 and 5,000. Yet up to 23 per cent of them may now be killed each year.

While the Ministries of Agriculture and Ecology bow to pressure from lobbies, that the obligation to protect livestock is being weakened, and that the way is being cleared for shooting, the reality on the ground is being trampled underfoot. Wolves play a fundamental role in the balance of natural habitats, which so badly need them. Wild animals no longer have anywhere to survive in peace.

Taking action for Pomme, and a series of upcoming campaigns

One Voice would like to thank all those who, outraged by what is happening, have brought the truth about Pomme to light. We call on them, and all witnesses, to share information about wolves killed in France with us. Their anonymity is guaranteed completely and absolutely. It is thanks to them that this hypocrisy will be exposed.

One Voice will organise an action in support of Pomme at the very spot where she was killed, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. This will be just the first in a series of actions to denounce far and wide what happened to her, and to relentlessly ask the question: what, in reality, is the situation for all the other wolves? The organisation is also looking into the possibility of lodging a request and will shortly announce the date and venue of the gathering.

Pomme was rare, precious, free. She had done nothing wrong, yet she was killed. We will not forget her — and we will not allow impunity to take hold.

Pomme has been killed: Press Release

They’ve killed Pomme! The female wolf from Normandy, released into the Alps, has been shot.

Court hearing on the foxes: Press release

Court hearing on the foxes: Press release
17.07.2026
Hauts de Seine
Court hearing on the foxes: Press release
Wildlife

On Thursday 23 July 2026 at 10am, the Administrative Court of Cergy-Pontoise will hear the application for summary proceedings brought by One Voice against the order issued by the Prefect of Hauts-de-Seine on 15 June 2026. This order authorises, for two and a half months, hunts at the authorities’ initiative in a private garden, using traps or night-time shooting. This is an exceptional measure misused for purposes other than its intended aim, with no legal or scientific basis, which the organisation is calling for to be suspended as a matter of urgency.

One needs to understand what lies behind the administrative terminology. From 15 June to 31 August, in the dead of night, foxes may be hunted down, trapped or shot in a private garden in the Hauts-de-Seine. Night-time shooting and traps, whose unspeakable cruelty is well-known: they strike indiscriminately, without distinguishing their victims. These are the methods being deployed – hard to believe, almost impossible to imagine. And for what danger? Droppings and burrows in a garden.

A woman complained about the presence of foxes and therefore requested that traps be set up in her garden to wipe out this fox family. The prefecture authorised their killing, upon simple request, without considering any alternative measures or making the slightest effort to raise awareness. The easy way out: killing, rather than learning to coexist.

Nature’s treasures, treated as pests

Who are these so-called ‘pests’? Highly intelligent creatures with exceptional abilities to adapt, remember and learn, endowed with a particularly sophisticated social organisation and means of communication. Playful and sociable, foxes are also excellent parents. All they ask is to live in peace, to look after and feed their family – in the height of summer, when the year’s litter of cubs are still dependent on their parents. As emblems of our forests and countryside, they are now also settling on the outskirts of our towns and cities. Coming across a fox in your garden is not a nuisance, it is a stroke of luck.

A fox shuns humans and is completely harmless. In its 2023 report, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) concluded that no culling of foxes could be justified on health grounds. Worse still: culling them has the opposite effect, by encouraging the proliferation of rodents that carry Lyme disease. Foxes are not a threat; they are our allies.

A nationwide campaign against foxes

This order is part of a wider campaign of persecution: every year in France, at least 500,000 foxes are killed by shooting, trapping or digging-out, largely because they are classified as a ‘species likely to cause damage’ (ESOD) in 88 departments, a classification with no scientific basis. And the noose is tightening: the draft three-year decree for 2026–2029, currently open for public consultation until 30 July 2026, plans to extend this classification to 91 departments — three more than at present!

“Trapping and shooting foxes at night, in a garden, simply because they dig burrows: this is where the logic of treating these animals as pests leads. We ask the judge to reiterate that wildlife is not a nuisance but an asset.” — Muriel Arnal, President of One Voice.

If a burrow in a garden is enough to condemn foxes to death, then no wild animal is safe anywhere. One Voice will not allow this precedent to be set and will be in court on 23 July to block it.

Court hearing on the foxes: Press release

One Voice goes to court to suspend the prefectural order authorising the killing of foxes on a private property in the Hauts-de-Seine

14 contested badger orders: Press release

14 contested badger orders: Press release
15.07.2026
Rennes
14 contested badger orders: Press release
Wildlife

One Voice, together with ASPAS and AVES France, is calling on the Administrative Court of Rennes to immediately suspend 14 prefectural orders — one per constituency — authorising officially appointed huntmasters to organise massive and virtually unlimited hunts at the authorities’ initiative against badgers throughout the department of Finistère until 31 December 2026. The hearing will take place on Tuesday 21 July 2026 at 2.30 pm.

These orders amount to a veritable free pass granted to officially appointed huntmasters: an unlimited number of hunts at the authorities’ initiative throughout the department, with no restrictions on the number of badgers killed, and the possibility of enlisting up to thirty hunters.

The authorised methods are extremely broad: shooting, including at night, trapping, but also ‘manual’ and ‘mechanical’ digging-out. The former is none other than underground hunting—which the Administrative Court of Rennes had already, at our request, suspended in the Finistère for the additional period in 2026, by an order dated 10 June. Is the Prefecture attempting to circumvent this court ruling by including underground hunting amongst the authorised hunting methods?

For hours on end, badgers are cornered at the bottom of their burrows and bitten by dogs – which also suffer injuries during the operation – before being dragged out using tongs that maim them, and then killed. As for ‘mechanical’ digging, using a digger or backhoe loader, this amounts to crushing the burrows and burying entire families alive, doomed to die of suffocation.

At this time of year, the young are still present in the burrows. Terrified by the dogs, gunfire and machinery, young badgers still dependent on their mothers risk being injured, crushed, buried alive or killed outright. And while the summer’s heatwaves and droughts are already taking their toll on wildlife, making access to water and food more difficult, the State has chosen to compound this with the violence of these hunts — without any real justification based on alleged damage; it is, yet again, the same old cronyism….

These orders are moreover published without any prior public consultation and in complete contravention of the law, and are based on arbitrariness, not science. The three organisations are calling on the Administrative Court of Rennes to suspend them and to protect badgers, these architects of nature and pillars of biodiversity.

14 contested badger orders: Press release

In the Finistère, One Voice is challenging 14 orders that subject badgers to unrestricted hunting

Victory for the badgers in Ille-et-Vilaine: Press release

Victory for the badgers in Ille-et-Vilaine: Press release
10.07.2026
Ile et Vilaine
Victory for the badgers in Ille-et-Vilaine: Press release
Wildlife

In a ruling dated 9 July 2026, the judge presiding over summary proceedings at the Administrative Court of Rennes granted an emergency suspension of the additional underground hunting season, which had authorised the hunting of badgers in the Ille-et-Vilaine from 1 June until the general opening of the hunting season on 14 September. This decision was secured by One Voice, AVES France, ASPAS and LPO Bretagne, represented by the law firm Géo-Avocats.

Following a request by the four organisations, the judge hearing the summary proceedings suspended the prefectural order which extended the badger hunting season into the height of summer, precisely when this year’s young are at their most vulnerable. As it had done on 10 June for the Finistère, the Administrative Court of Rennes confirmed its position on a key point of law: the definition of ‘young’ mammals, whom it is prohibited to kill.

Adopting the definition provided by the Administrative Court of Appeal in Bordeaux, the judge ruled that the term ‘young of all mammals’ should be understood to mean a young animal that has not yet reached independence, that is to say, one that is incapable of surviving on its own without relying on its mother. This state cannot be equated solely with the weaning period, as hunters regularly claim.

The judge thus points out that this non-selective practice can lead to the illegal killing of young badgers still dependent on adults, purely for the hunters’ pleasure.

For behind the terms ‘underground hunt’ or ‘digging-out’ lies an unbearable reality: badgers hunted right down into their burrows, cornered for hours, bitten by dogs, torn from their refuge… and then killed. A despicable, violent practice belonging to a bygone era.

Following cases in the Finistère, Haute-Marne and Cher, this latest suspension reinforces a clear body of case law in favour of badgers. One Voice and its partners will continue to fight to put an end to ‘digging-out’ wherever it is still permitted.

Victory for the badgers in Ille-et-Vilaine: Press Release

Victory for the badgers in Ille-et-Vilaine: the courts have granted an emergency suspension of the additional period of digging-out

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.