News Archive - Page 4 of 130

Reinforced defense shots against wolves illegally extended: One Voice confronts the Alpes-Maritimes prefect!

Reinforced defense shots against wolves illegally extended: One Voice confronts the Alpes-Maritimes prefect!
Alpes-Maritimes Reinforced defense shots against wolves illegally extended: One Voice confronts the Alpes-Maritimes prefect!
Wildlife

At the beginning of January 2025, the Prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes region extended the deadline for killing wolves in the department by extending the reinforced defense shooting permits of six livestock farmers. All without deigning to check that their situation still met the conditions for maintaining these shots with a tenfold effect. On February 26 at 8.45am*, we will be asking the Nice administrative court to suspend these texts, which we believe are blatantly illegal.

In France, any excuse is good for facilitating the extermination of wolves: from the irresponsible government’s position that cattle herds cannot be protected, to the numerous illegal decrees issued by prefects! The Alpes-Maritimes prefect is no exception, renewing for 2025 the reinforced defense shooting authorizations granted to six farmers in 2024. The problem? Apart from his perpetual wolf-bashing, he didn’t see fit to check that the conditions for extending these texts were still in place. And yet, the law requires it!

A prefect who issues shootings indiscriminately, flouting the law

The prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes region no longer even bothers to do his job. He is supposed to re-examine the particular situation of the beneficiaries before once again allowing them to shoot wolves from all sides: literally up to 10 shooters can target at the same time those unfortunate enough to venture near the farm animals.

Worse still, the prefect doesn’t care about the rigor required for derogations to the (still) strict protection of species. Indeed, he has not even made the effort to write specific recitals for each beneficiary: the decrees are virtually identical!

Over-indulgent with breeders and quick to harm wolves, he limited himself to a general affirmation of the implementation of protective means, without checking their effectiveness as it was his duty to do before extending the death warrants for wolf cubs and their families for the year 2025.

Progressive, gradual killing: wolves’ lives illegally taken

Those “likely” to attack the herds (which are then led to the slaughterhouse without the tears or cries of their owners) are supposedly killed gradually: first “gently” (euphemism) with three simultaneous shooters, then “violently” by mobilizing the equivalent of a combat group to assault them with gunfire. After all, wolves are still a protected species, and the last thing we need is to give the impression that the public services are out to get them. That’s a likely story!

As the Prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes region is abusing his position, it is urgent to suspend the effects of these orders. When the judge grants us a hearing to overturn them, it will be too late for the wolves already killed because of irresponsible decrees! Let’s not allow the massacre of animals that are precious in their own right, and that have their rightful place in nature in fact as well as in the eyes of the majority of French people.

To put an end to the abominations suffered by wolves, sign our petition!

*Our hearing originally scheduled for Wednesday February 26 has been moved by the Nice Administrative Court to Friday February 28 at 9:30 am. We’ll be there for the wolves!

Pregnant or ill? Wikie’s worrying weight gain at Marineland

Pregnant or ill? Wikie’s worrying weight gain at Marineland
Antibes Pregnant or ill? Wikie’s worrying weight gain at Marineland
Exploitation for shows

Since the captivity lobby confirmed the imminent departure of Wikie and Keijo to the Tenerife dolphinarium, the days have gone by with their share of news, both good (Agnès Pannier-Runacher’s mobilization for a dolphin sanctuary in Europe) and bad (the filing of permit applications to export the dolphins).

We are sending the Minister of Ecological Transition the factual and legal elements opposing this departure towards endless exploitation.

On this occasion, we also reveal Wikie’s strong weight gain in recent months – noticed by several observers, including Tilikum Spirit and whistle-blowers – and question her team about the reasons for it.

Is it an ongoing pregnancy? Until now, Wikie had never gained weight during the park’s annual closures. The only occasions when this had been observed were her previous pregnancies. Orcas’ gestation lasts 17 to 18 months, so the father could be Keijo, but it could also be her brother Inouk, or his other deceased son Moana. There is also the possibility of artificial insemination, or a health problem…

Has the government done what is necessary to ensure that Wikie and Keijo would be able to survive the planned trip? What would be the departure date? For the time being, the independent expert assessment we obtained in court has not been completed, and it prohibits any transfer.

So many unanswered questions. The future of the last two “French” orcas is at stake, and we’re doing everything we can for them.

We’ll be out in front of Marineland in Antibes again this Saturday, February 15. And we are in contact with our partners in Tenerife to take action in front of Loro Parque. We will remain extremely vigilant, in coordination with our French and Mediterranean partners.

Europe united to save the wolves: launch of the “European Action Wolves” campaign

Europe united to save the wolves: launch of the “European Action Wolves” campaign
12.02.2025
Europe Europe united to save the wolves: launch of the “European Action Wolves” campaign
Wildlife

On February 10, 2025, a broad coalition of NGOs, associations, committed citizens and public figures joined forces to create the European Action Wolves – #EAW campaign.

This initiative aims to prevent the downgrading of the wolves’ protection status, a decision voted on December 3, 2024 by the member States of the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention.

Urgent action needed for wolves

Although wolf populations in Europe are very fragile, they are subject to numerous culling and “regulation” plans. Some countries, such as Sweden, have not waited for the change in status to be definitively approved before sharply increasing shooting quotas for this species. Five associations, including One Voice, have made a request to the European Court of Justice against the failure to meet the implementation deadline.

From March 6, 2025, if nothing is done, wolves will lose their status as a “strictly protected” species and become merely “protected”, exposing these animals and ecosystems to considerable risks. We therefore have three weeks to act.

A citizens’ revolt to come

The campaign will kick off with a hard-hitting call-to-action video, widely relayed on major digital media such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube. The video will carry a message from personalities from eighteen countries. Every citizen will be encouraged to get involved by following the instructions on our website EuropeanActionWolves.org. In particular, they will be invited to address the delegates of the member countries of the Bern Convention, as well as the various Ministers of Agriculture and the Environment, and finally the members of the European Parliament.

Throughout the campaign, content will be produced and distributed by committed artists, influencers, NGO partners and celebrities, enabling everyone to express their views and make the voice of science heard.

A serious and irresponsible decision

In an alarming context in which the 27 countries of the European Union, joined by Liechtenstein, Andorra, Switzerland, Norway, Macedonia, Serbia, Armenia, Iceland and Ukraine, have approved the downlisting of gray wolves, only five countries have spoken out against the proposal. These were the United Kingdom, Monaco, Montenegro, Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Tunisia and Turkey chose to abstain.

However, a survey carried out in November 2023 among ten thousand people living in rural areas of ten European countries (Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Denmark, Sweden and Romania) revealed that the population of the Old Continent was largely in favor of protecting wolves and other large carnivores such as lynxes and bears. Indeed, 72% of those polled considered it essential to maintain strict protection for these species, which are vital to the balance of ecosystems.

In November 2024, no fewer than 693 scientists and wildlife experts voiced their concern and alerted the European Union to the danger posed by this decision.

Join the European Action Wolves movement!

Today, NGOs, associations and activists are calling on everyone to join the European Action Wolves movement. Together, let’s join forces to preserve gray wolves and, by extension, the biodiversity and ecosystems whose health is intimately linked to our own. Beyond their ecological role, wolves have an intrinsic right to life. This right is enshrined in the Bern Convention, but legislators have chosen to ignore it. This is why we must act.

To support and guarantee the success of this campaign, which you can follow on our social networks, we and our partners are at your disposal for any media collaboration.

Marineland applies for orca export permits and Loro Parque looks forward to welcoming Wikie and Keijo

Marineland applies for orca export permits and Loro Parque looks forward to welcoming Wikie and Keijo
11.02.2025
Antibes
Marineland applies for orca export permits and Loro Parque looks forward to welcoming Wikie and Keijo
Exploitation for shows

Following confirmation that the orcas held by Marineland Antibes were to be sent even further from their parents’ Icelandic home waters to Loro Parque, in the Spanish Canary Islands off the coast of Africa, and that the application for export authorization would be submitted in the next few days, we are once again mobilizing for Wikie and Keijo. For the animals, against the government’s pretence, against the greed and cynicism of the captivity industry. This February 15, we’ll be back in front of Marineland.

Yesterday, it was confirmed that Loro Parque was preparing to “welcome” Marineland’s orcas. Alas, nothing really new, following the announcements by the French Minister for Ecological Transition (MTE). Despite the IGEDD report, Agnès Pannier Runacher had decided against Japan (late… if we hadn’t blocked the transfer of the orcas at the beginning of 2024, they’d be there) and had written to the Whale Sanctuary Project brushing aside the sanctuary solution with a wave of her hand, the opposite of the choice made by her scientific advisors… Today, the French park also confirms its desire to accelerate.

Why respect justice when you’ve got the executive in your pocket?

Clearly, Marineland and probably the Ministry of Ecology are wiping their feet on court rulings. As a reminder, the independent expertise ordered by the court and obtained by One Voice has still not been completed, and the ban confirmed by the Aix en Provence Court of Appeal on December 5 on transferring Wikie and Keijo anywhere is still in force.

If an application for a permit is made, despite the judicial ban, our lawyers are ready to challenge it.

Marineland Antibes, the Japanese dolphinarium or the one in Spain: no lesser evil for orcas to choose

They’d have us believe that Loro Parque, the place where four orcas have died in recent years, is a decent solution. Who are they kidding? What kind of animal welfare are we talking about when we send Wikie and Keijo to rot in these tiny pools?

At Marineland, the detained orcas are a family, there’s no conflict, and Wikie the matriarch regulates her little world (which is getting smaller and smaller…). At Loro Parque, on the other hand, there is a lot of fighting, and the orcas are aggressive towards each other. Morgan’s body bore 600 bite marks in the first few years after she was sold to the dolphinarium.

Aidan and Tekoa, the two surviving males there, will undoubtedly impose a violent hierarchy on little Keijo. Wikie, for her part, will have to reproduce with one of these aggressive males by way of mistreatment. She will be separated from her son for the first time, and won’t be able to protect him.

Well-being? An empty statement for those who thrive on animal distress

Marineland claims to have the biggest tanks in the world… So how can you talk about improving the welfare of orcas when you send Wikie and Keijo to rot in Loro Parque, which has smaller tanks? The underlying reason why the French dolphinarium wants to speed up the process is that it has let its infrastructures fall into disrepair: they are now 25 years old, and no investment has been made in them for years.

The captivity business is no longer profitable in France, and so much the better. But the Ministry of Ecology’s handling of this development is despicable. The Minister had announced the end of the shows: in Tenerife, the shows will continue. We were sold an end to captivity for this orca family, unique in the world, and instead of the solution chosen by the Ministry’s scientists, Agnès Pannier-Runacher takes the worst possible political decision. Wikie and Keijo are deeply loved. No one will forget.” Muriel Arnal President of One Voice

In France and elsewhere, One Voice will never stop defending these orcas.

We are mobilizing again in front of Marineland in Antibes this Saturday, February 15. And we have contacted our partners in Tenerife to take action in front of Loro Parque too.

Spinelessly left to his fate, a Malinois was found decomposing in an apartment

Spinelessly left to his fate, a Malinois was found decomposing in an apartment
10.02.2025
Pyrénées-Orientales
Spinelessly left to his fate, a Malinois was found decomposing in an apartment
Domestic animals

In May 2024, in a village in the Pyrénées-Orientales region, a dog was discovered lifeless, locked in an apartment. Abandoned by the man who had promised to take care of him, he lay there dying for dozens of hours before breathing his last. We will be at the Perpignan legal tribunal on February 14 at 8:30 a.m. to speak out on behalf of all animals victimized by irresponsible humans who treat them as mere objects.

Bored of his pet, he causes his death

On Tuesday May 21, 2024, gendarmes and firefighters were called to open a dwelling in Palau-del-Vidre, from which a pestilential odor was escaping. There, they saw no trace of the tenant, who had been absent for several days, but the decomposing remains of a dog. Terribly emaciated, the Malinois waited in vain for his owner to return. He died alone, of hunger and thirst, in excruciating agony. Alerted by our partner “Marina un Refuge pour Céret”, we immediately took up the case.

Identified after this macabre discovery, the person responsible admitted the facts. Due to “personal problems”, he was supposedly no longer able to look after his pet. And he doesn’t find it strange that he took no steps to entrust him to a shelter or even to a relative… Understand, he “didn’t have a car”. So what else could he do but lock him up in his home and leave him alone long enough for him to starve to death? Pick up the phone and ask for help? Too complicated, apparently…

A business with blood on its hands

Every year, thousands of dogs and cats are abandoned and slaughtered in pounds, where the humans who took a fancy to them when they were just a few weeks old rarely bother to come and get them. Buying a little ball of fur from the latest fashionable breed, only to get rid of it once it’s become too bulky and too expensive, is what consumers do when they see animals as accessories. Tragedies frantically fueled by puppy shows, pet shops and individuals selling litters online, often illegally. What is the government waiting for to take action against these deadly practices?

On Friday February 14, at 8:30 a.m., we’ll be at the Perpignan legal tribunal on behalf of the deceased Malinois, defending the need to ban pet sales on the Internet and all events that encourage impulse buying of dogs and cats.

Towards an end to the sale of dogs and cats in pet shops throughout the European Union?

Towards an end to the sale of dogs and cats in pet shops throughout the European Union?
10.02.2025
Towards an end to the sale of dogs and cats in pet shops throughout the European Union?
Domestic animals

Photo : Jo-Anne McArthur/One Voice

In 2025, following a proposal from the European Commission, the European Parliament will vote to adopt several measures on the welfare and traceability of dogs and cats within the EU. We have written to them to express our support, and to alert them to the fraudulent maneuvers underway in our country to circumvent existing bans. We remain mobilized and continue to raise public awareness of the condition of cats and dogs in France and Europe.

While the initial text augurs progress, abandoning identification by tattoo in favor of electronic chips, imposing new standards on breeding establishments, banning mutilations for aesthetic purposes (cropping and docking), the first modifications proposed by the MEPs are also promising.

An end to pet shop sales, yes, but the excesses must stop

For the past year, we have been alerting public opinion to the strategies put in place in France, with the complicity of the Ministry of Agriculture, to get around the ban: “click and collect”.

Although in force since January 1, 2024, the law on animal abuse has been seriously misused. Completely contrary to the aim of the ban, this type of practice continues to be encouraged by sellers, who now encourage customers to buy animals on their websites and then collect them in store, like common everyday objects. We have asked MEPs to include a proposal to put a stop to this.

The scourge of online trafficking

We also supported the proposal to create a system for verifying the identification numbers of dogs and cats on online platform ads. These sites open the door to all kinds of abuses, from animals from “puppy mills” to unscrupulous individuals breeding their companions without authorization in order to line their own pockets.

Since we launched our fight against Leboncoin with our partner, several thousand illegal ads for thousands of puppies and kittens have been reported and removed, proving the scale of online trafficking! Several complaints have been filed and are still under investigation. We hope that this first step on the part of the EU will reduce the traffic, until the sale of animals on the Internet is banned altogether.

“Hypertype”: when ‘beauty’ becomes synonymous with suffering

For supposedly aesthetic reasons, some breeders don’t hesitate to push genetic selection to the extreme in order to “produce” animals with morphological characteristics that endanger their health. Bulldogs that can no longer breathe, Chihuahuas or Cavaliers King Charles selected for their big eyes and tiny skulls… much suffering that has prompted some countries, such as Norway and the Netherlands, to introduce legislation. The European Commission seems to recognize the problem, proposing a ban on hypertypes and their display at shows and exhibitions.

Violent training

Several years ago, we revealed the violence involved in training dogs for the ring with supporting images. Spiked collars, electrocution, strangulation… veritable torture sessions for the animals. In 2023, a bill was proposed to ban these coercive tools, but has still not been examined by the Senate. While the Commission’s draft text goes in the right direction by banning electric collars in establishments selling and keeping puppies and kittens, it is unthinkable to stop there. These painful devices must be banned everywhere, especially in dog clubs, but also in private homes.

The draft regulation is currently being examined by the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development. Members of the European Parliament are currently making amendments, before a first vote in commission at the beginning of April, followed by a vote in Parliament in May or June.

Sign the petition for laws that truly protect our feline and canine companions.

In Jasseron (Ain), inauguration of the department’s first Chatipi on February 22 to help stray cats!

In Jasseron (Ain), inauguration of the department’s first Chatipi on February 22 to help stray cats!
09.02.2025
Ain
In Jasseron (Ain), inauguration of the department’s first Chatipi on February 22 to help stray cats!
Domestic animals

One Voice, which has been fighting against feline straying for years, is setting up three-way partnerships with municipalities or places such as hospitals or retirement homes, and local associations, to identify, sterilize and release homeless cats by providing them with a wooden chalet to hydrate, feed and comfort themselves. The town council of Jasseron in the Ain contacted One Voice for this purpose, with the help of local association Le Clan Fél’Ain. In addition to protecting cats without human families from misery, the Chatipi project raises public awareness of the problem of feline straying. In Jasseron, the educational aspect of the program is reinforced by the participation of elementary school children, who will have the task to feed the cats when they go to the canteen at lunchtime, and help to sort the canteen’s food waste thanks to the compost bin located near the Chatipi. The inauguration of the Chatipi will take place at Place Bernard Chanel in Jasseron, on Saturday February 22 at 11:00 am.

The inauguration will take place on Saturday, February 22 at 11:00 a.m., in front of the chatipi at Place Bernard Chanel, near the elementary school. It will be attended by Mayor Sébastien Gobert, his local councillor Adrien Bour, who is in charge of monitoring the project, the association Le Clan Fél’Ain, represented by its president Mr. Antonin Gilbaud, and Mrs. Mathilde Perrot for the One Voice association.

Chatipi, a sustainable solution to the vicious circle of cat straying

Chatipi is an ethically-driven initiative aimed at creating shelters for stray cats, to help them and raise public awareness of their distress and needs. Nearly sixty have already been set up across France, sometimes within nursing homes, health facilities or hospitals to bring comfort to residents too, and close to schools for educational purposes, a fundamental element in putting an end to mistreatment and common preconceptions. All too often, our feline friends are wrongly portrayed as independent animals capable of surviving on their own. This is not at all the case: life outdoors is a misery for stray cats, who fall ill far more often than those living with their families, and have to cope with the cold, bad weather, and sometimes even human malice.

Sharing out of tasks and responsibilities

One Voice, which invented the Chatipi concept, usually provides the chalet for the cats. In this case, the town council decided to renovate an abandoned building. One Voice has supplied cat flaps and educational panels, and will pay the veterinary costs (sterilizations, identifications, tests) for fifteen cats at the start of the operation.

The premises have been fitted out by the town hall, which will be responsible for cleaning the place and feeding the feline residents, with the help of elementary school children, supervised by an adult, who will take part in the feeding process at the same time as depositing canteen food waste in the compost bin located near the Chatipi. During the vacations, this task will be entrusted to the technical department staff.

The Clan Fél’Ain association, for its part, will be responsible for monitoring the health of the animals, organizing trapping and transport to the veterinary clinic, and covering long-term veterinary costs (with a maximum annual subsidy of 200 euros from the town council). The most sociable cats will be offered for adoption.

The One Voice website dedicated to the Chatipi program was inaugurated at the beginning of March 2022 and provides a wealth of information about this educational program for cats. Sign our petition calling for an emergency plan on feline straying.

Our dying companions, focus on the fate of dogs in laboratories

Our dying companions, focus on the fate of dogs in laboratories
07.02.2025
France
Our dying companions, focus on the fate of dogs in laboratories
Animal testing

Photo : TheCampBeagle.com

In France, between mid-December and mid-January, the Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MESR) authorized the use of 600 dogs in future scientific experiments.

Although they are – in theory – the most protected animals in France, when they cross the path of experimenters, they are not spared…

Through these projects, we reveal the reality they endure in laboratories in the name of so-called innovation, while frequently dying to assess the toxicity of pre-existing products.

A lifetime behind bars

These young puppies destined for laboratories are born in concrete kennels. Some of them are born “programmed” to endure tests: genetically modified or selected to develop diseases, they are bred only to become living test tubes. Considered as products or equipment, locked up, with no social contact or affection.

Since its creation, One Voice has been fighting against these breeding farms, such as those run by Marshall BioResources (MBR) in Gannat and Mézilles, France.

Once transported to the laboratories, their daily lives remain the same: small, cold cubicles and constant isolation to the point of insanity.

Condemned to an existence devoid of everything that makes them dogs, they gradually sink into distress: some become apathetic, others go round in endless circles, but nobody cares.

For the researchers, these behaviors are merely a side-effect of the protocols, mere collateral damage. How they feel is irrelevant: what matters is that the experiment should run its course. So, when the trials come to an end, the solution is obvious. Instead of trying to rehabilitate them by giving them a second chance, we eliminate them. Unadapted to life outside the kennels, too traumatized to find a family, they are put to death with no other alternative.

Out of the cage: painful, often fatal experiences

The rare moments when these dogs, generally beagles – because they are the most docile and affectionate, a specificity of which MBR has made its fortune – leave their cells, are not synonymous with respite. On the contrary, they are taken to the protocol room to undergo all kinds of tests. Some have their blood taken sixteen times in twenty-four hours – in other words, every 90 minutes! Others will be locked in metabolic cages where they can barely move for 48 hours, just to collect their urine, which will be used to measure the toxicity of the new drugs.

To assess the effectiveness of new vaccines, the dogs will be infected with a virus that causes convulsions, unbearable abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomiting. Pus will flow from their noses, and their skin will not be spared either.

After years of forced terror, these beagles that have been used for a single vaccine are killed as a “safety measure”. They generally end their lives in the freezers of the laboratories that exploited them, before being incinerated like toxic waste, their existence reduced to “scientific use”.

The figures are not in their favor…

Although 3 out of 4 French people are opposed to animal experimentation, 2,200 of the 8,709 dogs used throughout the European Union died in French laboratories in 2022 (latest figures published).

In short, our country has retained its title of torturer-in-chief. In October 2024, a single project condemned 2,000 dogs to test the toxicology of a drug. In contradiction with the reduction requirements of the European directive…

Despite the Ministry’s countless false pretences, which still fail to distinguish between the number of animals used for the first time in research and those reused, we continue to analyze the dozens of projects it authorizes every day in order to denounce the sham transparency it presents to us. As a result, we are eagerly awaiting the figures for 2023, and will not be satisfied with the report presented to the public. As we do every year, we have requested the raw data files from the MESR to continue our fight against the opacity associated with animal experimentation.

Act now to help us put an end to experimentation on dogs: sign our petition and demand their protection!

In the Haute-Saône and Meurthe-et-Moselle regions, prefects gave carte blanche to kill animals

In the Haute-Saône and Meurthe-et-Moselle regions, prefects gave carte blanche to kill animals
28.01.2025
In the Haute-Saône and Meurthe-et-Moselle regions, prefects gave carte blanche to kill animals
Wildlife

In the Haute-Saône region, the prefect has authorized the agents of the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB) and the lieutenants of louveterie and pests to kill as many coypus and muskrats as they please until the end of 2025. In the Meurthe-et-Moselle region, all animals considered as “game” and presenting a so-called “risk to public safety” are targeted until December 31… 2029! We are calling for the immediate suspension of these scandalous texts, and will be at the Besançon administrative court on February 10 at 2pm, then in Nancy the following day, at the same time.

The prefects are passing the word around. After the Indre-et-Loire and Ain prefects, it’s now the turn of the Haute-Saône and Meurthe-et-Moselle prefects to delegate life-or-death powers over animals to lieutenants of louveterie and pests. What about the orders that should normally be issued before each administrative beat hunt, the obligation to justify them and limit them in time and space? The State washes its hands of the matter. With its green light, valid for one year in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region and no less than five years in the Grand-Est region, sworn hunters can now organize these operations as they please, and shoot at anything that moves without referring to the authorities.

Unjustified and illegal regulations…

In the Haute-Saône region, the prefect may well have pulled a “ready-made” excuse out of his hat (coypus and muskrats are increasing in number, endangering riverbanks and certain structures), but no data has been added to the file to back up these assertions… But never mind: here, as in the Hautes-Pyrénées region or Corsica, the word of the State’s representatives is enough to exterminate all the individuals in their sights. Especially when they have been unjustly classified as “ESOD”. Victims of demented persecution, they can already be shot, trapped or dug up all year round, without any prior authorization. So why bother with damage control?

… published after the carnage began

In the Meurthe-et-Moselle region too, the prefecture is not afraid of being illegal. Not content with subjecting animals to uncontrolled pressure for years to come, it published its deadly decree a fortnight after it came into force. A well-known strategy by now, aimed at preventing us from taking legal action in time to save lives… But we’re not giving in and have counter-attacked, as we always do, the regions involved in these little arrangements. This collusion with hunters must stop!

In order to make the voices of the animals targeted by these texts heard, we’ll be at the hearing on February 10 at 2pm at the Besançon administrative court for the Haute-Saône region, then at the one on February 11 at 2pm at the Nancy administrative court for the Meurthe-et-Moselle region.

NO to the European law against wolves dictated by the lobbies!

NO to the European law against wolves dictated by the lobbies!
03.02.2025
NO to the European law against wolves dictated by the lobbies!
Wildlife

Lobbies are attacking wolves from all sides. In France, they are being martyred by the government’s constant gifts to breeders, constantly making it easier to resort to lethal shooting. In Europe, they will soon be downgraded… Following a request to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), we are once again appealing to the representatives of the Bern Convention to see reason, in an open letter.

The downgrading of wolves? Handed on a plate to the hunters’ and breeders’ lobby, just like the relaxing of lethal shootings against them!

Two months after the dire approval of the European downlisting, we are continuing to fight to defeat this decision and the political maneuvers riddled with the lobbies’ wishes!

The deadly reign of the lobbies who want to finish off wolves in France…

Distraught, scandalized, but not surprised, because the desire to harm canids is no longer even concealed. We have just learned that the Savoie Mont-Blanc Interdepartmental Chamber of Agriculture is behind the sudden desire to modify the decree orchestrating the shooting of wolves. We’re not going to pretend to be surprised to discover that breeders are pulling the strings!

We opposed this new sinister project by responding to the public consultation and firmly denouncing these new anti-wolf measures. The return of these animals is a real boon for biodiversity, both in reality and according to the majority of French people.

With 192 wolves at risk of being shot in France this year, and 2025 barely underway, nine of them have already perished under the gunshots granted by the prefects. We fear the worst for their survival in France, at a time when the population is already in decline. And rightly so, farmers are constantly after the wolves: when they’re not shamelessly inciting to poach them, they’re scheming with the Ministry of Ecology to further entrench their hypocrisy and recalcitrance to protect the flocks they’re responsible for.

The hatred of the farming world is also falling on the agents of the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB), who are seeing their expert missions (essential for recognizing the damage supposedly attributed to wolves) increasingly hijacked by government departments. How can we trust politicians under such conditions, when the evidence of their complacency towards the farming and hunting lobbies is mounting?

The perpetual relaxation of the wolf culling policy is a real threat to the conservation of wolves, both in France and in Europe.

… and in Europe: we fight back!

The drive to wipe out canids is continuing at an European level.

Following our inter-association request to the European Court of Justice and our repeated appeals to representatives of the Bern Convention, we are once again sounding the alarm.

The Committee seems to be making an admission of weakness in its decision of December 6, 2024, and recognizes that things have been done backwards. Indeed, it calls for the creation of a working group to define an objective framework for amendments to species protection status. Since when has it been possible to decide to remove animals from the scope of strict protection, even before objective methods have been defined? And then to assert: « Let’s establish consistent rules for those that remain. »

These extremely intelligent and sensitive animals have their rightful place in nature. The outcome of this decision marks a profound step backwards for biodiversity. The Commission preferred to kneel before the lobbies rather than listen to thousands of serious scientists. Wolves risk being massacred and the health of our ecosystems scorned. Muriel ARNAL President of One Voice

We are therefore once again addressing the delegates of the species protection text, asking them to withdraw the proposal and examine it more rigorously, in line with their own recommendations, which they did not bother to follow last December!

Read our letter to Charles-Henri DE BARSAC.

In the meantime, the fight goes on! Join us in Strasbourg on February 13 in front of the Council of Europe: together, we’ll make the voice of the wolves heard loud and clear! If you can’t make it, please sign our petition.