News Archive - Page 65 of 153

One Voice is taking to the streets to call for a true plan to make hunting safe and for a radical reform

One Voice is taking to the streets to call for a true plan to make hunting safe and for a radical reform
11.02.2023
France
One Voice is taking to the streets to call for a true plan to make hunting safe and for a radical reform
Wildlife

On Saturday 11 February, One Voice activists will be raising public awareness in Compiègne, Nantes, Angers, and Troyes. On Sunday 12 February, the same will be happening in Montpellier, Rouen, and Gap. On the following Saturday, on 18 February, it will happen in Lille, Annecy, Aix-en-Provence, Nice, and Bayonne. In Nice, Olivier Arnaubex, lawyer at Barreau de Nice and singer-songwriter as part of the LFA (Looking For Animals) group, is committed to the animal cause and will share his compositions during our audience participation event. Finally, on Saturday 11 March, the towns of Lyon, Paris, and La Rochelle will finish the series at the end of the hunting season.

Photo of the action led in Compiègne on the morning of Saturday 22 February 2023

Hunting in France: an exception as the worst among its neighbours

Penned hunting, gun or bow hunting, badger or fox digging, trapping, hunting with hounds… in the 21st century, all of these practices still exist! Hunting in France: there are between 6,000 and 8,000 tonnes of lead in the wild, 20 million animals coming from breeding farms to be released and slaughtered, 45 million animals slaughtered each year, and 90 species of animals killed each year! France is, at any rate, the country that hunts the most types of species.

One Voice has opposed it for years and tries to make changes to the mentalities in France by demonstrating the suffering of the animals, the absurdity of the practice, and the collateral damage that hunting brings about.

From a human perspective, the government plan falls short of societal expectations

With their plan to make hunting safer, the government is proposing measures that are far from the expectations of the French population who would like to benefit from the countryside and the great outdoors without risking their lives. One Voice is reporting on the dramatic under-sizing of government propositions in relation to the stakes. It will take a radical reform on hunting, not small measures that are once again insulting to grieving families and to biodiversity which is being wiped out before our eyes.

The lack of political desire to change anything is such a pity. The animal and human deaths accrued still do not hold up against the lobby; we wonder how it still manages to dictate its own laws when it represents such a small minority. Country people as well as city-dwellers are more than fed up!

For wild boars, foxes, badgers, does, roebuck, fallow deer, rabbits, and all birds in our woodlands and countryside, but also for measures worthy of this name for humans, thus guaranteeing the safety of everyone, we will be in 15 French towns during weekends in February and March 2023.

	Town and date	Precise Location	Time
5	Gap 12/02	Domaine de Charence	2:30pm to 4:30pm
6	Nice 18/02	Place Magenta	11:00am to 1:00pm
8	Troyes 11/02	71 Rue Emile Zola	3:30pm to 5:00pm
13	Aix-en-Provence 18/02	Allées de Provence	10:30am to 12:00pm
17	La Rochelle 11 Mars	Place de l’hôtel de ville	2:30pm to 5:00pm
34	Montpellier 12/02	Place de la Comédie	11:00am to 1:00pm
44	Nantes 11/02	Pace à Royale	3pm to 5pm
49	Angers 11/02	Rue Lenepveu	3:00pm to 4:30pm
59	Lille 18/02	Place Richebé	2:30pm to 4:00pm
64	Bayonne 18/02	Carreau des Halles	2:30pm to 5:00pm
69	Lyon 11 Mars	Place St Jean	2:30pm to 5:00pm
74	Annecy 18/02	Mail centre	2:30pm to 4:30pm
75	Paris 11 Mars	Place de l’Hôtel de ville	2:00pm to 3:30pm
76	Rouen 12/02	Place de la Cathédrale	2:30pm to 4:00pm
80	Compiègne 11/02	Place de l’hôtel de ville	8:00am to 12:00pm

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Jumbo in his skip, tigers in a lorry… The Muller/Zavatta Circus is setting up in Cannes

Jumbo in his skip, tigers in a lorry… The Muller/Zavatta Circus is setting up in Cannes
10.02.2023
Alpes-Maritimes
Jumbo in his skip, tigers in a lorry… The Muller/Zavatta Circus is setting up in Cannes
Exploitation for shows

One Voice has learnt about the set-up of the Muller/Zavatta Circus in Cannes. The town council has banned them from exhibiting animals in shows. Fifteen days in a lorry: does absence make the heart grow fonder? Nothing is less certain, since in reality this contravenes the law that requires non-domestic animals to be taken out of the lorry for several hours a day AND participate in the show. In any case, it does not change anything for Jumbo or for the lions or tigers… We are writing to David Lisnard, the mayor of Cannes.

Photo: Young lion, Muller/Zavatta Circus, Martigues January 2023

The Muller Circus changes its name as it pleases in order to settle wherever it goes, causing confusion and making any control operations by competent authorities difficult. It could become – and this list is not exhaustive – Canadian Circus, 100% Cirque, 100% Humain [Human] (which is laughable as this circus is based on animal exploitation), and lastly the Zavatta Circus.

Recently, it is definitely the Muller family who has renamed themselves: Franck Muller masquerading as the grandson of Achille Zavatta and calling himself John Zavatta. And why stop at that? Jumbo, the hippopotamus exploited for decades, has become Mooglie.

The Cannes town council’s very subtle decision

The decision by the Cannes town council, having been told by the circus that the animals do not participate in shows, is a bit fleeting… because problems remain and this solution actually adds another one:

The Muller-Zavatta Circus will remain, along with the animals they keep, on the town’s land;
the animals will continue to be subjected to being permanently enclosed in cramped and unsuitable cages, encouraging the development of stereotypies, boredom, and stress;
finally, this decision goes against the provisions of the 18 March 2011 decree (article 9) which authorises non-domestic animals to be kept in circuses ONLY
if the animals actually participate in shows.

One Voice finds it regrettable that animals from the Muller/Zavatta Circus will be continually kept in establishments incapable of responding to their most basic physiological needs, particularly with regard to the – emblematic – case of Jumbo the hippopotamus, an amphibious animal, kept in completely unsuitable conditions.

How many examples do we have of circuses with animals in which pseudo-fires have caused the logbook to go up in smoke or of it being stolen from a vehicle – as if a passer-by, noticing that a register of the comings and goings of animals is lying around on the back shelf, was going to hasten to break a window to be able to steal it…?

Animals are victims until the very end

Non-conforming living conditions for the animals, animals in a bad state of health, a lack of traceability of the animals’ movements, a lack of keeping proper logs for health and for the comings and goings of the animals, non-compliance with identification and registration requirements, disrespect for permissions to keep animals, to open, and to present them to the public… For more than twenty years and despite changes in regulations over time, One Voice has not stopped alerting the authorities about the constant infractions of the regulations within circuses and the lack of inspections.

The fate of hundreds of animals living in circuses today in France cannot be resolved overnight. It requires preparation and discussions to effectively apply prohibitions provided for by the law. Since the vote on it in 2021, which will hardly change anything, the government has turned a deaf ear to any requests for steps forward and no implementing decree is yet to be published. Those who pay the highest price for this, once again, are the animals. Let’s hope that their fate will be discussed at the next Cannes Town Council meeting on Monday 13 February.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Banned for thirty years, leghold traps have found a new victim: Cooper

Banned for thirty years, leghold traps have found a new victim: Cooper
10.02.2023
France
Banned for thirty years, leghold traps have found a new victim: Cooper
Domestic animals

On 23 January, Cooper was found injured. The border collie had his front right leg stuck in a leghold trap. These non-selective hunting devices have actually been banned in Europe since 1995. It is unbearable that almost thirty years later, animals continue to be victims of them. One Voice is filing a complaint for him.

This Monday could have been a day like any other for this five-year-old dog. But instead of returning to enjoy a nap on the porch of his house after his morning walk, Cooper found himself imprisoned in a leghold trap hidden among some straw after the deadly trap abruptly closed around his front leg. It was the police who discovered him like this, injured and immobilised, and let his owner know. He was taken to the vets urgently with an exposed joint and a torn tendon and had to be sedated while his wounds were sutured. When he left the next day, he had five days of medication to take!

Although Cooper was found and treated in time, you can hardly imagine the terror and pain he had to endure while he was kept prisoner. And all this for what? Because of traps mutilating and killing animals without discrimination, despite being banned in the whole of the European Union since 1995! What was this trap doing there? What’s more, it was placed near a path where a walker could have gone. As well as being illegal and dangerous for all animals, both wild and domestic, and humans, laying it shows great cruelty. One Voice is filing a complaint against X following the injuries inflicted on Cooper, and will represent themselves as well as the Sans-Voix d’Eden Association who alerted them to the situation, and Cooper’s family. The two associations have also covered the veterinary costs.

In 2018, One Voice already asked for a ban on these traps that massacre animals without any distinction, whether they are wild, domestic, or protected. It is high time that hunting is radically reformed and that its most cruel practices are banned as a matter of urgency.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

The Council of Europe supports the end of pyrogen testing on rabbits

The Council of Europe supports the end of pyrogen testing on rabbits
09.02.2023
Europe
The Council of Europe supports the end of pyrogen testing on rabbits
Animal testing

More than twenty years after the creation of in vitro alternatives to these tests and more than fifteen years after their approval, rabbits are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel: pyrogen tests will soon be ancient history in Europe. A decision that will be discussed in detail at a conference being held in mid-February in Brussels. But the data that we have collected shows that France is still refusing this progress. One Voice condemns the inaction of public authorities.

«Not only do tens of thousands of rabbits suffer for tests for which alternatives exist, but, additionally, laboratories mislead the public by telling them that between experiments, rabbits move around ‘freely’ when they hardly have space to move. The same rabbits that die without knowing the feel of soft grass or sunshine.» Muriel Arnal, President of One Voice

Pyrogen tests consist of injecting a substance into rabbits’ ears and measuring the onset of fever before slaughtering them. From 14 to 16 February 2023, European authorities have organised a conference for industrialists and public authorities. The purpose? To promote and support the end of the use of rabbits and them being replaces with in vitro alternatives carried out on human blood components: Monocyte Activation Tests (MAT).

While replacing these protocols with non-animal alternatives has been possible for around fifteen years, they have not been implemented. French researchers have shown to be particularly unwilling, using and even killing more and more rabbits between 2015 and 2019 for these tests while, at the same time, other countries are reducing the use of them. Progress which reflects the continued increase in the number of rabbits exploited in French laboratories and the suffering that they endure there, all uses combined.

France is persisting and signing

And this is not the end: last year, the Ministry of Research published a project based on ALURES European data which predicts the use of almost 40,000 rabbits in five years for pyrogen tests. But the summary reassures us: they can “move freely around the whole cage”… a metal cage in which they can hardly turn around.

Due to the suffering that it causes, the Rural Code plans to limit animal testing to cases of “strict necessity”. Are industrial interests considered as such? The Council of Europe conference will perhaps provide some answers…

The public is waiting for true engagement

The development of the European Pharmacopoeia resonates with recent European and international news. In fact, at the end of December, the United States have passed a law approving medications being put on the market without having to use tests on animals: a great step forward, which opens the way to the development and application of alternative methods. And at the end of January, more than 1.2 million signatures were submitted for the “Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics” European Citizens’ Initiative. 2023 therefore promises to be important in the fight against laboratories exploiting animals.

Do not hesitate to consult our website dedicated to the figures and to recently authorised experiments.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Grey mouse lemurs bred for animal testing: The National Museum of Natural History in France must share their documents with One Voice!

Grey mouse lemurs bred for animal testing: The National Museum of Natural History in France must share their documents with One Voice!
08.02.2023
France
Grey mouse lemurs bred for animal testing: The National Museum of Natural History in France must share their documents with One Voice!
Animal testing

On 7 February 2023, the Versailles Administrative Tribunal ruled in favour of One Voice and ordered the Essonne Prefecture to pass documents on to the Association regarding the breeding of grey mouse lemurs in Brunoy belonging to the National Museum of Natural History in France (MNHN). If these small primates will continue to be subjected to experiments for now, obtaining this information constitutes an initial victory!

We already spoke about it in 2021 and organised a rally in Paris in the October of the same year. On 7 January 2023, the Versailles Administrative Tribunal took a step in our direction in our fight for the grey mouse lemurs that are victims of animal testing by the MNHN.

Outraged by the exploitation of these little lemurs, we have requested to have access to the documents clearing up what exactly they are being subjected to. In 2021, the Essonne Prefect refused to give in to our request but now the legal system has decided otherwise. They ruled that we must be passed the inspection reports carried out between 2014 and 2021 and the statistical information on the use of animals, including that on the true severity of the procedures.

Despite some ill will from the Prefecture, who claimed a lack of time and staff as the reason why they had not processed our request, it is a significant initial victory that we have just won this week for these mouse lemurs in Brunoy.

Along with us, demand that these experiments on grey mouse lemurs stop by signing the petition.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

At the Antibes puppy fair, you can leave with your objectified dog without observing the legal reflection period.

At the Antibes puppy fair, you can leave with your objectified dog without observing the legal reflection period.
06.02.2023
Alpes-Maritimes
At the Antibes puppy fair, you can leave with your objectified dog without observing the legal reflection period.
Domestic animals

Since October 1, 2022, all first-time purchases of a cat or a dog have been subject to a seven-day reflection period. The adopter must sign a “certificate of commitment and knowledge” one week before the adoption. However, at the Antibes puppy fair held this weekend (February 4 and 5, 2023), it was quite possible to leave with your dog in an hour: just enough time to pay and sign a few papers. The failure to comply with this obligation is unfortunately not an isolated case, as we had already reported concerning a pet shop in Brittany.

A certificate supposed to prevent impulse purchases…

In order to stop impulse purchases and abandonments a few days later by buyers who didn’t understand that a pet is not a stuffed animal, a mandatory seven-day reflection period was introduced at the beginning of October 2022.

So, in theory, you come and meet your new companion, sign this famous certificate of commitment and knowledge, go home, and it’s only a week later, after careful consideration, that you can collect your pet if you haven’t changed your mind.

The idea may seem clever, but in reality it’s totally unsustainable: it can be easily misused, or even completely ignored, and sanctions are hard to enforce.

… which can be easily circumvented

Some breeders, pet shops or even associations suggest that you come with an already signed and dated certificate, after downloading it from the Internet a week beforehand. So you’ve never met the seller or the animal, but you can leave with the latter legally, since you’ve signed the Holy Grail…

However, as was the case this weekend at the Antibes puppy fair, many people have sold their “merchandise” without respecting this deadline, and even backdated the certificate altogether, as the buyers and sellers themselves can testify!

This French bulldog breeder, for example, explains to one of our activists claiming to want to buy a puppy:

“I have it, the certificate, I have one and I make people who haven’t had time to download it fill it out. You have two options: either you sign the certificate today and come and pick up the dog in seven days, or really if you want your dog today, well, we backdate it, we’re obliged to do this.”

Or this man who has just bought a kitten and explains that he signed the certificate the same day, and is therefore in possession of the animal, but that “you can retract afterwards”. So we understand that if he changes his mind, he can return the cat, just like when you buy a sweater in a store and bring it back a few days later because you don’t really need it, or it doesn’t fit.

Derisory penalties

Breeders who don’t respect the reflection period don’t risk much anyway: a fine of 450 euros, the equivalent of a 3rd class fine. But what does 450 euros mean for a puppy they’ve sold for between 1,500 and 2,000 euros? What’s more, how can we prove that the certificate was backdated, so that the culprits can be punished?

Our activists were present at the entrance to the fair to raise awareness and alert visitors to the nonsense of breeding farms and pet shops that exploit animals and flood the shelters every year once buyers have tired of the cute little puppy who now weighs 15 kilos more and still needs to be walked every day. Thanks to our volunteers, dozens of people have turned around to visit the shelters instead of the fair!

Sign our petitions to demand compliance with laws against animal abuse and compulsory sterilization of cats, tens of thousands of which arrive in pounds every year and are then exterminated en masse!

Jura, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence: One Voice is coming to the rescue for wolves against prefects

Jura, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence: One Voice is coming to the rescue for wolves against prefects
06.02.2023
France
Jura, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence: One Voice is coming to the rescue for wolves against prefects
Wildlife

Between mid-December and the beginning of January, seven prefectural decrees were issued approving simple defence shots against wolves in Jura and the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, without making reference to any specific analysis to prove the need for these measures in the cow farms concerned, contrary to what is required by law. One Voice is filing a plea requesting the cancellation of each decree. While waiting for these hearings on the merits, the Association will be present on 8 February 2023 at 10am at the Besançon Administrative Tribunal and the day after at 10am at the Marseille Administrative Tribunal to try to get them urgently suspended.

It is a very far-fetched prefectural note that the Jura and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Prefectures have pulled out of their hat to authorise these shots against wolves on 19 December 2022 and 3 January 2023. According to the document from 28 June 2019, some herds would be ‘unprotectable’ in nature, and their owners could therefore be allowed to kill wolves to protect them without having carried out a preliminary analysis, simply because the farm animals in question are bovine. The problem: this law contradicts a ministerial decree that well and truly obliges farmers to establish the non-protectability of herds on a case-by-case basis. So without differentiating between cows and sheep.

As we have in other cases, One Voice has filed an emergency suspension interim proceeding. With continual laws authorising shots, the decrees do not sufficiently demonstrate the existence of a risk of significant damage for the farms concerned in our opinion, do not make reference to any analysis carried out case-by-case, and they exonerate farmers from implementing protection measures.

Clearly, the primary — and real! Why are we even asking? — goal of these decrees is not to protect the herd animals, but actually to kill as many wolves as possible! Does the state want to exterminate them? Can they not find other ways to help farmers and calm their irrational fear of a population who, for the most part, has never seen any wolves living freely? Beyond the tragedy that this will represent for wolves and their ecosystem, incidentally can we really continue to believe that their extinction will help farmers to face up to their difficulties? Wolves’ impact is ridiculously low. All herd animals are destined for the abattoir…

There were tens of thousands of them in our country in the Middle Ages. There are just 921 wolves today and their species is still not viable. As proof: they are classified as vulnerable. However, each year, the number of wolves that humans are authorised to slaughter increases. We already reported this to the State Council in 2022, a year in which the government organised the massacre of 118 of them. This year, 174 could be killed. Two of them already have been as recently as mid-January. Rather than assassinating them en masse, the authorities must find alternative solutions and be pleased about the presence of these great predators in our country, who play an essential role in the ecosystems as well as being sensitive, intelligent beings with socially complex lives.

One Voice is requesting an immediate suspension of the six decrees authorising simple defence shots issued by the Jura Prefecture and the one issued by the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Prefect. It is already scandalous that, under false pretences, wolves get shot completely legally. We can no longer allow this massacre that violates the law to take yet more victims.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

In Lot-et-Garonne, ‘hunting’ dogs are left to their own devices in a barn

In Lot-et-Garonne, ‘hunting’ dogs are left to their own devices in a barn
01.02.2023
Lot-et-Garonne
In Lot-et-Garonne, ‘hunting’ dogs are left to their own devices in a barn
Domestic animals

Around ten dogs exploited for hunting and kept year-round in an almost abandoned barn at the bottom of a wood: out of sight, out of mind? Not for One Voice, who are blowing the whistle and filing a complaint at the Agen legal tribunal.

After an alarming warning of dogs being kept shut up year-round behind bars in a barn lost in the woods on the outskirts of Agen, our investigators have gone to the premises. They discovered, while going along a wooded path, a prison building, all very banal in appearance, except for the ten or so dogs found there kept without supervision. This dilapidated place, containing tools and all kinds of objects thrown here and there, plastic bags, breeze blocks, floorboards, wires, and with hard, uneven ground, strewn with faeces between the dirt and stones… And in the middle of these boxes of odds and ends, at the mercy of the cold and wind at that time, but also the stuffiness of the air during the spring, around ten dogs were calling out for help.

Like a weapon: a life of boredom at the shed, or hunting

‘Hunting’ dogs, so to speak: forced to work at hunters’ service until they are exhausted, and kept far from dwellings such as in Chaux-du-Dombief so as not to disrupt the neighbourhood, but also out of the sight and attention of those who might worry about their welfare.

Dogs like any other!

Despite nothing differentiating them from other dogs with regard to legislation, these dogs are seen as tools by their exploiters and as a collective, not as individuals. Only the pack counts. Hunters are interested in them sparing no effort, not being scared by the gunshots, and being at their beck and call. And if one of them dies, it will quickly be replaced. For the rest of them, outside of hunting, they are stored in places like this one so as not to ‘bother’ anyone with their barking.

After a day spent hunting, some of them have eye injuries or are limping, others scratch intensely. They find their bowls empty and disgusting from the previous week, or even a little cocktail of yellow stagnant water that looks like urine. They share the contents of a crate filled with several animal limbs left out in the open air which leaves them susceptible to becoming unwell. We realise that what we thought were stones on the floor is in reality a carpet of bones. There are even animal skulls in the straw.

#NotAllHunters

Many hunters deny the facts that we have documented, maintaining that they are not like that, that they love their dogs and treat them properly with forced photos on social media. But where are they when we defend the dogs that they love so much? Why are they siding with Goliath and not David in this battle of the iron pot against the earthen pot, if, really, they want the best for the so-called ‘hunting’ dogs? Why are they not at least morally condemning this abuse, and why do they prefer to boast by publishing photos that have nothing to do with the problem?

We are filing a complaint for mistreatment at the Agen legal tribunal. To support us in this process and allow these dogs to be rescued as quickly as possible and to find a loving home, sign our petition for hunting dogs !

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

The Pyrénées-Orientales Prefect is playing hide and seek with his decrees

The Pyrénées-Orientales Prefect is playing hide and seek with his decrees
30.01.2023
Pyrénées-Orientales
The Pyrénées-Orientales Prefect is playing hide and seek with his decrees
Wildlife

For years, the Pyrénées-Orientales Prefecture has published, in total opposition to French law, many decrees retrospectively authorising pure and simple destructions of animals carried out the month before. Since they have learned of this procedure, One Voice has alerted those concerned. The only response that the Association has had in return: silence. Call for the Prefect to force them to stop this intolerable practice.

French law is unambiguous: administrative acts only come into effect after their official publication. Yet, since 2015, the Pyrénées-Orientales Prefect, under pressure from those who wish to practice their lethal hobby without being questioned, has been agreeing to evade French law.

In fact, at the time of the monthly publication of the so-called normal register of administrative acts (RAA) on their website, the Prefecture has taken the opportunity to make a large number of the decrees already being implemented, or even already implemented, public.

More than 200 decrees retrospectively passed

In 2022, they also published 238 decrees retrospectively allowing the ‘management’ of populations of wild boars, badgers, foxes, deer, pigeons, etc. with official hunts and/or individual shots. The ‘destructions’ had been carried out day and night with light sources in many towns, and sometimes even as close to 150 metres from houses.

In the greatest secrecy, the Prefect authorised a wolf-hunting lieutenant, accompanied by local hunters of their choice or even wolf-hunter lieutenants from neighbouring areas, to kill an unlimited number of individuals over a period ranging from a few days to around a month.

It was only once the ‘management operations’ were completed, or about to be completed, that the authorisation act was published on the Internet, too late for any of us to know…

Trampled democratic principles!

This practice is scandalous and completely undemocratic! It prevents all of those concerned from knowing about these authorisations within a reasonable time scale. It particularly deprives associations, such as One Voice, from the possibility of referring them to the appropriate courts to try to get them cancelled.

We are fighting for a minimum period of fifteen days to be introduced between the publication of decrees authorising official hunts or individual shots and the actual start of operations – something which is still not planned for currently. In fact, the publication frequently comes in one or two days after the hunts, making any legal appeal impossible and pointless, just as the case was specifically for the ibex in Bargy.

When it comes to the Pyrénées-Orientales, we have contacted the Prefect, Mr Rodrigue Furcy, several times. Unsurprisingly, we have not received any response. Worse, despite our many letters, he continues to publish his decrees well after them coming into effect.

The almost total disinterest of the political representatives for animal advocates is clearly demonstrated once again: the Prefecture proves their lack of consideration for animals who will be killed, alongside their contempt regarding our initiative for more transparency and legitimacy.

Let’s demand that the Prefecture respects the law!

Send the letter, downloadable here, to the Prefect. Thanks to you, there will be no other choice than to admit that this practice is illegal and to stop it as soon as possible.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

No respite for wolves: new year, new massacres

No respite for wolves: new year, new massacres
27.01.2023
France
No respite for wolves: new year, new massacres
Wildlife

Wolves, who belong to a protected species, can be slaughtered completely legally in France. However, these legalised massacres do not even seem to be sufficient for their opponents, since wolves are also victims of poaching, killed outside of any legal framework.One Voice regularly challenges Prefectural decrees authorising lethal shots on wolves, and more widely is fighting to stop this carnage from happening.

An exemption to the protection of the species applied with no reflection

While wolves are protected by the Bern Convention and the European Union Habitats Directive, it is completely possible to slaughter them “to prevent significant damage particularly to crops, farms, forests, fisheries, water, and other types of property”, according to Article L. 411-2 of the Environmental Code.

In France, when shots have been authorised by prefectural decrees, wolves that approach herds can be killed without question. Never mind if the animals eliminated are not those who are directly involved in the attacks. Complete nonsense that is denied by our neighbours, who do everything they can to minimise the instability of packs and the impact that the lupine population has on conservation. The disappearance of a breeding male effectively destroys the social structure of the pack and increases the risk of its members dispersing, jeopardising their survival and increasing the risk of disruptive attacks by wolves operating alone from that point. But is it not the eventual aim of the French State, under pressure from lobbies, to further demonise wolves?

In Austria, only specifically designated wolves can be killed. They therefore make sure that the wolf that causes the attack will be slaughtered – a wolf who, let’s remember, does not kill for pleasure but out of necessity to feed itself. Killing another other animal is forbidden. An Austrian tribunal incidentally cancelled a shooting authorisation in December 2020, given that the risk of killing another wolf – that was not responsible for past attacks – was too high.

In Switzerland, wolves are not chosen randomly: it must be a young animal so as not to disturb the hierarchical configuration, on the condition that the pack has successfully reproduced, and only if said pack has killed at least ten livestock animals in four months.

In France, the number of individuals slaughtered is constantly growing. Until this policy exterminating wolves ends, One Voice will ensure that the (minimal) conditions necessary to obtain a destruction authorisation are followed, which unfortunately is not always the case.

Two weeks after the start of the new year, two wolves have already been killed by hunters

The killing of wolves is monitored by the DREAL [Direction régionale de l’Environnement, de l’Aménagement et du Logement – Regional Directorate for the Environment, Development, and Housing] in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, who would rather put these killings down under the pleasant description of “an intervention protocol for the wolf population”, probably to try and minimise the severity and make people believe that, as their name suggests, they are concerned about the environment.

In 2023, 174 wolves could therefore be slaughtered completely legally. Scarcely twenty days after the start of the new year, this was already the case for two of them: the first in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Department due to derogation shots, the second “deliberately destroyed outside of the protocol” (poached, in reality), somewhere in France with no further precision, as the DREAL tracking chart shows.

About a year ago, we challenged two agricultural unions who called on their members to poach wolves, bragging about having “bullets and poison”. However, “incitement to commit an offence harming a protected species” is only a crime if it is followed by a result (an individual kills a wolf in response to the union’s incitement). This lack of violation is highly contestable. An amendment was filed against this scandal under the Biodiversity law framework, but was unfortunately rejected…

There has been no information on the first two victims of 2023 in the media. On the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Prefecture’s website there is no more information on the wolf concerned but there is a call for applications to appoint a wolf-hunting lieutenant who will participate, among other things, “in operations provided for in the ‘wolf’ protocol” – including: “will participate in the killing of wolves”.

Wolves are animals with complex emotional intelligence. But according to the State, they are simply heads to be cut off to please hunters who only think about nature and its wildlife in the context of the prism of immediate profits that they can derive from it. We are still here, despite the catastrophic situation in which biodiversity finds itself.

It is all the more despicable that no scientific study has shown that killing wolves would significantly reduce their impact on farm animals, who, let’s not forget, will end up at the abattoir after a (short) life of being exploited in an over-grazed environment.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice