Traumatic flashball scare shots on wolves
We thought we’d seen it all, but now we’re stunned. Wolves are about to undergo a terrifying experiment. A pack in the Haute-Savoie region is to be disturbed and its individuals captured. And for what? To test the effects of a variant of shooting: “traumatic” scaring shots (TEFT) [sic]. Although this initiative is an attempt to find answers to the incessant culling of canids, questions remain as to the real interest of this experiment and its considerable impact.
In September 2024, a public consultation was opened on an experimental project to test a new, non-lethal method of scaring off wolves.
Spearheaded by two recognized organizations, Asters – Haute-Savoie Conservatory of Natural Spaces (CEN74) and the Institute for the Promotion and Research on Protection Animals (IPRA), the project involves capturing up to five individuals, fitting them with GPS collars and, once released, studying their reactions to flashball discharges when attempting to predate flocks. The captures were authorized by two orders issued by the Prefect of Haute-Savoie on March 17, 2025.
A good idea to combat lethal shooting… but nothing new
What’s hard to understand is that breeders can already carry out scare shots, so why inflict further trauma on wolves?
Is the aim to inflict further pain and fear? This remains unclear, all the more so as the project’s leads themselves acknowledge that this method is “promising but as yet poorly documented”. In other words, we’re about to test a form of increased violence on wolves, with no real guarantee of its effects or effectiveness.
Further persecution
In Passy, after the escaped goats in the prefect’s sights, the wolves are about to be subjected to severe psychological and physical shocks. Is it really necessary to capture five of them, who are already being hunted down relentlessly, in order to verify that these shots are more effective when they prove to be “traumatic”?
High-risk capture, trapping and sequestration for protected animals
The terms of the project’s non-technical summary (RNT) are unambiguous: this is a “non-lethal but painful scaring method”.
The TEFT project presents significant risks for wolves, both during capture and shooting. Trapping and anaesthetizing can lead to stress, motor disorders, injuries of varying degrees of severity, and disruption of social dynamics within the pack. The flashball shots themselves, although qualified as non-lethal, can nevertheless cause pain, behavioral alterations and, in the event of poor execution, potential handicaps. In fact, the aim of the project is to “subject [the wolf] to a painful experience, so that it learns to avoid herds as a result of this bad experience”. Serious consequences for members of a protected species…
The animals will – fortunately – be “returned to their natural habitat”, but at what cost to their lives and those of their families? A member of the Blaitière pack targeted by these measures was captured on April 6. Who is it? The father or the mother? Did the cubs witness it? The stability and equilibrium of the group help to channel and educate the youngsters.
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