Wolves
For wolves, hunted without mercy
After being exterminated, wolves have returned naturally to France. However, this good news for our ecosystems has been extremely poorly received by some: hunters and breeders have decided that wolves are their competitors and, with the support of the state, their slaughter has resumed. Until then, they had been considered a protected species, but today this status is in jeopardy, and shooting, which should only take place when all other means have been tried to avoid it, continues to multiply every year, killing dozens of wolves. Cubs are not spared either.
Committed to legal action, One Voice is constantly denouncing illegal orders and taking legal action whenever necessary. The association is also working to rehabilitate wolves, to dismantle the prejudices that cling to them, and to raise awareness of their true identity.
Wolves: the ideal culprits
As natural predators and regulators of wild populations, wolves actually represent competition for hunters. For livestock farmers, whose sector is in crisis, they represent the ideal culprit. It’s better to blame wolves than stray dogs, as they receive compensation in the event of an attack. What’s more, 85% of shepherds’ wages are subsidized where wolves are present. All the more reason to continue pretending that wolves are a threat, despite the derisory number of sheep they actually take.
Lethal shooting: an absurd and criminal strategy
Hundreds of thousands of sheep die every year as a result of disease, lightning strikes or stalls in the mountains, not to mention those sent to slaughter. How, then, can the predation of a derisory number of sheep by wolves justify their extermination? The orders issued to authorize shooting are not based on biological reality. No scientific study has shown that lethal shooting reduces the impact of wolves in areas where they are present. In fact, the opposite is true: the pack, destabilized, often breaks up, contributing to the dispersal of individuals… Continued persecution is no solution to the problem of wolves living together. Wallonia even adopted a “Plan for harmonious cohabitation with the wolf” in 2020, to promote the return and protection of the species! In Italy and Spain, the same applies: no lethal shootings, even though wolves are far more numerous there than in France.
The big bad wolf only exists in fairy tales
Wolves are extremely intelligent, as curious as they are discreet. Their social life is complex. Couples are formed for life, and are not sparing of tenderness. The wolves of a pack communicate with each other in many ways, but the best known is howling. It’s an organized, ritualized chant, in which everyone knows when to speak, and is used to restore calm. When an individual leaves the pack, he or she is accompanied by howls that are all the more intense for their importance, and the loudest are emitted by those to whom they were closest… For some scientists, these songs are like dialects. They even compare their vocalizations to those of dolphins… We’re a long way from the black, frightening beast some would have us believe. Attacks by wolves on humans are extremely rare, and more often than not the result of rabid animals. As rabies no longer circulates in France, the presence of wolves is no danger to humans!
Key figures
An alarming fact
Our proposals
- Stop the slaughter of wolves.
- Implement alternative and ethical solutions to pastoral problems.
