After the wolf illegally killed in the Drôme (see our press release of 13/07/17), the Administrative Court of Grenoble has once again agreed with ASPAS, FERUS and One Voice, declaring the Order of the Prefect of Savoy of September 10th, 2015 as illegal. This decree authorized the slaughter of 6 wolves by "shooting with a reinforced levy" valid for 6 months on the massifs of Belledonne, Maurienne and Thabor.
The judge of interim measures for Grenoble, was seized as a matter of urgency in 2015, had refused at the time to suspend the licenses to shoot to kill. 3 of the 6 "killable" wolves were quickly shot by hunters during the hunt: one adult male on October 17th, 2015 in Saint-Colomban-des-Villards, a young male the next day in Saint-André en Maurienne and a Cub on December 5th at Valmeinier.
The Administrative Tribunal is following our argument today: this shooting was not justified; these wolves were therefore illegally killed. ASPAS, FERUS and One Voice will seek compensation for the ecological damage suffered.
The administrative judge recalls that the hunting of wolves cannot be allowed if everything has not been implemented to protect herds at risk of predation. There are indeed means of protection for herds and a scale of shootings that the prefects can authorize. These shootings aim to kill wolves, a protected species, only as a last resort, and only if damage persists despite the implementation of all means of protection and defensive fire.
More than unequal, the death of these wolves was also a useless exercise! Thus, the attacks were more numerous after the execution of these wolves: 181 attacks yielding 848 victims from January 1st to October 15th, 2015, against 229 attacks yielding 1 300 victims the following year over the same period (source: DREAL Auvergne- Rhône-Alpes - Damage data: comparative 2016, 2015 and 2014 from January 1st to October 15th).
Killing wolves does not help to reduce the damage, this is also noted by the expert who was commissioned by the National Museum of Natural History and the National Office of Hunting and Wildlife, so the solution of slaughter does not work!
To permit the coexistence between faunistic biodiversity and pastoralism, a profound change in farming practices and the French subsidy system - which currently does not sufficiently encourage the good practices of certain breeders - is indeed necessary.
ASPAS, FERUS and One Voice renew their request to stop the shooting of wolves, and to cancel the compensation paid to breeders who do not protect their animals.
