“The target is predation”, defends the national sheep federation

The meeting to present the 2024-2029 Wolf Plan is being held behind closed doors on Monday September 18 in Lyon as the issue is politically sensitive. Representatives of the agricultural world, elected officials, hunters, administrations and nature protection associations are invited. If the government welcomes “for having saved the species in terms of biodiversity”, in the words of Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau, the trend is clear: we will have to regulate the population. In 2022, breeders reported more than 12,000 animal attacks.

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“The target is not the wolf, the target is predation”, assures Claude Font, secretary general of the national sheep federation (FNO), Monday on France Bleu Pays d’Auvergne. He believes that the wolf is undeniably “in the process of significant expansion”. At the beginning of September, the wolf population in France was estimated at 1,104 individuals (compared to 906 previously), according to the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB).

“Predation now concerns 55 departments.”

Claude Font, general secretary of the national sheep federation

At franceinfo

“Despite protective measures and interventions, we cannot reduce this predation pressure that breeders have been experiencing for more than 30 years”pleads Claude Font.

In 2022, 169 wolves were killed

The government therefore intends to facilitate shooting protocols against wolves, franceinfo learned last Thursday from a source close to the matter. It plans to adapt the harvest rate set today at 19% of the lupine population, or up to 209 killable wolves for the year 2023. In 2022, 169 wolves were killed out of the quota of 174 authorized. “This ratio should not change, but there is work on estimating the wolf population which is made by the French biodiversity office which is, each year, based on index surveys and genetic analyzes “It is essential that we be as close as possible to the wolf population figure at the national level because this figure depends on the rate of samples that we can take.” argues Claude Font who also wants the wolf scouts to no longer be the only ones to intervene: “Protective measures alone are not sufficient. We must combine protective measures with the possibility of shooting by breeders, hunters or wolf scouts, to protect the herds.”

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A map “totally unbalanced”for his part condemns Jean-David Abel, vice-president of France Nature Environnement and member of the national wolf group Monday on France Bleu Pays de Savoie.

“In 2017, there were, for one wolf present, 33 victims per year. In 2022, there are 13 victims per wolf present.”

Jean-David Abel, vice-president France Nature Environment

at franceinfo

“The massive protection now put in place by almost all breeders works completely, defends Jean-David Abel, and the government is wrong in giving the signal that it is only through shooting that we will be able to coexist with the species.”

The vice-president of FNE denounces “complete political display. Of course, shooting is a possibility, it is provided for in the protection status of the wolf, but on the other hand, the fact of giving this preponderant part to announcements is absurd and nonsense. This does not are never the shots that will protect the herds all year round, day and night, both in the mountains and on the plains.”