On the roads of Corsica, it is common to cross cattle in the wild. And even in town. A straying prohibited by law. Marylin Taddei saw her life turn upside down a year ago, in Bastia, in front of her home, a herd attacked her: “the bull hit me, my knees are broken, I can’t walk anymore, I can’t drive anymore, it’s a terrible life”.
After many operations, the emotion is still strong: “My life has changed, it’s hard, confides, moved, Marylin Taddei. She created an association to help victims. In one year, she counted ten. There have even been several deaths in traffic accidents in recent years due to wandering animals.
In Corsica, there are more than 30,000 officially registered cows. Two thirds of them are wandering according to the authorities. Cows voluntarily left wandering by their owners. In the event of an accident, the mayors may be held liable. That of Pietrosella knows the problem well, for him the breeders are above all looking to save money. “When you do not make an investment for the fences, for the feed part, or on the irrigation, it means that the production cost is lower compared to a breeder next door who does everything within the standards. earn more money with this type of exploitation “, regrets Jean-Baptiste Luccioni, the mayor of Pietrosella.
Cows left to their own devices, but which still bring money to their owner and in particular European aid from the CAP. This is called the suckler cow premium. Up to 161 euros per cattle. The problem is that they produce almost nothing according to the prefect of Corsica. 80% of them never go to the slaughterhouse.
“There are a lot of animals which are raised and which do not go for consumption. It is incredible. Because the premium goes to the calf, not to the cow, normally when we do a breeding, it is for that. go to the consumer. There is something wrong “, regrets Pascal Lelarge, prefect of Corsica.
Elected officials who dare to denounce this situation are sometimes the subject of intimidation by certain breeders. This is the case of the mayor of Frédéric Mariani, mayor of Olmi Capella, threatened last July, and supported that day by a hundred residents. A few weeks earlier, he had taken the initiative to lock the stray cows in a pen. “You feel supported, and often you feel alone to face problems like this which have lasted for decades”, testified the mayor on July 24.
This mayor no longer wishes to speak out today, like many others who fear reprisals. “It seems crazy that we are only talking about it now. It’s a scandal. The premiums are useless, some breeders invest their CAP aid on the coast, not in agriculture”, regrets an anonymous elected official.
We have met breeders who let their cows wander: “We have a bunch of cows. It’s hard in the mountains, we’re on an island, we can’t be like on the mainland, and fences are expensive”, they admit to us. Aid for suckler cows represents 4 million euros per year in Corsica. But the controls are difficult according to the prefecture of Corsica, because the cows are often not found and the declarations of the breeders cannot be verified.