But for the first time, this Tuesday, June 2, it was the shootings now subject to a regime of prior declaration and no longer authorization, which were scrutinized during a summary hearing, after the appeal of the associations Ferus, Aspas and Animal Cross. These demand the suspension of the ten or so receipts issued in April by the prefect and allowing around twenty shepherds from Ouzom and Ossau to shoot the wolf if the animal attacks their flocks.
“There is an urgent need to take action to preserve the only wolf present. Its disappearance would harm the natural distribution area of the wolf,” defended Me Céline Bronzani for the associations.
Conservation of a protected species
The lawyer thus focused the debate on the state of conservation of a protected species, “which remains the same, that is to say weak, even if we have changed regime since the new framework decree of February, which we also have attacked before the Council of State”. For the associations, the prefect, before deciding, should have positioned himself on the state of the species “at the local level”, a level that the applicants place between the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and the Hautes-Pyrénées, where there would be no so only one wolf, the famous one which has been raging since 2018.
Me Bronzani also underlined that nearly two thirds of wolf deaths were due to defensive shooting. “We do not have enough perspective on this framework decree and its consequences on the survival of the species,” the lawyer explained in substance.
Opposite, the representatives of the prefecture first recalled that the change in the status of the wolf, by the European Union, followed the growth in the number of individuals, but also that of the number of damages to the herds. And that defensive fire was an additional tool alongside existing protection measures, such as fences, patous and nets. “This has nothing to do with a wolf hunt in disguise. We need to restore a little common sense. There is no blind desire to track this animal. In eight years of defensive shooting, no one has been killed.”
An old non-breeding wolf
As for the definition of the natural distribution area of the wolf, “the relevant local level, for us, is not departmental, but regional, or even inter-regional. Eleven of the twelve departments of Nouvelle-Aquitaine are already reporting the presence of the wolf,” indicated the prefecture.
Moreover, the wolf known in Béarn, if it is the only one identified genetically (by two analyzes in eight years in the same place), “is not necessarily the only individual present. “It’s a simplistic vision of associations,” assures the State. And even if there was only this one, “he is now around 10 years old (roughly the life expectancy of a wolf, Editor’s note) and he is not breeding. Its possible destruction would not harm the development of the species,” said the representative of the prefecture.
The voice of the breeders was expressed at the hearing by that of Jean-Pierre Pommiès. The opportunity for him to quickly demonstrate to the summary judge “that it is obvious that there are several wolves”. Most of the breeders in 64 and 65 today keep up to date with predations via a WhatsApp group, and when they occur almost at the same time tens of kilometers away, there is no room for doubt. “Otherwise, the old wolf has a way of doing it,†quipped the Béarnais man.
No night vision…
It is also an opportunity to bear witness to the harsh reality of breeders who find their animals killed or dying, as recently in the plain of Nay, on several occasions. Or to express fears about the future of transhumance, establishing it as a UNESCO world heritage site.
As for these defensive shots, the subject of this Tuesday’s dispute, he, like the other breeders, do not seem to have much faith in their effectiveness, “because if we have to act, it is at night, when the wolf attacks, but without being able to use a night sight.” Enough to limit yourself to random shots.
“It’s nonsense,” breathes Jean-Pierre Pommiès, “but it’s a hope and we’re holding on to it,” he defends all the same. “It’s the only hope we have to protect ourselves. Don’t take it away from us, it would be terrible otherwise. We would experience it as an insult.”
FDSEA 64 came to support the shepherds concerned before the administrative court. Ascension Torrent
Before the hearing, before the court, the FDSEA 64, which came to support the shepherds concerned, and which demands 100% removal of wolves in breeding areas, did not say anything else. “If there are no more shots, it is the livestock farms that will die and with them the entire economic fabric,” underlined Jean-François Lacazette.
“These appeals also attack our food sovereignty. Because if we can no longer produce, we will be forced to import more,” added President Corinne Nousty. The union did not have harsh enough words against these “shameless” associations, “which attack small, low-income breeders to finance their business”, “the ayatollahs of ecology, who have never seen a sheep and who defend predation rather than humans.”
The summary judge, for her part, will render her decision “as soon as possible”.
