Several breeders are warning after attacks suffered by their herds during the second half of April 2024. If the wolf has, at this stage, not been held responsible, it is strongly suspected by breeders.
Has the wolf claimed new victims in Yonne? This is the question that arises after a series of attacks that occurred in the space of a few days in the south of the department at the end of April. The prefecture’s services report several “damages”: 28 sheep and a heifer in Provency, Guillon-Terre-Plaine, Massangis and Châtel-Gérard. Expert reports to deny or confirm the wolf’s responsibility “are still in progress.”
“When I arrived in the meadows, like every morning, I saw the massacre. They were everywhere!” recalls Frédéric Berrier, manager of Gaec de Marcilly, in Provency. Friday April 17, in the early morning, the breeder discovered around fifteen animals, “all bitten on the neck”. Immediately he suspected the wolf.
Two nights in a row
The next day, the scenario repeats itself: he finds nine new deceased animals. He established the total losses at twenty-five heads, to which was added around ten wounded. “The vets came and they were put on antibiotics,” he said of the survivors. “There will probably be post-traumatic stress. I don’t know if it will be okay for reproduction in the future,” he said. he worries.
A Yonne breeder threatens to file a complaint against the State after two new attacks on his herds, which he blames on wolves (February 2024)
At this stage, after the passage of agents from the French Biodiversity Office (OFB), the first analyses, for Provency, would indicate that the wolf’s trail would be “not ruled out”. “Seeing your animals like that, spread out on the ground, it hurts. If it’s the wolf, you have to tell yourself that the animals pay the consequences. If it’s not the wolf, they will investigate to find potential dogs strays. But it will be too late. They can identify if they are responsible for the attack by a vomiting system, but it is only possible to do so within 48 hours after the attack,” laments the breeder. .
The double attack at Gaec de Marcilly is not the only one that has occurred at the start of spring. Simultaneously, another breeder, Vincent Moiron, also made a macabre discovery. But this time, it is no longer about sheep, but about cattle. “On April 16, I discovered a dead heifer near its feed trough.” The scene took place in Cisery, a hamlet of Guillon-Terre-Plaine. About fifteen kilometers as the crow flies from Gaec de Marcilly. His herd of 25 heifers aged 12 to 18 months found shelter with a neighbor. “I found them at the foot of the houses. They destroyed the fences to escape,” describes Vincent Moiron.
Two heifers found dead
At first, the breeder did not suspect the wolf. Until the second attack. On April 26, he found a new “disembowelled” animal in the same meadow. “At this point he’s not a dog anymore. He wouldn’t attack a 300kg beast. She was eaten while she was alive. He attacked her head, I think they were sleeping. “
Nicolas Carbognani, a breeder in Noyers, also deplores “two dead sheep under the photovoltaic panels in Massangis”, on the night of April 26 to 27. Massangis, about twenty kilometers north of Cisery. A distance entirely within the reach of a wolf which, in the course of a single night, can travel more than 50 km. “I am very worried and very angry with the prefecture. They need to think about the place they want to give to breeding in the department and if they do not prefer wolf breeding.”
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Fabrice Trottier, breeder member of the rural coordination and the wolf committee in Yonne, is once again sounding the alarm. “What is happening now is what we have been deploring within the wolf committee since 2018. The authorities do not listen to us. They give pride of place to wolves and do not protect breeders.” These point to malfunctions in the alert system in the canton concerned, after an attack.
“Great responsiveness of the OFB”
Contacted, the director of the prefect’s office confirms that “the department was affected by new damage currently being examined, from April 26 to 30, targeting 28 sheep and a heifer in an area where wolves are permanently present.” Clémence Choutet specifies that “the expert reports are in progress”. She also underlines “the very great responsiveness of the OFB which moved systematically and of the DDT which sent alert messages to breeders in the sector from April 26”.
Clémence Choutet finally recalls, with regard to attacks on cattle, “that since 2022, of the eight findings made by the OFB, only one came out as a “wolf not removed”, in 2023.”
Thomas Ribierre
