€10,000 fine for the wolf scout

The fox mass grave was discovered in the Jura in March 2024. A wolf scout admitted the facts. Mandated by a town hall to slaughter the animals, he was, however, not authorized to let them decompose near a river, and moreover in a regional natural park.

It is not uncommon to find animal mass graves in nature. But due to its scale and its distribution on social networks, it got people talking. Last March, a fisherman found between 20 and 30 dead foxes near the Lemme, a river in Haut-Jura.

“Carnage! But who does this?”exclaims the fisherman on Facebook, in the video below, arousing the indignation of certain Internet users, and the reaction of several environmental protection associations, who filed a complaint in the process.

A wolf scout has just been sentenced this Thursday, May 23, at the Besançon criminal court. He will have to pay a fine of 500 euros and more than 10,000 euros in compensation to the associations which have become civil parties.

The wolf scout admitted the facts a few days after the discovery of the mass grave. The purpose of the hearing was therefore not to determine his guilt, but rather the content of his sentence.

The lawyers also did not discuss the merits of this fox hunt, because the defendant was authorized to kill them. It was even his mission. Around 80 in Franche-Comté, wolf cubs are hunters mandated by the State to kill harmful species.

It was therefore the town hall of Fort-du-Plasne which asked him to “collect” foxes on the territory of the commune. In France, associations denounce a “relentlessness” against foxes, pointing out the beneficial impact of these species on the environment. But that was not the debate of the day.

The wolf watcher was only prosecuted for abandoning animals. He had the right to kill foxes, but not to leave them there, even though there are bins dedicated to animal carcasses.

The number of foxes (around 25) and their location only made his case worse. The grouping of corpses in the same place actually increases the risks of pollution and the proliferation of diseases.

And the location was all the more poorly chosen as the Lemme is a biological reservoir, located in a protected area, namely the Haut-Jura regional natural park. However, the concrete impact on the environment, water and fish in the area could not be characterized: the corpses of the foxes were removed before possible analyses.

According to the environmental protection associations present at the hearing, this act is all the less forgivable since the wolf scout, who is also a duty police officer, had to act with knowledge of the law. They therefore hope that this conviction sends a strong signal to the world of hunting and to wolf scouts in the region.

For his part, the defense lawyer was keen to point out that the wolf scouts “don’t kill animals for fun”. According to him, it is volunteers who ensure “missions of general interest”, “very often at night, and at their expense”.

Maître Olivier Legrand also added that the civil liability of the town hall of Fort-du-Plasne, although not involved in this matter, is still to be considered.