At the call of breeders who are victims of the wolf, a mobilization is planned for this Wednesday, January 15 at 1:30 p.m. in front of the Haute-Marne prefecture.
A breeder in Ravennefontaines, Jean-Baptiste Brutel was recently the victim of a wolf attack on his sheep. The breeders are exasperated by these repeated killings and the latter is launching a call for mobilization in front of the Haute-Marne prefecture, in Chaumont, this Wednesday, January 15, at 1:30 p.m.
Young farmers, the Departmental Federation of Farmers' Unions and the Federation of Milk Producers relay this call and denounce “the immobility of European and national policies in the face of the threat of the wolf”. In their press release of support, the agricultural unions denounce: “The wolf is in the fold: 110 sheep killed in two weeks! In Haute-Marne, 80 sheep were massacred and 30 in the Vosges in just two weeks. This situation is untenable. We call on the administration to take responsibility immediately. Breeders can no longer wait for measures that are slow to arrive. »
They demand: strong measures against deviant wolves; the implementation of concrete means to protect livestock farms and territories; safeguard pastoral systems.
The cry from the heart of Jean-Baptiste Brutel
The breeder explains how exasperated he is and details the reasons why he is launching this call for mobilization.
“We decided to organize an afternoon of mobilization: Wednesday January 15 in front of the prefecture in order to show people in the administration that the policy of overprotection of this predator that they have been applying to the letter for years well hot behind a computer, is demoralizing our breeders (both young and old) and literally pulverizing the future of our pastoral breeding.
My words are strong, but it's reality. A farm, a breeding farm, a herd, it cannot be managed from day to day, it does not stop living at 4:30 p.m. in the evening to start again in the morning at 8:30 a.m. It is a job of many years to see of several generations on certain farms to achieve a virtuous system that works. To be able to launch for the future, but already hold out for the current ones, we absolutely need visibility into a decent future. A future that makes established breeders and the kids who dream of it want to plan ahead, simply to imagine themselves living from their work in peace like many, going to see their animals without that damn pit in their stomach, the one that starts in the morning when we opens his eyes and leaves in the middle of the night when fatigue finally has the upper hand over worries. (…) Am I too sensitive? Not strong enough in character to handle that? maybe after all… I have the deep feeling that in our administration people have reached the same level of sensitivity and indifference as the computers they use every day.
Pastoral breeding in danger
You, individuals, of all professions, retirees, fathers and mothers of families who took the time to congratulate us on the side of a road, for the return of sheep to the cereal plains thanks to the grazing of plant cover, or simply during a meeting to tell us “it’s nice to see young people still motivated by breeding”. Well know that pastoral breeding is in danger, yes, and so are we!
Towards a lifeless landscape?
When the breeder loses his vision for the future, some time later the herd is no more; more in buildings, more in meadows, more in intercropping cover. The French herd has been leaving for years, without anyone moving, the milk, the meat, the cows, the sheep… All these animals are leaving your countryside to leave a void, a lifeless landscape. I will of course be present at the mobilization on Wednesday, but I have already warned, for my part it will not be the fight of a lifetime, I am well aware of what our colleagues are experiencing in the mountains and the disaster for years. years there, that we are trying to collapse a wall with tweezers.
Let the administration rest assured, it will not have me on its back for weeks, my goal was simply to alert, to show our neighbors, representatives, political leaders, territorial administration and fellow citizens that what we are experiencing is not is not tenable and that in front of us we have the office of indifference. This same office which will organize meetings in a few years with Powerpoints entitled “How to bring livestock breeding back to Haute-Marne” or “Promote the installation of pastoral livestock farming”. Readers, know that it is your money which today finances the ideology of wolf protection (€34 million in 2021 and it is not decreasing…), It is your money which finances the destruction of the breeding that you see to the right and to the left when you are on the Haut-Marne roads, But it will also be your money that the Bureau of Indifference will come to collect to revive pastoral breeding when it no longer exists (if it is relaunched) I do not intend to create a buzz, I am not here to impose my point of view either, my objective was only to alert, because it is also our duty to warn, we who are on the ground, who let's live with things, warn that we are gradually losing pastoral breeding (and even breeding in all its forms) and that it is thanks to it that the grassland landscapes of our countryside are maintained and enhanced, those that you enjoy watching when you walk. For my part the decision is made, they won. If nothing is done this will result in the more or less long term in a total cessation of breeding. Our flock started from scratch in 2019, the construction of a sheepfold, mesh fences… then 6 years of work, 6 years of monitoring, Saturday and Sunday included, how can we not get attached? how can we be insensitive to the suffering of our animals? I am not strong enough to experience even 10% of what our colleagues experience in the mountains, and still not passionate enough to leave my health behind. Behind each breeding there is a breeder and a family life, that one, the wolf will not take that from me! »
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