A backhoe dumping manure on the only possible return route, then a man who comes to shout at a journalist. “Don’t film yourself. Kiss my ass. ! You’re pissing off, be careful of your face…”, he says with virulence before being calmed down.
Images published by France 3 Bourgogne-Franche-Comté leave little doubt. A team from the channel was attacked on Wednesday evening in the middle of a report devoted to an authorized shooting on the wolf, at the springboard of Chaux-Neuve (Doubs). The channel filed a complaint on Thursday. ” [Elle] was filed for degradation of material, “said Isabelle Mounier, the editor-in-chief of France 3 Franche-Comté.
On Wednesday evening, two journalists from this editorial staff were following a team of environmental activists who had just sabotaged a “defense firing” operation authorized by the Doubs prefecture in the Chaux-Neuve sector, when they were attacked by “around thirty breeders from the surrounding area”, according to France 3.
The backhoe blocked their way before angry men attacked an activist and threatened the journalists, targeting their equipment. The intervention of the gendarmes finally calmed things down.
The image reporter, who held the camera, was prescribed ten days of ITT, said Isabelle Mounier. “We understand that breeders are on edge in the face of attacks [de loups] but we can’t let this go, we’re doing our job and we don’t have to be attacked,” said the editor-in-chief.
“It was difficult to know if it was journalists in the middle of the night, the breeders especially saw people obstructing a prefectural decree”, explains Florent Dornier, president of the FDSEA of Doubs, who describes the incident as “regrettable”, and denies “a desire to attack the press”.
“Coexistence must be organized”
Since the beginning of August, around twenty attacks on cattle by the canine have been recorded in the department, according to a count by local media. Last month, a wolf was shot in a statutory shooting.
Expected Saturday in the Doubs, the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau estimated Thursday in the regional daily The Republican East that “coexistence must be organised” between breeding and the wolf.
In France, the gray wolf, which has returned on its own from Italy, has experienced favorable demographic dynamics for ten years. The French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) estimates its population at between 826 and 1,016 individuals.