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French justice has opened an investigation following the probable chemical poisoning of protected wild animals in the Vanoise park in March 2021.
Two bearded vultures are among the poisoned animals in the Vanoise National Park.
AFP
After the discovery, at the end of March 2021, of the bodies of two wolves, then of two bearded vultures, a protected raptor, in the Vanoise massif – between Geneva and Nice, very close to the Italian border –, the prosecutor of Albertville ( France), Anne Gaches, confirmed having opened an investigation in April 2021. According to the newspaper “Le Monde”, “a dozen other corpses – weasel, fox, corvids -, all poisoned”, have since been discovered, a figure which the prosecution does not confirm.
The two wolves and the two bearded vultures “were sent to the laboratory for analysis, which revealed on some the presence of lethal chemical molecules in the body”, according to Anne Gaches. The animals were “poisoned by insecticides”, writes “Le Monde”.
Increased controls and awareness
The investigation was entrusted to the environmental police of the Office of Biodiversity (OFB), the Vanoise National Park and the gendarmerie. “There was no arrest and the investigations are still ongoing,” said the prosecution.
“It is a worrying and completely scandalous phenomenon, and the State services are mobilized to prevent these acts, by checks obviously, but also by raising the awareness of the administrative and judicial authorities on these acts and the way to deal with them. treat”, reacted the Ministry of Ecological Transition. “The OFB is organizing itself to deal with this more efficiently, in particular via a unit responsible for these files.”
(AFP)