This situation has been making headlines on our island for years, and has led to massacres of chickens, ducks, goats, deer and even horses. It must be said that we are surely one of the places in the world where there are the most stray dogs per inhabitant, not to mention all those who are left to wander by their owners, and who join packs during attacks such as organized raids. Packs that target deer farms, especially during calving periods, attracted by the particular smells of these animals, which are then more vulnerable.
Breeders are distraught, desperate and, if the problem is not taken care of upstream, they have no choice but to protect their animals themselves by slaughtering the dogs. This is the case of Paul Payet who announced a few days ago after yet another attack on his herd that he had killed 109 stray dogs since 2018 to try to protect his farm, in vain since he counted 89 of his animals in 4 years. killed. He wonders in passing about the feeding of stray animals, especially with fresh meat. This practice can lead to a change in the behavior of stray dogs with a return of the hunting instinct.
Every year there are tens, hundreds of dogs that are slaughtered all around the island: everyone knows it, and the authorities first. But they are careful not to react, to give the means to stem this problem, or to legislate in favor of breeders in a situation of “self-defence”. Thus, after the despair of the loss of their livestock, the ruin of their activity, they very often find themselves before the courts, treated like criminals because animal protection organizations accuse them of a barbaric massacre… from France metropolitan. The same associations that remain completely insensitive to the suffering of deer disemboweled, half devoured and left dying. How can one be sensitive to the death of rabid stray dogs but not to that of farm animals shredded alive?
This is one of the great paradoxes of those who claim to defend the animal cause… but only when the wrongs are caused by humans.
We call on all the public and political actors of Reunion Island on the one hand to support breeders, and on the other hand to meet urgently to put in place a real plan to fight against animal wandering. . This last episode shows that the means are insufficient and that it is urgent to show political courage in this affair. We must take advantage of the latest laws passed in 2021 and which have tightened the regulations on the possession of domestic animals to more systematically intercept stray animals, control and sanction negligent owners, without forgetting to give breeders a real possibility of protecting themselves against to this scourge!
Jean-Francois Nativel
Representative 974 of the Movement of Rurality (LMR) Departmental Councilor 19th Canton Saint-Paul
.
