France: call to trap all domestic cats more than 300 metres from their homes

FRANCE: Willy Schraen, 50, the head of the National Federation of Hunters has called for the trapping of all cats no matter whether they are stray or domestic found wandering more than 300 metres from their homes because they are killing wildlife and present an existential menace to birds and other small animals in the country.

Trapping cats that are more than 300 metres from houses would be a good thing.

Willy Schraen
Willy Schraen. Photo: NR, Sébastien Gaudard.

A spokesman for Willy Schraen clarified his statement in saying that he meant that the cats should be trapped humanely in baited cages and handed over to councils or animal shelters. Willy Schraen says that the domestic cat is destroying biodiversity in France and that there are too many of them. He argues that the cat kills far more animals than hunters and urgent action was required to deal with the menace. There are 13.5 million domestic cats in France, which The Times tells us is the largest population of domestic cats in Europe.

He has incurred the wrath of cat lovers in the country and more than 50,000 people have signed an online petition calling for him to be punished. His critics say that hunters are known for killing numerous bird species some of which are endangered. A television journalist, Hugo Clément, who campaigns for animal rights, said that it was droll of Mr Schraen to blame cats on the decline of biodiversity when the national hunting Federation continues to defend the slaughter of threatened bird species.

Willy Schraen made the remarks during an interview about the advantages of the coronavirus to wildlife in France. During the two months of lockdown there has been a resurgence of wildlife in the country. Game birds, insects and other wild animals have prospered during the peace and reduced pollution resulting from the lockdown. Also, less pesticides have been used by farmers.

Intensive farming and pesticides has, it has been argued by researchers, resulted in the number of birds in rural areas dropping by a third in 15 years. Also, hunters are allowed to kill about 63 species of birds which compares badly with up to 30 in the rest of the European Union.

In addition to the battle between France’s hunting lobby and cat lovers, you have to add the French League for the Protection of Birds who are campaigning against roaming domestic and feral cats. They say that they are responsible for 10% of the injured animals brought to their shelters. They want all domestic cats to be sterilised (I presume under a new law).

I have learned that, in France, a stray cat is legally defined as a cat found more than 200 metres from human dwellings or more than a kilometre from home. These cats are deemed to be abandoned. A scheme to find new homes for abandoned cats and dogs during the lockdown had been a success said the Society for the Protection of Animals.

During the lockdown, the French government made an exception to their strict confinement rules in allowing people to collect animals from the society’s shelters.

Comment: this would be legalised theft as many cat owners would lose their cats when trapped and taken to a shelter. Also when cats are trapped they can subsequently be injured as they try to escape. How careful will the trapping be? The trapping of domestic cats willy nilly like this has been proven to cause many problems. It is controversial and I’d argue that a law allowing it would conflict with France’s criminal law. Domestic cats allowed outside often travel more than 300 metres from their homes but many don’t.

25 thoughts on “France: call to trap all domestic cats more than 300 metres from their homes”

  1. The author of the best comment will receive an Amazon gift of their choice at Christmas! Please comment as they can add to the article and pass on your valuable experience.
  2. Getting all cats spayed or neutered is something that should be promoted worldwide in the hope that there will be a more convenient and cheaper alternative to neutering surgery

    Reply
        • You can enter your name in the comment section if you wish 😉 but I am not asking you to do that. I am just curious. I’d like you to write an article about cats in China in Chinese and English! How about that for an idea?

          Reply
              • In China, more and more people hate cats, kill and abuse cats, and the reason is just as I said, because of the so-called research on the harm of cats to the ecology, we have returned to the Middle Ages, and now cats all over the world have become demons. If it is possible, I hope that humans have not domesticated cats and let them be wild animals

                Reply
                • Well, the study I wrote about reports on a different picture but I agree with you only things are gradually changing in China. For instance there are cat and dog rescue groups who stop lorries taking cats and dogs to the cat and dog meat markets in the south. They release and save these animals. And not all Chinese residents abuse cats.

                  But I agree with your last sentence. Cat domestication has gone wrong. Badly wrong. In the world there are probably around 200 million or more feral cats. There should be none! Human failure creates feral and community cats.

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                  • I am in China and I understand the situation. There are people who rescue cats and dogs, but the mainstream opinion in China does not approve of this practice, and the number of people who hate and abuse cats is definitely increasing

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                  • A lot of China’s big media is controlled by the government or people who cooperate with the government. At the same time, China’s popular science workers obviously prefer birds and other wild animals, and they believe more in the research of American ornithologists, which is widely disseminated in China. Many people like wild animals, because of the excessive killing of cats, and the government does not punish abandonment or crack down on disorderly commercial breeding. Therefore, there are a lot of stray animals in China, and conflicts often break out among the people because of stray animals. Many pet owners in China have poor quality, which also breaks out no small contradictions in society. There are many people in China who call for legislation to punish animal cruelty, but there are also many people who oppose it, and the contradictions are very fierce, but the Chinese government is obviously unwilling to legislate against animal cruelty, but to suppress those who call for legislation. Many people in China think that the call for banning animal cruelty is a Western force trying to disrupt Chinese society

                    Reply
                    • “Many people in China think that the call for banning animal cruelty is a Western force trying to disrupt Chinese society”

                      That comment of yours is very telling. It reminds me of Putin and his cronies who distrust the West. There is too much distrust between the West and China and Russia. How can we save the planet with this much distrust? Thanks for your input on this.

                      Your English is great. Is Chinese your first language and English learned?

                  • Many of China’s big media outlets are controlled by the government or by people working with the government. At the same time, Chinese science workers clearly prefer birds and other wildlife, and they trust the research of American ornithologists, which is widely circulated in China. Many people who love wild animals kill and abuse cats for this reason, and the government does not punish abandonment or crack down on disorderly commercial breeding. Therefore, there are a lot of stray animals in China, and conflicts often break out between people because of stray animals. Many pet owners in China are of poor quality, which has also broken out in no small social conflicts. There are many people in China who call for legislation to punish animal cruelty, but there are also many people who oppose it. The contradiction is very fierce, but the Chinese government obviously does not want to legislate against animal cruelty. Instead, it represses those who call for legislation. At the same time, many Chinese see calls for a ban on animal cruelty as an attempt by Western forces to disrupt Chinese society, while China itself has very different values from the West, and many even see the ban as a violation of human rights

                    Reply
                    • I don’t know these people, I want to chat with you on Twitter, but you seem to ignore me. In China, due to various reasons, many people hate cats, especially stray cats. When stray cats are killed on many platforms in China, many people will be very happy and dance happily

                    • Sorry, I don’t go on Twitter except to promote my webpages. I’d like to have a chat. I am definitely not ignoring you. I don’t check for Twitter comments or receive notifications. I will now though 😉.

                    • Whenever I see tweets from China about animal cruelty it makes me anxious because they show horrible pictures of animal cruelty and I can’t see them because they damaged my mind.

                  • On many platforms in China, when cats are killed, especially stray cats, many people will shout aloud, thinking that this is to remove the harm of the people

                    Reply

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