- A group of sheep breeders in the department, victims of repeated robberies, denounces a "worrying" situation which has worsened in recent days.
- "We feel helpless," said one of them 20 minutes after having recently lost 23 of his animals.
They speak of an "unbearable" situation. United in association for several years, sheep breeders in Loire-Atlantique are facing the multiplication of thefts since the beginning of April. They have just sent an open letter to the Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, and to Nicole Belloubet, Minister of Justice, to denounce this phenomenon. Vivien Mahé, breeder at Ancenis and member of the board of the "collective of looted breeders", answered questions from 20 Minutes.
You denounce an increase in sheep thefts in recent days. What is the situation ?
It keeps getting worse. It is estimated that since the beginning of April, around 250 sheep have disappeared in the department. Normally there are maybe five flights a month, right now it's almost every day! According to the gendarmerie, we even went up to seven facts in one night, last week ... Today, we want to denounce this phenomenon so that we can continue to live from our profession. If it continues at this speed, we will be looted from all our animals. As a result, whole sheep farms will disappear.
How are these flights going?
Usually at night, directly in our fields. They come in, tie up the animals and load them into the cars. These are people who know how to do it, each time with fairly large quantities of stolen animals, and who act very quickly. The target animals are those that are large enough to eat, from the lamb weighing around 30 kg to the sheep. In my operation of 300 animals alone, I had two thefts in a month and a half: in total, 23 animals disappeared, 7,500 euros of damage! They were lambs that I had selected for my breeding flock. I could not replace them identically.
You have decided to address this problem more widely, via an open letter describing this "worrying situation" ...
Yes because we feel helpless, we have the feeling of not being understood or heard. We try to go round, our nights are short, it's a daily stress. In the morning, we wake up with the question "will everyone be there?" »I am all alone on my farm, I have a lot of work so I can't spend my time watching ... Fortunately, we managed to mobilize the gendarmerie around us, but their presence does not prevent thefts. Some breeders have even installed surveillance cameras, but by the time they get there it is often too late, not to mention the financial investment that this equipment represents. To exchange information, we have a Whatsapp group between breeders: we alert when there are thefts, suspicious vehicles. We also try to associate the neighbors so that they are aware of the problem.
How do you explain these thefts?
It is difficult because in general we find neither beasts nor thieves, except in the case of flagrante delicto which is rare. Last Saturday, however, during a search of a Roma camp near Nantes, the gendarmes discovered skins and sheep's heads in a container. To mark the occasion, we came to fifteen breeders, and we saw all of this on the spot… There has also been good progress recently for us, with the arrest and judgment of one person. Unfortunately, we think that it will not be of much use, because the thief has been released with suspended prison, that will not dissuade him from returning. We want to make politicians aware of a problem that seems to us to be more global: there are people who need to eat and who find this solution, an improbable gesture of which we are the victims.
What solutions do you expect?
We would first like to be supported financially, because insurance follows but always ask to pay more. There is a system of aid for breeders affected by losses caused by wolves, we do not understand why we, we would not be entitled to support of this type. We should also be able to make operations more secure, why not with the funding of private security means, organized by sectors. If we can't find the thieves, at least let's try to dissuade them from acting.
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