The situation is unprecedented and potentially dangerous. This Sunday at the end of the afternoon, it was a farmer who gave the alert. According to our colleagues at L’Est Républicain, the fence at the deer farm at Vernierfontaine (Doubs), next to Étalans, was cut by a malicious hand.
“I went there, there were a few dozen in the park, but between 100 and 120 deer disappeared in the wild. It’s everywhere. We tried to bring some back, but it was complicated”, says the mayor of the village, Jean-Louis Truche. The freed deer, deer and deer did not ask for their remains and returned to the nearby forest.
From the park to the forest, there was only one step. This Monday, food was placed in an attempt to bait the deer loose (WG video).
The enclosure “cut from pole to pole”
For the chosen one, there is no doubt possible: “We saw the opening in the fence, it is voluntary. It’s vandalism. It was cut from post to post. The gendarmerie and the National Hunting and Wildlife Office (ONCSF) were seized from the case. Dir-Est was also notified.
Area drivers are advised to exercise extreme caution, especially as the very busy RN 57 is just a kilometer away. “They are semi-wild animals, they can be dangerous because they are not used to being in nature”, warns the mayor. Measures were taken on the spot, this Monday morning, to try to bait the animals in their enclosure, with cereals and fodder… A task that promises to be delicate.
The Vernierfontaine deer farm belongs to a Belfort owner, who uses them for butchering.
“Poachers will have a field day”
Louis feeds and watches over the Vernierfontaine herd daily. He knows his deer thoroughly. “It’s impossible to bring them by force. It’s uncontrollable. We’re going to try to lure them into the enclosure with food, but if we get 20 or 30 of them, it’s the end of the world. I saw some picking their noses this Monday morning, But as soon as they saw the tractor, they took off. When they dispersed from right to left, it was over. Don’t worry. Illusion: the poachers will have an explosion, and it will end up in the pot”
Restricted until then, the wild instinct of animals runs the risk of awakening in contact with the natural environment. “They can manage. They can stay in small herds, but once in the forest, they can spread. It was probably a poacher that did it. The gendarmes found car tracks in the field,” adds Louis. The investigation is just beginning.