Unfortunately Gwendoline, the Mairie can authorise this action, can place the cats in the fourriere and if not identified or 'claimed' with payment of fees within the alloted time, usually 8-10 days, then the animal can be destroyed
CHATS LIBRES Article L. 211-27 du code rural
Le maire peut par arrêté, à son initiative ou à la demande d’une association de protection des animaux, faire procéder à la capture de chats non identifiés, sans propriétaire ou sans gardien, vivant en groupe dans des lieux publics de la commune, afin de faire procéder à leur stérilisation et à leur identification conformément à l’article L. 214-5, préalablement à leur relâcher dans ces mêmes lieux. Cette identification doit être réalisée au nom de la commune ou de ladite association.
La gestion, le suivi sanitaire et les conditions de la garde au sens de l’article L. 211-11 de ces populations sont placés sous la responsabilité du représentant de la commune et de l’association de protection des animaux mentionnées à l’alinéa précédent. Ces dispositions ne sont applicables que dans les départements indemnes de rage. Toutefois, sans préjudice des articles L. 223-9 à l. 223-16, dans les départements déclarés officiellement infectés de rage, des dérogations peuvent être accordées aux communes qui le demandent, par arrêté préfectoral, après avis favorable du Centre National d’Etudes Vétérinaire et Alimentaires selon des critères scientifiques.
MESURES PARTICULIERES A L’EGARD DES ANIMAUX ERRANTS
Art. R 211-11 : Pour application des articles L. 211-21 et L. 211-22 du Code Rural, le maire prend toutes dispositions de nature à permettre une prise en charge rapide de tout animal errant ou en état de divagation en dehors des heures et des jours ouvrés de la fourrière ou de la structure qu’il a désignée comme lieu de dépôt. Il peut, le cas échéant, passer des conventions avec des cabinets vétérinaires pour assurer la prise en charge de ces animaux ainsi que rechercher et contacter leur propriétaire lorsque l’animal est identifié.
Art. R 211-12 : Le maire informe la population, par un affichage permanent en mairie, ainsi que par tous autres moyens utiles, des modalités selon lesquelles les animaux mentionnés aux articles L.211-21 et L. 211-22 du Code Rural, trouvés errants ou en état de divagation sur le territoire de la commune, sont pris en charge. Doivent être notamment portés à la connaissance du public :
a) les coordonnées des services compétents pour la capture et la prise en charge de ces animaux, ainsi que les conditions dans lesquelles il peut être fait appel à ces services ;
b) l’adresse, le numéro de téléphone, le jour et les heures d’ouverture de la fourrière et du lieu de dépôt mentionné à l’article L. 211-21 du Code Rural ;
c) les conditions dans lesquelles les animaux peuvent être remis à leur propriétaire, notamment le montant des frais de garde et d’identification susceptibles d’incomber à celui-ci ;
d) les modalités de prise en charge des animaux trouvés errants ou en état de divagation en dehors des heures d’ouverture de la fourrière ou des lieux de dépôt, ou qui sont accidentés.
Lorsque les campagnes de capture des chiens et chats errants sont envisagées sur tout ou partie du territoire de la commune, le maire est tenu d’informer la population, par affichage et publication dans la presse locale, des lieux, jours et heures prévues, au moins une semaine avant la mise en oeuvre de ces campagnes.
LA FOURRIERE Article L.211-24
Chaque commune doit disposer soit d’une fourrière communale apte à l’accueil et à la garde des chiens et chats trouvés errants ou en état de divagation jusqu’au terme des délais fixés aux articles L. 211-25 et L. 211-26, soit du service d’une fourrière établie sur le territoire d’une autre commune, avec l’accord de cette commune. Chaque fourrière doit avoir une capacité adaptée aux besoins de chacune des communes pour lesquelles elle assure le service d’accueil des animaux en application du présent code. La capacité de chaque fourrière est constatée par arrêté du maire de la commune où elle est installée.
La surveillance dans la fourrière des maladies réputées contagieuses au titre de l’article L. 221-1 est assurée par un vétérinaire titulaire du mandat sanitaire instauré par l’article L. 221-11, désigné par le gestionnaire de la fourrière. La rémunération de cette surveillance sanitaire est prévue conformément aux dispositions du troisième alinéa de l’article L. 221-11.
Les animaux ne peuvent être restitués à leur propriétaire qu’après paiement des frais de fourrière. En cas de non paiement, le propriétaire est passible d’une amende forfaitaire dont les modalités sont définies par décret.
Sarah,
this website answers most of your questions: http://lalettredestjulien.pagesperso-orange.fr/solana.htm
no, the mairie (and certainly not the Maire Adjoint by himself) cannot just trap and kill all stray cats; the maire can initiate a trap/neuter/release program and can subsequently apply for financial support with the foundations mentioned in the website; an association for the protection of animals needs to be involved as well as the local vet as the neutering will be done by him/her. The local vets, the animal rights protection associations in your department, and the maire himself would be my first choice of contact and if they still want to go ahead with this outrageous plan than the newspaper and radio (france bleu) might be the next step.
Good luck and please keep us informed
We completely agree Brian, Cheryl
As a cat charity most of our larger problems come from brits and certainly most of our adoptions to the french who adore their cats and are abhored by cruelty as much as you and I!
The UK has as much of a problem as the french, german and most other nationalities.
This came out last week -
Charity struggling to cope with unwanted cat crisis
Cats Protection has issued a desperate plea after revealing the number of unwanted cats has reached an all-time high.
The number of adoptions has also plummeted in recent years and the UK's leading feline welfare charity is calling for more people to come forward to offer a cat a home.
Figures from the charity's national helpline show that for every one person enquiring about adopting a cat there are 10 people calling to give up a cat or report a stray.
To illustrate the size of the problem, Cats Protection has released comparative figures from July-September 2009 to the same period in 2012. It shows:
• adoption enquiries have fallen by 55%, but
• the number of people giving up a cat and reporting a stray has increased by 34%.
However, the figures could be just the tip of the iceberg as they don't include calls to the charity's 260 volunteer-run branches, which carry out 75% of the organisation's work.
Cats Protection spokesman Kate Bunting said: "Since the UK entered recession, we have received many more requests from people to take in their cats, with owners saying they are losing their jobs, their homes, or moving into rented accommodation.
"It can be very difficult for us to take in all these cats, especially at short notice, despite our 8,700 volunteers working round the clock to help as many cats as possible. Therefore, people should seek help as soon as they become aware of the need to give up their cat because this will give animal welfare organisations more time to respond.
"We have around 6,200 cats in care, with many more in need of help, so we desperately need people to come forward to adopt a cat."
When I spoke with just one Cats protection rescue Centre 2 weeks ago, they had a 900 cat waiting list for those needing to enter the Centre!!!
Maybe depends on where you are, around here most French folk are animal crazy compared to other people.
Hi Sarah,
CAUSES google it start one, next start a FACEBOOK page for it, news gets round quick, you are not the only Vilage this happens in, the French are not like most of us Brits when it comes to animals.
Good luck
Cheryl
FOR THE BEST ADVICE CONTACT NALA. GOOGLE IT. THEY ARE INVOLVED FULL TIME IN SUCH ISSUES, HAVE GOOD CONTACTS AND ARE CURRENTLY TRYING TO PURSUADE THE GOVERNMENT TO ADOPT SOME BASIC ANIMAL WELFARE SCHEMES ESPECIALLY FOR CATS.
This is dreadful,maybe a local newspaper could be told about it.I'll sign a petition......
Count me in for a signature too - good luck, I hope you manage to stop this happening!
Thanks for sharing, please do send details of petition, this is disresssing!
There is a move here too Brian.
At the moment, in the Midi Pyrénées, we are grouping together many associations to pressure the government(amongst other things) into compulsory sterilisation. Have a look and pass the word
http://www.facebook.com/groups/210283452352857/334871403227394/
Neutering is the only effective way of cat population control. It is said that an average of 8000 cats are born EACH DAY in France, there are sadly not enough homes for all these.
This is also why Chats du Quecry cat Charity operate early neutering, ensuring at least all those adopted from us are neutered before leaving us. We are compiling a directory of competent vets willing to carry out this procedure.
Surely the aspect of contacting the ided cats owners and demanding payment for them to be reclaimed is blatently illegal?! It sounds like a pretty exact definition of ransom to me! How would the bloke up the road react were you to take his car from the supermarket car park, look up his details contact him and then demand payment for the safe return of his car?!!!!
Scheme like this really are beyond belief! I would sign any petition gladly! Hope you find a way to protect your feline friends!
It is rare for me to make comments on SFN. As James and Catharine know, I have to feel very strongly indeed about a subject before I am moved to type, but this is certainly one of those accasions. I have two 'rescue' cats, saved by the wonderful Sharon Stairs in the Aude. They are hugely independent, and there have been many occasions when I've wondered if I will ever see one or the other of them again, but they always turn up, complaining bitterly about the catering arrangements.
The thought that my cats might be put at risk by such a callous policy as this makes my blood boil. It is in my view immoral to encourage a huge excess in the ferral domestic cat population, only to round them up and kill them either quickly or slowly. My cats have tattoos and collars (most of the time anyway - they've lost at least ten each so far), and of course I would pay to retrieve them from any situation. That doesn't make it right though, and as Sarah points out, what about those who perhaps could not afford to pay?
I will wholeheartedly back any petition to end this shameful policy, and would like to see such a petition circulated to all SFN members.
Hello
It is very illegal to beat an animal like that. Even if's only you, you should go to the police, what a sadist! Someone ought to beat him with a bat!!!
Follow the link to this site where you can start your own petition; this way you can get not only French but international focus on this. It's worth a try:)
http://www.care2.com/
Ouff, I did not see that BB was already mentioned...
Did you try the Brigitte Bardot association? They gave money to help the cats on Ile d'Oléron. And yes, of course I will sign any petition...for any cat.....no matter where....
Hello Sarah,
My heart goes out to you and I really feel for you! 
It sounds as if this trapping of cats is perfectly legal in France: I read in our local newspaper (Lyon) that a similar action was planned here in a certain neighbourhood and people were instructed what they could do if they were missing their cat and how to reclaim it again.
I don’t really have any advice for you. Have you tried to contact the “Brigitte Bardot Foundation”?
An online petition is definitely a good idea - a petition in your village would even be better!!!
All the best,
Regina
Hi sarah,
by all means call us, but first of all contact the newspapers LaDepeche etc.
Contact fondations 30 Millions d'amis, Brigitte Bardot etc and google, association animaux 81 then contact all those it 'throws up'
Unfortunately it is entirely legal in France as the cats are not identified, unless you can round them up and get them chipped?? Some SPA's are part of the local fourriere and it is a sad fact that there are just too many cats to be housed.
We have advice in french to convince mairies that actually Capture and culling NEVER work and TNR does - please make contact!
chatsduquercy@gmail.com
If you want to find out about EU policy and regulations go to:
http://ec.europa.eu/food/animal/welfare/index_en.htm
I think the release element of what you are suggesting is unlikely since much of western Europe now has some areas that are highly overpopulated with feral domestic cats, and in areas where native wild cats exist their survival is threatened. So I guess the odds are stacked against that. Some countries are moving toward 'compulsory' neutering and controlled sales of cats by approved breeders within the EU. Laboratory animals is another story altogether and there are strict guidelines in the EU, although I have no idea whether this scheme would infringe any regulations at all. However, a policy of trapping all cats then demanding recuperation fees from owners is very questionable. It sounds a bit like exploitation of people who would rather pay up without any questions than see their pets put down.