After how many incidents will we really look into the question of hunting in France?

The scene takes place in Arenthon, in Haute-Savoie. A mother and her daughters are walking, children are jumping in puddles, picking up dead leaves and suddenly having to throw themselves to the ground in panic after hearing the whistle of a hunter’s bullet as he passes them.

A tragedy just averted

Hunting is a hobby that kills, and not just animals. For years you can read stories that go wrong, civilians killed or injured by bullet hunters. Some, dazzled by the sunlight, shot a woman and her children, others mistook a jogger for a boar, and still others did not measure the range of the bullet when it was blown away. his garden.

Stories like that of this mother and her two daughters, on a walk in the countryside, are unfortunately no longer exceptional:

⚠️ A mother films her daughters during a walk this morning in Arenthon in Haute-Savoie. When suddenly …

This is what rural dwellers go through during the hunting season.

According to the mother, no “hunting in progress” sign has been installed on this public road. pic.twitter.com/hh6MEJSuvN

– Hugo Clement (@hugoclement) October 22, 2022

This event is not isolated. While, according to the French Bureau for Biodiversity, the number of hunting accidents has decreased in recent years, there are still tragedies that could have been avoided. For the most recent, on October 19, the children who were playing in their schoolyard had to be protected because the hunters were following the game in the nearby field. What is the government waiting for before taking action?

Hunting regulations, a proposed measure

The Senate had proposed, last September, to ban the consumption of alcohol during hunting trips. When you’re not in the business, you may already be wondering if this isn’t a joke, and if he was really allowed, legally speaking, to consume alcohol before grabbing his gun and hunting down partridges. Obviously yes.

In fact, in their report, we learn that ” currently, hunting while intoxicated is not strictly prohibited “And that the senators plan” align the alcohol content withheld and the prohibition of drugs as well as the respective sanctions with the current rules on the highway code “.

If we are not to stigmatize all hunters by saying that they all drink half a gallon before grabbing the shotgun, we can still recall this sketch from Les Inconnus, which depicted hunters with a precision and humor that continue to make key stakeholders shiver, years after the its airing.

So, concretely, what is the solution to ensure that these accidents, fatal or not, do not happen again?

Should hunting be banned or better regulated?

Hunting is a hobby for more than a million people in France, according to the latest figures from the National Federation of Hunters. But the framework around this practice is clearly insufficient and many accidents could have been avoided.

In recent years, many journalists, politicians, influencers or associations are fighting for the imposition of a real frame of reference, without asking for an absolute ban on hunting. On this point, Danielle Chenavier, president of the Isère hunting federation, said yes France Blue Isere which prohibit hunting it would be counterproductive “And that banning it on weekends would be” a false good solution »:

We cannot segment hunting practices. So there would be hunting on Sundays, weekdays, it’s not really a good idea.

However, solutions are needed. During the last presidential elections, Yannick Jadot and Jean-Luc Mélenchon had called for hunting to be banned on weekends and school holidays.

A request that blew up Willy Schraen, the president of the National Federation of Hunters RTLwhere did he say ” hunting is practiced by a margin of French enough workers. Therefore, explaining that we will ban weekends and holidays means that we are banning hunting “Ban hunting on weekends would make the activity more elitist and less accessible.

This same Willy Schraen, figures of the hunters of France, who had also declared: ” I don’t give a damn about regulation »Into the microphone of RMC, claiming to hunt only for pleasure, showing that the number one argument, that of “hunting to protect biodiversity and regulate game overpopulation”, proclaimed by hunters, aka the self-proclaimed “first ecologists in France”, did not hold up.

However, in other countries, such as Great Britain, hunting has already been banned on Sundays since 1831 and the business continues to function well.

Last February, the alliance of opponents of hunting submitted nearly 30 proposals to the Senate to help regulate the practice of hunting. Among them was the obligation to do so three months of training, an exam in front of a jury and an evaluated shot before the issuing of the hunting license (which would have a validation of 3 years), but also the ban on alcohol consumption for hunters with random checks in place, the obligation to undergo a medical examination once a year, the prohibition of the intervention of hunters in schools, a ban on the use of weapons within 250 meters of buildings as well as on all roads open to the publicthe ban on hunting Wednesday, Sunday and during the school holidays.

These measures are not complicated to implement and could help avoid many accidents, fatal or otherwise. So what is the government waiting for to act now?

Photo credit image of one: Pickone