A hunting father asks his son to finish off a boar with a knife

Cruelty to animals shouldn’t be taught. There is no room here to debate whether hunting is a good thing or not. The horror of this video, broadcast on the networks at the end of November by the hunter father of a small child, is palpable.

A boy kills a wild boar at his father’s request

We spare you the broadcast of the video in question — but you can get a glimpse of the scene thanks to the media tweet Mail Picard shared below:

Here’s what happens in the images shared on social media by the hunter, father of the child. After one beat, the wounded boar is cornered and takes refuge among the brambles, surrounded by dogs. The beast howls to death. The boy’s father asks him to “sting him in the heart” by giving him a knife. The child complies after some hesitation. He trembles, stumbles. It’s hard to “sting”, the animal is dying, his suffering drags on. The father heartens his son, under the howls of the overexcited dogs and the wild boar who is dying, terrified.

Pierre Rigaux, naturalist and founder of the association “Nos Viventia” denounced this video on his networks and announced that a complaint had been filed. Indeed, if the Criminal Code “punishes acts of cruelty only to captive, domesticated or domesticated animals”this situation is particular, since ” how [l’animal] is captured and the agony lasts”, “the notion of captivity could be maintained”.

The hunter father defends his gesture

In an interview with the media The Unionthe child’s father defends himself:

They call me a killer or say I’m learning to kill. I deny these allegations. Facts are taken out of context, I love animals. Here hunting is a tradition. This knife was given to my son by his grandfather. He himself told me: “Dad, I would like to collect my first wild boar”. So, we did it and not for fun, but also for the sake ofanimal.

Self, legally speaking, the child has the “right” to finish off an animal – no law prevents a child from accompanying hunters and finishing an animal, even if you must be 15 years old to hunt accompanied and 16 years old to hunt alone – the question of morality and transmitted values to a boy rises. Is this how we build a peaceful and benevolent society? By teaching a child how to kill another living thing that screams death? What is the next step in this kind of education?

Besides the fact that this hunting scene is unbearable in its cruelty, one can ask the question of the physical safety of the child moreover, who is not more than 10 or 12 years old. Leave it in front of a wounded animal that is dying, a knife in handin the brambles, it is not safe.

Legally, the hunter is not reprehensible. Morally it is another thing. In this spirit of the French tradition where hunting continues to be perceived as a hobby and not as a cruel and outdated practicewe can only hope that this complaint filing manages to move the ranks a bit and become aware of the aberration of this practiceeven more when it comes to a child. Kill another living thing it shouldn’t be a trivial act for anyone.

Photo credit image of one: Getty Images