“Very often, our exchanges come down to a dialogue of the deaf.” Dominique Py, a volunteer with France nature environnement, has been a member of the National Council for Hunting and Wildlife (CNCFS) for twenty years. She rubs shoulders with representatives of hunting federations. During the debates within this advisory body, “everyone remains on their positions”she summarizes.
On a larger scale too, the dialogue between hunters and forest users seems locked. For 87% of respondents, “hunting poses security problems”, according to an Ipsos survey for the animal rights association One Voice, published in early October. Opposite, the hunters deplore the “stigma” of their leisure, even if they understand “the need for safety”, relays Nicolas Rivet, director general of the National Federation of Hunters (FNC).
“The rural world is more and more frequented, the Covid-19 pandemic and confinements have revealed greater needs of nature”observes Maryse Carrère, senator for the Hautes-Pyrénées. “In this context, hunting can create fears, there is a very strong expectation of society on security”, explains the elected official who chaired a Senate fact-finding mission on securing hunting, set up in November 2021, after the death of Morgan Keane. The young man was accidentally killed by a hunter in December 2020 while he was chopping wood near his home, on the outskirts of a village in the Lot.
At the origin of this mission: a petition from the collective Un jour un chasseur, founded by friends of Morgan Keane. On Instagram, its members publish dozens of testimonials of incidents (accidental shooting at a pet, a house, a car, etc.) and acts of intimidation attributed to hunters (taking aim, aggression, refusal to move away from dwellings).
“Contrary to what is relayed in these testimonies, which are not verified, there is no impunity for hunters”, disputes Nicolas Rivet. The director of the FNC does not understand this “hunting bashing” neither “the overmediatization, for some time, of any incident or hunting accident”. This exposure, according to him, aggravates the fears of the population, but does not correspond to reality.
“One injured, one dead, it’s always a tragedy. But accidents have decreased significantly and tendentially for twenty years.”
Nicolas Rivet, general manager of the FNCat Franceinfo
The number of fatal accidents has been divided by four in 20 years and the number of accidents leading to injuries by two, according to the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB). On the other hand, incidents, either “property damage by use of a weapon without bodily injury”specifies the OFB, experienced a slight increase during the 2021-2022 season, compared to the previous one.
In all, over this last season, 90 people were injured and eight people died, including six hunters. “It’s obviously eight too many, but we really try to reduce accidents as much as possible”, insists Nicolas Rivet. “As everywhere, especially on the road, some do not respect the rules and this inevitably leads to dramas”he acknowledges.
“Accidents are falling, yes, and then what?” leaps Mila Sanchez, co-founder of the collective One day a hunter. “We are talking about people who use lethal weapons, we cannot let the risk hover, even on a few people, a single death should have been enough for measures to be taken”she believes.
In its report, the Senate proposes precisely thirty security measures, including an annual medical examination and a ban on alcohol, estimating at 9% the share of accidents related to its consumption. For its part, the government is considering the creation of an offense of alcoholism, as in road regulations. Nicolas Rivet assures that he is not opposed to it, but deplores “the way it was brought”.
“We were referred to the drunken hunter caricature of the Unknown sketches.”
Nicolas Rivet, Director General of the National Federation of Huntersat franceinfo
“Far be it from us to want to stigmatize”, defends Senator Maryse Carrère. The elected representative considers that the control of blood alcohol levels must, on the contrary, make it possible to “to give credibility to hunters and reassure the population”. “Currently, hunting while intoxicated is not strictly prohibited”, recalls the Senate report. An officer can sanction a hunter “on the occasion of a roadside check, when there is a vehicle movement during, before or after the hunt” Where “noting a state of manifest public drunkenness in public places, on a thoroughfare or on a path”. But these checks and findings are impossible on private properties.
For Mila Sanchez, it’s about “common sense”. “It feels like they are making a big effort,” gets carried away the young woman, who considers that “the hunters show no desire to appease”.
“We’re not going to praise them for agreeing not to exceed a certain alcohol level during the hunt.”
Mila Sanchez, co-founder of the collective One day a hunterat franceinfo
To go further, his collective asks “the establishment of days without hunting” at national scale. Such days are in fact already numerous in the calendar. The Senate recalls that hunting “that hunting can only be practiced during opening periods” and “in 40% of the forests, hunting is prohibited on Sundays”. The debates crystallize today on this question. Members of EELV in particular propose to leave the forests to walkers on Sundays. A large majority of French people (81%) would be in favor of it, according to the Ipsos poll for One Voice.
Hunters don’t want to hear about it. “The forest does not belong to everyone, it is 75% private and we pay to be able to hunt there”, explains Nicolas Rivet. He adds that there is “already non-hunting days on weekends in public forests in peri-urban areas”. The general ban on hunting on Sundays would penalize a large part of the members “who practice hunting mainly on weekends”.
Although the government is still considering the introduction of a half-day without hunting, the Senate report did not retain this option, in view of “the disparity of local situations” but also “voluntarily, so as not to enter into the pro- or anti-hunting debate”, explains Maryse Carrère. “We made people unhappy on both sides, it’s proof that our work is balanced, even if the exchanges were not simple”considers the senator.
At the National Hunting Council, Dominique Py however accuses hunters of refusing any compromise. “The hunters are in a defensive position, of a besieged citadel. This makes discussions difficult”, she notes. For Maryse Carrère, this posture is explained in particular by the weight of tradition. “Very ancient hunting practices are rooted in the culture of our territories”, argues the senator. According to her, hunting is also today “under pressure, with an increasing need for regulation of big game in rural areas”.
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But the political weight of the hunters also raises questions. “At the end of the 1990s, when the hunting law was revised, the hunters’ interest group was structured and entered into a political game”, explains political scientist Olivier Rouquan. Lobbyist Thierry Coste “acted with successive presidents to secure benefits for hunters”, continues the researcher.
And if politicians gladly reach out to hunters, it may be because “hunting remains one of the main hobbies of the French”according to the Senate report, which evokes a little more than a million practitioners in 2020. “Beyond the number, its power is due to its departmental structure, to its presence in a very large number of rural municipalities”, completes Olivier Rouquan.
“If you put the hunters on your back, in certain departments, you take political, electoral and public order risks.”
Olivier Rouquan, political scientistat franceinfo
When Willy Schraen, the president of the FNC, “gives voting instructions, they are followed”believes Mila Sanchez. “But the Federation does not give direct voting instructions”, nuance Nicolas Rivet. However, the hunter recognizes a “incompatibility” with certain left-wing parties, EELV or LFI, which, according to him, would like “the disappearance of the hunt”.
For Dominique Py, “the government constantly gives in to hunters’ demands, such as authorizing lark hunts, knowing full well that this will be deemed illegal by the Council of State”. In the eyes of the environmental activist, the public authorities do not provide enough “their role as arbiter”. In these conditions, “Why would hunters talk to us and compromise?” asks the volunteer.
The legislation and “Practices evolve regularly”, argues the Federation, contesting any immobility. Thus, in 2020, the wearing of the orange vest became compulsory and a ten-year training course was introduced for holders of hunting licenses. Nicolas Rivet acknowledges, however, that there is “still work to set up better communication during hunting days”.
Behind the tensions, it is the sharing of access to nature that is at stake. “These questions of a day without hunting, of blood alcohol levels, become political questions, which reflect a cleavage between a rurality in crisis and the installation of new inhabitants in the countryside who contest hunting more than before,” analyzes Olivier Rouquan. “To reach a dialogue, we will have to make concessions on both sides”, supports Dominique Py in this war of positions which seems far from over.