Organized by Abolissons la vénerie today (AVA), a demonstration in Compiègne mobilized nearly 500 people in favor of the abolition of hunting with hounds on April 2. Yannick Jadot, environmental candidate for the presidency, came to support them.
“Hunting, abolition!“Listening to the slogans of the procession which traveled the streets of Compiègne on April 2, the objective is clear: to prohibit hunting, a hunting practice which consists of tiring an animal with the help of a pack of dogs before killing it. The name of the association organizing the mobilization, Abolissons la vénerie (AVA), is just as unequivocal.
Hunting with hounds, of which the forests of Compiègne and Retz are often the playground of the crews, today arouses the rejection of part of the local population. Since the creation of AVA in 2016, the anti-hunting movement has gained momentum. “We live in the countryside surrounded by forests, we see deer and deer every day when we walk, says a protester. To think that they are being slaughtered by dogs, that they are not being given a chance, is terrible.“
“I think it should no longer exist, it’s an aberration. Hunting with hounds is prohibited in many countries, I don’t understand why it’s authorized in France,” strikes another. Participants in the parade cite the examples of Belgium, which banned this practice in 1995, or Scotland in 2004 and the United Kingdom in 2005.
Ava and her supporters were joined by Yannick Jadot, the environmental candidate for the presidential election. The election of next April 10 instills a glimmer of hope in the demonstrators of the day.
“It’s simple: in 2012 and 2017, no candidate for the presidential election had positioned himself for or against hunting with hounds. Today, there are five candidates who are in favor of the abolition of this cruel hunt, observes Stanislas Broniszewski, manager of Ava. It’s important, because that’s how we’re going to solve this problem.” In addition to Yannick Jadot, the candidates Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Anne Hidalgo, Philippe Poutou and Nathalie Arthaud declare themselves against this practice.
On the sidelines of the parade, the hunters observe, discreetly, the mobilization. They leave reassured: 500 demonstrators, it is twice less than the mobilizations of 2018. “It is an opposition that has always existed but which, for me, has fallen sharply over the past four years,” judge Laurent Facques, member of a hunting society.
The hunting season ended on March 31. The truce is short-lived: from September 15, the Ava militants will deploy in the forest, hanging from the tails of the huntsmen.