The president of the National Federation of Hunters finds it “extremely shocking” to want to ban hunting on Sundays

Willy Schraen, president of the National Federation of Hunters, finds Thursday April 6 on franceinfo “extremely shocking” to want to prohibit hunting on Sundays while the ecologist deputy Charles Fournier has tabled a bill to this effect. “To remove hunting on Sunday is to stop hunting altogether”, he denounced. The hunters’ representative explains that there are already state forests and public forests “which are not hunted on weekends”. He condemns those who “want to destroy” the hunt. “It becomes really painful these people who want to rule our lives, who want to take away our individual freedoms”.

franceinfo: Does it worry you to see this debate constantly put back on the table?

Willy Schraen: Hunting is legal. There are many people who work all week. I don’t see how you can do otherwise. Or else we want an elitist hunt. A party that claims to be on the left in the hemicycle would like to deprive people who are salaried, who have no other possibility than to go hunting on Sundays. I find that extremely shocking.

“It becomes really painful these people who want to rule our lives, who want to take away our individual freedoms, who want to plan like that everything that happens in France without ever having any thought.”

Willy Schraen, President of the National Federation of Hunters

on franceinfo

The town of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges has banned hunting on Sunday afternoons in consultation with the local hunting association. So is it possible to find a compromise?

This is a good example of what to do. You have hunters who, for almost fifteen years, have not hunted on two massifs in the commune on Sundays, because these are massifs where there are ski slopes, where there are hiking trails. We don’t need a law for that. There are lots of things happening at the local level. It is a reflection between the users of nature.

>> True from false. Hunting: is 30% of French territory really forbidden to hunters, as Willy Schraen asserts?

Why can’t we talk about hunting calmly in France?

We can’t talk to people who want to ban everything. I’m not talking to people who want to destroy the hunt. To remove hunting on Sunday is to stop hunting altogether. In other words: hunting is prohibited because anyway, there are lots of people who will no longer be able to go there. At least assume. We stop the hunt! It will be clearer.

Do you understand that some people want to be able to walk around safely?

I remind you that the hunters only operate in winter. There is still all the rest of the year when there is no hunting. We are creating this climate of hatred, setting people against each other, which these people do very, very well with ecology.