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Accidents caused by a hunter's bullet rise in France

Short description

Discusses a report from French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) depicting the upward trend in accidents caused by a hunter's stray bullets

Long description

Discusses a report from French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) depicting the upward trend in accidents caused by a hunter's stray bullets. This report resulted in the ban on consumption of alcohol and drugs while hunting. Instead of implementing a moratorium on hunting on Sundays, the ban on drinking alcohol was imposed.

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Angering animal rights activists, the French government recently declined to implement a moratorium on hunting on Sundays during the season. Instead, it has decided to ban drinking alcohol and consuming drugs while hunting, something campaigners allege is unenforceable. Ecology Minister Bérangère Couillard also declared rigorous training for hunt coordinators and harsher punishments for those responsible for any injuries.

The move to address hunting safety was driven by the untimely death of Morgan Keane in December 2020. Keane, who was 25 years old and French-British, was shot in the woodlands by a hunter who mistook him for a wild boar. The hunter who fired the deadly shot, Julien Féral, is currently standing trial for manslaughter with hunt organiser Laurent Lapergue, and the verdict is due this Thursday.

The animal rights activists had requested the government to take into account the victim's families' outrage and grant at least one day off-limits for hunting during the season. Nevertheless, the government seems to be on the side of the powerful hunting lobby. Figures released by the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) this September revealed that during the 2021-2022 season there were 90 incidents of hunting accidents, six more than the previous season. What's more, 8 of them were fatal.

In the past two decades, most victims of hunting incidents have been hunters themselves, with 88 percent of the casualties. This season an elderly hunter died while he was taking his gun out from the car in Corsica. Two other accidents were reported involving two hunters; one 19-year old, the other 67-year old. However, the OFB report states that the portion of people who were not hunting, yet got involved in hunting-related injuries is higher this season, amounting to about 26 percent.

The report concluded that many of the accidents occurred due to negligence of basic rules of security. This assertion was further strengthened by two recent cases of fatalities. In October 2021, Joël Viard aged 67 was killed by a hunter's stray bullet as he drove from Rennes to Nantes. Similarly, in February 2022, Mélodie Cauffet aged 25 died while strolling in Avaryron due to a bullet of a hunter who missed the target.

In anticipation of the government's announcement of the precautionary measures, the French bird protection league (LPO) expressed that the authority would face massive criticism if it failed to implement safety regulations to control hunting incidents. In response, the LPO labelled the ban on alcohol as "laughable". Even the director Matthieu Orphelin shared with Le Monde that the prospective measures seem to be inadequate to appease the four-fifths of the French population who want hunting to be banned on Sundays.

Couillard spoke in support of the government's initiative to "move towards zero accidents", something the National Federation of Hunters' chief Willy Schraen called impossible. Couillard said that starting from 2025, half of the hunters would have to partake in mandatory training and the rest in 2029.

Sources

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/25/deaths-from-hunters-bullets-on-the-rise-in-france

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/25/deaths-from-hunters-bullets-on-the-rise-in-france

https://www.eurosport.fr/photos/grand-format/la-chasse-et-l-alcool/172750-la-chasse-et-l-alcool.shtml

https://news.yahoo.com/m/b0789ed9-ea5b-3b3a-b716-93e5f2de510d/draw-on-the-fly-avid-sportsman-finds-artistic-outlet.html