In December 2020, Morgan Keane, a 25-year-old young man from Lot, was killed by a hunter's shot while he was in his garden.
This Thursday, the hunter behind the fatal shot and the director of the hunt are on trial in Cahors for "manslaughter".
For two years, and under the impetus of Morgan Keane's friends, the debate on hunting safety has been revived and has aroused strong opposition.
The government has announced an upcoming plan on this subject, with announcements that will come into effect by the end of the year.
On December 2, 2020, Morgan Keane was chopping wood a hundred meters from his house in Lot, on his land, when he was fatally hit by a hunter's bullet.
This Thursday, the shooter and the director of the boar hunt will be tried in Cahors for "manslaughter".
On the bench of the civil parties, there will be the brother of the 25-year-old young man, Rowan, with whom he lived in his small house in the village of Calvignac.
But also, which might seem more surprising, the Lot departmental hunting federation.
“We have to be there to understand what happened.
Not everything has been respected and we do not endorse the act of the hunter.
In our training, safety rules are essential, we also learn that not shooting is an act of hunting, ”recalls Michel Bouscary, its president, who will be present at the hearing.
Like Willy Schraen, the boss of French hunters, he highlights the individual responsibility of the 35-year-old shooter, from Aveyron, who came to the Lot that day when France was experiencing its second confinement.
And he does not hide that following this fatal accident, "hunting suffered moral damage, was attacked from all sides".
“Detrimentalizing” accidents
On this question of society, where positions are often decided, there has indeed been a before and after "Morgan Keane".
For two years, several relatives of Lotois have indeed mobilized through the collective "Un jour un chasseur" to change the legislation concerning this activity practiced regularly by more than 1.1 million French people.
“We made the subject political.
I'm not saying we didn't talk about it before, but we never talked about hunting as much as in the last few months and weeks.
Before, accidents were reported in an innocuous way, as if it were normal to die.
This contributes to detrimentalizing.
Today, they can no longer ignore that there is a problem with the current practice of hunting.
If the government decides not to do anything, it is really a conscious choice,”
On social networks, with the other co-founders, they regularly pointed out incidents that occurred in the field or gave voice to those who were victims of them.
But beyond this census, last year they launched a citizen petition on the Senate website.
A means of submitting several proposals to parliamentarians, in particular that of stricter training, better control and monitoring of weapons, criminal sanctions "at the height of the offenses committed" but also days without hunting on Wednesdays and Sundays.
This request, taken up by elected officials, but also presidential candidates like Yannick Jadot and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has revived the debate.
The Senate mission on "the issue of hunting safety", set up when the petition exceeded 100,000 signatures, delivered its report last September.
It does not take up the idea of prohibiting hunting on certain days, but recommends that the prefects have the possibility of "limiting the days and times of hunting to ensure the safety of people".
A series of 30 proposals which has drawn the wrath of both supporters and opponents of this practice, causing 90 accidents, including eight fatalities, during the 2021-2022 season.
The members of the senatorial mission, for example, proposed banning alcohol when hunting,
Alcohol, shooting angle, but not a day without a study hunt
An idea since taken up by the government, which unveiled its plan three weeks ago to secure the practice of hunting.
It relates in particular to the upstream training of hunters, the conditions in which hunting takes place, information for users or the sharing of space.
Or even “the integration of the 30° shooting angle rule”, without revealing a timetable for applying it.
“This question of the safety angle has existed for more than twenty years and we talk about it during our training sessions.
Concerning the blood alcohol level, we agree.
We must base ourselves on the legislation of the Highway Code, we must not drink whether we are driving a car or have a weapon in hand, ”approves Michel Bouscary, who has 6,500 hunters. active within its departmental federation.
On the other hand, he remains opposed to a ban day on the grounds of sharing nature, recalling that a majority of hunting parties take place on private land.
"Afterwards there are very clear safety rules, you should not shoot in the direction of hiking or residential paths", assures this practitioner.
“They talk about 80% private land, but hunters don't own 80% of the land in France.
It's hypocrisy, ”criticizes Léa Jaillard, for whom the government announcements are far from sufficient.
For the “Un jour, un chasseur” collective, the question of hunting days must be dealt with at national and not local level, as was mentioned for a while.
“Seven out of ten French people are asking for a ban on Sundays, public holidays, even school holidays.
It's not normal to wonder every time you leave your house if you're going to be shot in the head, in the arm or in the legs.
We can clearly see that nothing is being done in the direction of the citizens and everything is going in the direction of the hunters, it is a problem”,
deplores the friend of Morgan Keane who hopes that a sentence of prohibition to hunt for life will be pronounced at the end of the trial.
He also faces up to three years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros.
But beyond a condemnation, for Léa Jaillard "the important thing is that we realize that there are responsibilities at several levels and that we stop considering that it is banal to kill someone while hunting”.
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Lot: Two hunters will be tried for the death of young Morgan Keane
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Ban hunting on Wednesdays and Sundays, "a good start" for some, a "liberticide" measure for others
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