The hunters of Haut-Rhin are currently refusing to indulge in their favorite passion for bad reasons.

These amateurs will even demonstrate on Friday morning in front of the prefecture, which requires the massive slaughter of deer and fallow deer to curb the overpopulation of deer in the department, deemed harmful to the forest.

REPORT

When hunters don't want to hunt anymore.

In the Haut-Rhin, the prefecture, which intends to regulate the deer population in the department, asks the hunters of this territory to massively neutralize the deer and fallow deer until February 28.

But the hunters don't want to draw.

The prefecture's injunction is however clear in these times of curfew in the face of the coronavirus: deer must be taken, even at night, with a flashlight.

"No more hunting"

This position scandalizes Gilles Kaszuk, president of the Federation of Haut-Rhin hunters.

"I ask all Haut-Rhin hunters not to participate in this kind of operation," he announces.

"These animals must be able to live and survive in peace without having to be shot at them all the time. This is absolutely no longer hunting, it is massacre."

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The hunters have no reason to reduce the herd

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But not everyone sees this reaction from the hunters very favorably.

"It's communication," denounces Jacques Adam, who represents 300 small forest owners.

According to him, the hunters set themselves up as defenders of protected nature, "of Bambi and his mother", the better to kill them in the summer, during beautiful and social hunting parties.

"To attract people, you need beautiful hunts. When you invite Mr. X or Mr. Y to hunt, they must see deer, roe deer, wild boars in a mess. The hunters therefore have no reason to decrease the livestock, since it would be damaging to the image of their hunting. "

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Problem for the forest

For the prefecture and the foresters, the overpopulation of deer and other fallow deer simply prevents the forest from developing and growing properly.

To protest against this request, the hunters demonstrate Friday morning in front of the prefecture.