The death of a hiker puts hunting at the heart of the electoral campaign

Europe 1 with AFP 2:42 p.m., February 20, 2022

The death of a 25-year-old hiker on Saturday during a boar hunt in Cantal has put the debate on hunting back at the heart of the presidential election campaign, with several political figures calling for its weekend ban.

The young woman died on Saturday afternoon while she was walking on a marked path with her companion in a town near Aurillac, mortally wounded by a stray bullet during a wild boar beat.

A 17-year-old hunter in police custody

The public prosecutor in Aurillac, Paolo Giambisi, told AFP that the author of the shot, a 17-year-old girl, was placed in police custody on Sunday morning for manslaughter.

Tested negative for narcotics and alcohol, she was hospitalized on Saturday in shock.

"There is the question of experience," the secretary of state for biodiversity, Bérangère Abba, told AFP, adding that the hunter had obtained her license at 16.

"If it turns out that we still have things to strengthen, we will," she added, recalling having announced "the creation of a geolocation app in which we could know around us where the beatings take place".

The drama has once again revived the old French quarrel between the pros and the anti-hunters.

"We need more regulation of this activity, it is urgent!", Claimed on Saturday the environmental candidate for president, Yannick Jadot.

>> READ ALSO -

 Partially ban hunting?

An "incredible hypocrisy" for the Hunters' Federation

"Security devices"

"How many more deaths before we decide to regulate hunting, a dangerous and inhuman practice? At the very least, let's ban hunting on weekends and school holidays now!" Added David Belliard, EELV deputy to the mayor. of Paris and socialist presidential candidate, Anne Hidalgo.

"Hunting must not be possible on weekends and during school holidays, because that is where the risk would be greatest," said the leader of rebellious France, Jean-Luc Mélenchon on France3 .

"Secondly, we must stop selling weapons that are so powerful."

"I consider that hunting is an ancestral tradition and that it must be maintained", argued Marine Le Pen, of the National Rally, on France Inter.

"If you prevent hunters from hunting on weekends, they won't be able to hunt because hunters still work. So we have to find a way so that walkers and hunters can safely enjoy our extraordinary domain”, she judged.

A committee on security

Referring to his "sadness", the president of the National Federation of Hunters (FNC), Willy Schraen, indicated that "all the federations of hunters" are being contacted "to be reminded of all the rules of security" and that a meeting will be requested "from the beginning of next week of all the nature federations to recall the security devices".

"I am counting on each of you to be extra careful. Do not shoot in a situation where the slightest doubt or the slightest risk persists must be the only course of action to take during a hunting action", underlined the president on his Facebook page. 

Hunting regularly comes up in political debate in France, a European country with the most hunters ahead of Spain and Italy, with 1.2 million active, out of some four million with a permit.

France is also the only European country allowing hunting every day during the season, while Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal have established one or more non-hunting days.

A petition calling for a ban on hunting on Wednesdays and Sundays had collected more than 120,000 signatures last fall and prompted the Senate to create a commission on security.