Zoé Pallier 8:12 a.m., February 21, 2022
After the hunting accident that claimed the life of a 25-year-old hiker on Saturday in Cantal, it's time for debate: should this practice be banned on weekends?
France is the only European country to authorize hunting every day of the week during the season.
It happened on Saturday during a wild boar hunt in Cassaniouze in Cantal: a 25-year-old hiker was fatally injured by a stray bullet while she was walking with her companion on a marked trail.
The author of the shot is a 17-year-old hunter, since placed in police custody for manslaughter.
The tragedy revives the debate on the banning of hunting on weekends, a measure demanded by many political figures, in the forefront of which elected environmentalists.
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The debate revived in the municipality of the drama
"We are very shocked, it could have been one of my daughters or my granddaughters", sighs Michel Castanier, mayor of the village of Cassaniouze where the accident took place on Saturday.
Without drawing any conclusions, he rests the debate that comes up like a refrain with each drama between a walker and a hunter.
"When an accident like that happens, there are always questions that arise, which are put back on the carpet. For example, should we not open the hunt on weekends", wonders he at the microphone of Europe 1.
Weekend hunting, a French exception
In France, hunting is authorized every day of the week during the season.
This is a French exception, underlines Marc Giraud, spokesperson for the association for the protection of wild animals.
"In Europe, hunting hasn't been a lobby like here for a very long time. There are plenty of practices that only exist in France. There is no national day without hunting, whereas there are in all the other countries in Europe. In England, there is no hunting on Sundays since 1831. And elsewhere, the 'normal conditions' are days without hunting: in Italy, one hunts only three days a week and in Portugal, only two days", explains Marc Giraud.
This fall, a petition to ban hunting on Wednesdays and Sundays has collected more than 120,000 signatures.
Since then, a Senate commission has been working on the subject.
Work is still in progress.