Deaths are dreadful.. I was commenting on the Table which had been itroduced into the thread.
The 2 deaths you mention were due to the “shooters” breaking the rules". Honestly, it’s not rocket science. such needless deaths.
I bet they were too light! 
1 Like
i) ‘Hunter Julien Féral shot and killed British-born Morgan Keane, who was chopping wood in his garden … Féral was given a two-year suspended sentence and a lifetime hunting ban.’
ii) ‘Following the conviction of the hunting association that organized the hunt, the shooter was also sentenced this Tuesday, October 8th, by the Aurillac juvenile court to a one-year suspended prison sentence and the permanent revocation of her hunting license.’
2 Likes
Those seem lenient to me.
1 Like
What I also find frightening is that the second offender seems to have been a juvenile!
I think she was seventeen at the time of the accident.
Eek.
Even granted that most 17yo girls are more mature than 21yo lads, it’s frightening to think of youths with deadly weapons.
But there have been young people’s shoots forever, eg in the UK, they are just better organised. Unfortunately I don’t think “never ever let your gun/ pointed be at anyone/ that it may unloaded be/ matters not a jot to me” is taught in France.
I’ve no objection to hunting.
Just not by juveniles. Doesn’t matter how long it’s been going on.
Sh
The fault lay primarily with the hunt master, who was supervising her. She should not have been allowed to shoot in the direction of the chemin.
3 Likes
I think I’d apportion blame between him and a system/culture which allows adolescents to use deadly weapons. What she did will stay with her for the rest of her life, which may be something horrible (it might alternatively make her all the more humane, which we can hope).
quite so. I’ve not seen any underage with our local chasses, but that’s not to say they don’t exist.
I know it sounds boring.. but the rules are clear and should be followed. Better not to fire at all than to make such a deadly mistake.
EDIT: to clarify. Some people might feel let-down if they don’t get to shoot at something (anything) when out with the Chasse. Of course that’s not the correct thinking, but I can understand a youngster getting “carried away” if not sufficiently supervised. Very. very sad.
Somebody told me that hunters sometimes import some boars bred in captivity if there are too few to provide their sport.
Nah, I had a .22 rifle when I was about 12-13 yrs old never shot a person with it. .22 bullets do ricochet easy though.
2 Likes
It makes much more sense to teach young people how to handle firearms safely (and how to drink socially) than for them to bring established attitudes as adults with marginal supervision to such things.
2 Likes
I’m not so sure.
Hunting, whether in the UK or France, is done by a self-selecting group of people who want to go out and kill animals. Populations of sanglier etc need to be kept down, and I’m happy to eat game - I prefer it to farmed meat, because it seems more humane to me - but not, I think, by amateurs.
One of this problem’s many sub-problems is that there are around 30,000 rural communes in France, so 15,000 or so professional hunters seems an unrealistic target.
And how to make a living outside of the hunting season?
It’s all seasonal work nowadays, isn’t it? L’économie gigue 
I’ve taken part in dozens of shoots in the UK and have never witnessed a single incident, this is due to rigid obeyance of the rules and crucially all of the shoots take place on private land well away from the general public.
Despite my fondness for shooting/hunting I declined all offers to participate in local hunts in France primarily on safety grounds. In my view, allowing large groups of hunters to roam the countryside alongside a pack of poorly trained dogs comes with a high risk of accidents which will likely be serious given the type of guns involved.
Our last ten years in the Charente Maritime was spent in a tiny hamlet surrounded by fields, woods and vines which was pretty much perfect, except for the chasse. We’ve been shot at whilst on a public road, had shot rain down on the house, had countless hunting dogs in the garden and witnessed a car hit a hunting dog on a main road that sent the dog flying into a car travelling in the opposite direction killing the dog and causing an accident.
I fully accept that boar and deer populations need reducing but hunting barely makes a dent in their numbers, hunting is a sport/pastime and French tradition but not an effective means of wild animal control. Because it is part of rural life it shouldn’t be banned but I do think there should be “chasse free” weekends in the Autumn and Winter so the rest of the population can enjoy the countryside in peace and safety.
4 Likes
Tim’s post highlights that essentially, there are two problems:
i) Regardless of how rigorously hunters observe the safety regs, for various reasons les chasses simply aren’t up to the job of keeping sanglier numbers at a reasonable level.
ii) Conflict with other users of the countryside - despite numerous petitions the government is in too great a need of the hunting community’s support to establish hunt free day/s of the week.