I am losing working time, but one last quick point. Guy is right and actually each other person is right and perhaps that is the problem. Local complaints to the Chasse, Mairie and Gendarmerie go nowhere in many, perhaps most, cases. Going it alone as a) a foreigner and b) because people are 'not supposed to complain' has a downside. Group with other people who have complaints, get as many French people to be part of it as possible, then complain to the Prefect. Register the letter to ensure it is not suppressed by a minion (does happen in all administrations in all countries, so not my silly paranoia) and copy it to a couple of national newspapers. Probably most of it will come to nothing but there is enough of an urban population that will be outraged and a Prefect has to do something, that a warning shot will be fired across the bows of a few hunts and for at least a while the gendarmes will be vigilant. Again, I am very much not against hunting but it has to be a two sided relationship in which both sides fight fair or unfair with equal vigour and when it has to be unfair then whatever means required to end that should be used.
We do suspect one of our two cats was a hunt victim, early on this season. Sometimes it feels a bit like living in Deliverance... And I agree with Annie: there don't seem to be any days off, now. Here on the Dordogne/Charente border, they seem to be shooting from Thursday to Tuesday! We have 2 neighbours, both with hunting dogs, and as my wife says, we wouldn't trust those people with broomsticks, let alone with loaded guns! I only wish it was as regulated here as Brian describes. I doubt that very much.
wow some of you have some scary hunters....I walk the woods often with headphones on and the local hunters now come to me before to tell me they are in the wood to ensure I don t get shot by accident.I also have at times 5 ex hunt dogs so they at first could nt understand why I was caring for these dogs but now they just call up and ask me to put them safe.Yes they do have a "tipple" and yes this is unsafe but thankfully I ve not seen any irresponsible hunting near to me.I would never report them for trap setting etc. but its possible to "wreck" their hunt if you really want them off territory and its not by local police ...that s not the way the french think ...
Charente Maritime Sue. Everything is orderly here and all are polite and considerate. All the chasse days are marked with the roadside signs and registers of attendees are kept meticulously. I haven't seen any that are not.
As for shooting on armistice day that just wouldn't happen here - they still ostracise families of collaborators from nearly 70 years ago. It was heavily occupied here. Also, as for unbroken guns, many hunters use single barrel, multi shot that cannot be broken. The law is the same here as in the UK in that the chambers have to be restricted to three shots.The president of our local chasse is a woman and there are a number of other woman who hunt here so there is representation - even if it is not proportionate!
All of the last few women here are dead right. Women, rarely seen and not really wanted here unlike my experience where we had at least 50% in Cambridgeshire. Seasons have staggered starts from the middle of August with different dates up until October when specific creatures are added. This season finishes on 29 February BUT if there are culls, people who are above the law, etc... Find out dates and details on WWW.dordogne.pref.gouv.fr and then click on Agriculture et forêt and you have all the detail you need. If your French is up to it you can find the relevant laws online. One problem is low reporting that makes stats very iffy. Strictly speaking those stats should include the animals above the permitted quotas, but who would report them? Back to Sue, being an anthropologist I have a view on the hunter-gatherer comment and would disagree. I find it a club of mates who just want to be more macho than each other whereas h-g societies do it to survive.
After a vet's bill of 1,500E for a much loved cat that was shaken by a chasse dog you can perhaps guess my opinion. I have always kept the cats in on chasse days, but there seem to be no rules to days at the moment?
Brian F, don't get me wrong I am not against French people or France I have lived here for 17 years, speak fluent French and I love it over here. I am not against hunting either, although I wouldn't do it myself, my husband (who is French) goes fishing as do 2 of my children and has hunted now again as well. However, I do hear a lot of stories about hunters over here and I was wondering what experiences other people had. I did ask for both good and bad stories and I know a lot of hunters who are very nice and respectful, but like in any group, whatever country you are in you get some great people, some normal people and a some idiots! What got me thinking about it was the other day I went riding, with my fluorescent gear on, and I meet quite a few hunters out half of whom were really nice, giving me a friendly "Bonjour" etc and half of them didn't even reply when I said hello. While talking to a friend it got me thinking about the discussion I mentioned in my first post. I am not against drinking either and I've been know to enjoy a few glasses myself, I just think drinking a shotguns are maybe not such a great combination......
Don't know where or who you hunt with Brian F but your post is way off beam from our experience. Even official hunts are not posted here. When we ask at the Mairie we just get a shrug. Hunters wander where they want when they want, never with the guns broken. Shooting often occurs outside the legal permitted hours. Essentially everyone else who does not hunt are prisoners in their own homes when they are out and about. They do not even respect Armistace Day for goodness sake!
As an additional rant...............I have never seen a woman hunter around here. This is the domain of Men who still play at hunter gathering!
are there any publicized stats regarding injuries to people/pets by hunters and (showing my ignorance here) RSPCA? or anything similar to oversee minimal suffering by the hunted animal?
I have only rarely seen the hunters although we hear them almost daily, which was ok until our nighbours horse was shot dead whilst in his front garden. The Gendarmes appeared but then left and the poor horse was left for 3 days awaiting specialist equipment I suppose...the scary thing is that I had been walking by his house with our dog only 10 minutes before??? Nothing seems to have happened and it wasnt even reported in the paper!!!!
I don't know much about it but I'm new to the area and it has made me nervous about going for walks. Not even the locals seem to know when the season begins or ends!
They set traps (a kind of piano wire noose) in the fields around us and my dog got caught in one, luckily he pulled the peg out of the ground and was only bruised and slightly cut. I complained at the Mairie and apparently they are supposed to have signs up in the areas where they set traps (Pieges). There were no signs so I visited a hunter who lives next door but one (he's a parisian who only lives here 4 months of the year) and he informed the hunters fraternity and they've now put up signs. They also have to have permission from the farmers whose land they tramp around. The whole thing is yet another excuse for a piss-up with mates (a bit like me and my golfing pals really!); although I must admit to accepting a jar of home-made Sanglier paté from the aggrieved neighbour !
I have no problems with 'responsible' hunters - it's the rest that cause the problems! Our own chasse has a fair few of those - I have seen youngsters who have just got their license actually running across ploughed fields with loaded, unbroken shotguns. This chasse rarely puts up signs or posts lookouts, and seem to wander everywhere at will. The neighbouring association is a model of good practice. If you complain in our commune, you are likely to find a load of manure dumped on your drive - or worse. We certainly never see a gendarme aropund when there is a hunt on - or at any other time, for that matter.
Brian F. OK, I am also not anti-hunt and shot and used my bow in England too. I would need the permit to hunt with the bow here, remembering it is a hunting permit rather than a gun licence. I agree, but there are hunts who are entirely reckless despite the so-called security. The shooting across roads is common to both countries in fact and forbidden in both. I also think a lot more people have moved to the 'country' from when they came when coming here. However, the president of the adjoining commune hunt when here and falling out with my OH told her he could lean against the wall of our house if he felt like it when she asked him to get away from just near our childrens' trampoline and a couple of his companions made him leave. She found out the law and confronted him on another occasion and told him he would be photographed and a formal complaint brought against him. Now not even his dogs come on our land. Our own local hunt are mainly great, their guests not so great but on the odd occasion after a wet lunch some of what has happened is shocking. Then again, I have known large hip flasks empty by 10 am on Boxing Day hunts in England...
Annie, no not unemployment but the season given that most hunters are involved in agricultural work (or retired) and now there is a hiatus. French walkers' groups have been trying for a Sunday ban for some years and the last prefect of the Dordogne was apparently 'sympathetic' to the cause without acting on it. In the early new year it will drop off again. Get a big roll of red/white barrier tape and put it on your fences to protect the goats. If they shoot into that make a formal complaint to your mairie.
We have a pair of pheasants that have arrived on our land and the surrounding fields since we heard the chasse the other week.
Obviously seeking a safer retreat.
Jim is thinking of rearing game birds, but I want them on my table, not those in the village!
So Beckie, please humour me and tell me why you are publicly asking for contributions to a argument you state t"you just can't win".............?
I hunt and fish with the French and the English, in England. The difference is that the French are more security conscious but there are (fortunately very few) idiots. I have never know drink to be an influencing factor in France but I do know people that have been shot by fellows in England! It's not just the French Beckie - it's human nature! Anyone who is worried should wear the fluorescent hat or jacket and put a red fluorescent collar on your dog - particularly if it's a black one!
When we first moved to our current house we were told hunting was restricted to Thursdays and Sundays. It now seems to happen every day of the week. Our property is surrounded on all sides by farmland leading to various woods and copses so the hunters tend to circle around us shooting indiscriminately. Our poor dog is constantly barking at them and I worry for our goats in case they get mistaken for something in the hedgerow where they tend to forage. Is the rise in hunting time due to the rise in unemployment I wonder?
Around Maisons-Laffitte, where I live, the shoots are well-organised; the scheduled dates are posted up on all main entrances to the forest at least a month in advance,there are red/white tape boundaries along forest-side roads and the police enure traffic moves slowly on the major roads which bisect the woods using their vehicles to create convoys at 30km/hr. Very security conscious. BUT 17km away where I keep my horse, it's a completely different story. No advance notice, no warnings on the day, just "mad" gun-wielding people in camouflage gear hiding in the forest taking pot shots at anything that moves. I now have a "neon" hat cover, gilet, and gloves, whilst my horse sports a "day-glo" rug, bandages and tail guard. My French riding pals think it's hilarious, but at least I feel a little safer, although avoid the woods anytime I hear shooting, just in case.....