France in Focus

My neighbours on the other side of the valley keep a few sheep.have done for years. They graze on various parcels belonging to other people in the valley. Their ram has been out with the flock for a few days.
They went to check on them last week and found the poor ram dying.
It had been attacked by a boar and was in a terrible state. The rest of the flock were hiding in a huddle.
The chasse did a special battu at the weekend. There are in excess of 25 boar in a troupeau. Don’t know how many there are or if they shot any of them.
The chasse are having difficulty getting enough people interested in taking part.Apart from the inherent risks of getting shot, it costs them personally a lot of money to get a permit and they are apparently liable as a société de chasse for such incidents as this.

Vicious creatures. So destructive. Poor ram. I'm surprised the other sheep escaped harm.

The ram may well have stood its ground while the ewes escaped. As you say, poor ram.

How awful! Yes, I suspect the poor ram provided cover for the sheep to escape.

Friends in the Gard used to have a lot of trouble with boar ruining their crops, making a trampled mess of gardens and causing havoc generally.

The chasse had regular outings and tried to keep the numbers of boar down, but as in so many places there were fewer people who wanted to join them - expense being one of the problems, but people aging was important and many buyers of property locally were only weekenders

We very much enjoyed the meals our neighbour invited us to share with them from his share of the boar and the various tasty pâtés he gave us. Wiping up drops of blood along our corridor to his door were a small price to pay!