Chasse : another innocent victim

[Liz]

When is it going to stop?
Today's report is of a 25 year old woman walking on a footpath shot dead by a 17 year old female out hunting sanglier.
https://www.ladepeche.fr/2022/02/19/can ... 121973.php

I was terrified this afternoon, 250m above our village with my two big dogs on a footpath. I heard the howling hounds and their bells. ASAP I got my dogs to heel and back down into houses. That meant risking a muddy steep path, but the risk of a broken ankle was worth it I reckoned.
That young woman who lost her life could have been little old me.

[curtis]

Would it be worth having one of those gas driven horns that you could use if you hear the hunters nearby?

[MAD87]

I remember hearing years ago (25 years?) that hunting kills 50 people/year. For a 6-month season, that's quite a score. One of our sons was persuaded by a friend in our first village to go hunting with the local group: breakfast at 0600 - charcuterie, pâté, cheese, etc., washed down with copious quantities of wine and beer.... Blurred vision doesn't help in such situations.
Time yo impoàse draconian conditions if hunting is to continue, even if it puts 1 million votes at risk.

[Blaze]

Time to impose draconian conditions if hunting is to continue, even if it puts 1 million votes at risk

Agreed, but Macron is very pro hunting. I used to know Thierry Coste, a chasse lobbyist, quite well. He's incredibly knowledgeable about wildlife which always seemed to clash with his views on hunting.

Something has to be done about it - the obsession with killing anything that moves is sickening and dangerous. It's time someone took responsibility for these unnecessary deaths, both people and their animals.

[niemeyjt]

Without prempting a (hopefully) thorough investigation, it seems there is a fundamental issue of treating one weapon like another.

A shotgun is short range and designed to be swung around and discharged at a moving target - with a short range and multiple small projectiles almost incapable of killing a larger mammal like deer, sanglier and man at any range. Indeed, peppering a sanglier with a shotgun is cruel.

A rifle is long range and designed to be aimed at a static target - with a long (2km) range of a single larger projectile very capable of killing a larger mammal and very very hard to hit a bird in flight.

The problem is when you use a rifle as if it were a shotgun and wave it around rather than aiming carefully.

Maybe rifles should be forbidden on driven shoots - and sanglier targetted in dedicated shoots?

[Quiksilver]

AFAIK, hunting sanglier and deer is already subject to strict controls and carried out solely during battues. That's certainly the case in Lot-et-Garonne. The battues are notifiable and warning signs and fluo gilets obligatory. But yes, the principle of hunters using over-sized or inappropriate weapons needs to be sorted. The classic example round here is the chasse à palombes. Old, usually Pastis-befuddled men sitting in Wendy-houses in the trees enticing and then blasting pigeons à volonté, with what sounds like elephant guns. No set days or even hours, anytime between October and February, according to the migratory flight paths. In fact, the paloumayres fell foul (ha!) of new laws forbidding 'hunting' of small bird species last year, so the season was very brief. It remains to be seen whether the lobby will get the decision reversed.

[Hotrodder]

Changes to weaponry or forbidden hunting days etc. have all been discussed but I would suggest something much more simple. A requirement to pass a stringent eye test, part of which is how to differentiate the legal game from other life forms such as people, cyclists, dogs, cats, cows, horses, and perhaps even Conservatives.

[Bayleaf]

Not consuming alcohol while in charge of a firearm wouldn't be a bad idea either ...... Like that's going to be enforced.

[niemeyjt]

Changes to weaponry or forbidden hunting days etc. have all been discussed but I would suggest something much more simple. A requirement to pass a stringent eye test, part of which is how to differentiate the legal game from other life forms such as people, cyclists, dogs, cats, cows, horses, and perhaps even Conservatives.

The alleged perpetrator in this instance was 17 years old - so probably had adequate eyesight. As I said before, I suspect the weapon used was rifle - which just should not be on a driven shoot.

[exile]

But it is almost impossible to kill deer or boar with a shotgun unless you are at a very close range - even with heavy gauge shot.