The Senate Hunting Safety Mission, created after a petition following a deadly accident, spoke out Wednesday against the nationwide introduction of hunting-free days and advocated measures to promote “cohabitation” between hunters and non-hunters.
The mission was created last November, after a petition on the upper house’s website garnered more than 100,000 signatures. It had been launched by the “Un jour un chasseur” collective, created after the death of a 25-year-old man killed in front of his house in Lot by a hunting shot.
In particular, he called for the establishment of “no hunting Sundays and Wednesdays” or even “protective distances around residential areas equal to the maximum range of weapons”, a maximum blood alcohol level for hunters (there is currently no limit, but alcohol consumption can be an aggravating circumstance in case of prosecution after an accident) or even an increase in the age for a hunting license, currently set at 16 years.
According to figures from the French Office for Biodiversity, the number of hunting accidents has been on a downward trend for 20 years.
For the 2021-2022 season, “the OFB recorded a total of 90 hunting accidents (bodily injuries linked to the use of a hunting weapon), including eight hunter deaths.”
“Prohibit alcohol and drug use while hunting”
On non-hunting days, the mission rejected “a uniform national rule”, although it said it was “convinced that local demands must be heard”. For this reason, it proposes “allowing the prefects to limit the days and hours of hunting to guarantee the safety of people” and establish a “compulsory prior declaration of big game hunting”.
On the other hand, it proposes to create “a crime of obstruction of legal sports or leisure activities”, a complaint by hunters against activists who try, in particular, to prevent hunting with bloodhounds. He also rejects the idea of protective distances, stressing that “they would lead, given the range of weapons, to a ban on hunting in much of France.”
On the other hand, the mission proposes to “prohibit alcohol and the use of narcotic drugs during hunting” and “align the blood alcohol level withheld, the ban on narcotic drugs as well as their respective sanctions with the regulations in force regarding the Highway Code” .
Among the 30 proposals are also measures to strengthen training, without raising the age for obtaining the license but “generalizing tutorials”, or the obligation to pass a first aid certificate and an annual medical examination.
Source: BFM TV
