A Man Dies in Harchies and Europe Looks Away

It is a local report from a small town on the border, one of many.

But therein lies the problem: such “isolated incidents” accumulate, across Europe, into a deadly statistic — without there being so much as a central, transparent register.

The simple question “How many people have already died in the current hunting season in Europe?” has an uncomfortable answer:

Nobody knows exactly.

There is:

• no EU-wide reporting obligation,
• no shared database,
• widely differing national definitions of “hunting accident” (does it count only firearms? Only during official hunting periods?),
• and many incidents that surface in local media but are never officially aggregated.

Nevertheless, a picture can be drawn — and that picture is anything but reassuring.

France and Italy: two examples of a structural problem

France: 100 accidents, 11 deaths in just one season

France is one of the few countries in which a government agency systematically records hunting accidents.

For the season 2024/2025 the Office français de la biodiversité (OFB) reports:

• 100 firearms accidents
• 11 deaths (all hobby hunters)
• 16 injured non-hunters, three of them seriously
• 135 “incidents” without personal injury — including 58 houses struck by gunfire, 27 vehicles, and 50 domestic animals.

That is the official tally for one season in one country. Animal welfare organisations rightly speak of a “significantly increased” number of fatal hunting accidents.

Italy: 62 accidents, 14 deaths — according to the hunting association itself

In Italy, the University of Urbino has been evaluating media reports on hunting accidents nationwide for years. For the 2024/2025 hunting season, the analysis yields:

• 62 accidents
• 14 fatalities

Noteworthy: these figures are disseminated by Italian hunting associations themselves, as evidence that they are “committed to safety.” This changes nothing for the victims, and there are considerable doubts about the completeness of the data.

Current season 2025/2026: A bloody autumn and only fragments of data

The ongoing 2025/26 hunting season began in September across large parts of Europe. Official total figures have naturally not yet been published. Yet even now, reports from NGOs and media outlets paint an alarming picture.

Italy: At least 7 dead and 22 injured within a few months

An Italian animal welfare organisation that systematically documents hunting accidents reports the following for the first approximately three months of the 2025/26 season, relating to wild boar hunts alone:

• 29 persons affected,
• including 7 dead and 22 injured.

These figures cover only one segment of hunting (wild boar), only one country, and only a portion of the season.

In parallel, Italian regional media are reporting further fatal hunting accidents:

• A 69-year-old hunter in the province of Pistoia is fatally struck by friendly fire during a wild boar hunt.
• An 80-year-old hunter in the Maremma dies after a bullet strikes him in the chest during a hunt.
• In several regions of northern Italy, further fatal shootings of hunting participants occur, including in Piedmont and Friuli.

Many of these cases are very likely already included in the NGO figures. Above all, they illustrate how unbroken the chain of tragedies is.

Spain: A hobby hunter shoots his companion

In Catalonia, a hobby hunter dies in November when his companion accidentally discharges the rifle while handling it. Police and media describe it as a hunting accident and are investigating on suspicion of negligent homicide.

Belgium: The Harchies case

Back to Belgium: in Harchies, a hobby hunter is fatally shot during a driven hunt near the French border. Residents hear a shot and screams; help arrives too late for the man. Another death, another local report — but no entry in any European aggregate statistic.

Ireland and other countries: similar reports

Reports are also accumulating outside the continent, but within the «European hunting model»: In Ireland, for example, a 21-year-old dies during a fox hunt from a gunshot wound.

And even hunting lobby organisations at the European level concede that fatal hunting accidents occur repeatedly, even as they emphasise that the figures are «on the decline» and that work is being done on «safe driven hunts».

What can be said with confidence?

On the basis of available data and media reports, only a cautious assessment can be made regarding the current 2025/2026 hunting season:

• There is no central, official register for hunting accidents in Europe.
• In Italy alone, NGO and media analyses indicate at least seven fatalities and more than twenty injuries in the first months of the season.
• In several other countries — including Spain, Belgium and France — fatal hunting accidents have also been documented this autumn.

Stated conservatively, this means:

In the ongoing European hunting season 2025/26, it has been demonstrably established that at least a good dozen people have already lost their lives as a result of hunting activities. The actual figure is in all likelihood significantly higher.

For comparison: in France alone, 11 people officially died in the completed 2024/25 season; in Italy, 14 during the same period. It would be unrealistic to assume that Europe as a whole is suddenly falling well below these figures in the current season, particularly given that the season is far from over. In German-speaking countries as well, there have repeatedly been cases in recent years in which armed hobby hunters in a terminal state went on rampages and killed bystanders.

The invisible victims: non-hunters, pets, millions of wild animals

When hunting associations such as FACE argue that most victims are «only hunters», there is a cynical logic at work: as though human lives count for less the moment someone holds a rifle.

Yet the figures show:

• In France during the 2024/25 season, 16 of those injured were not hunters, including walkers and other «users» of the countryside.
• The same season produced at least 135 serious «incidents» in which houses, cars and 50 pets were shot at or struck.

Not to mention the actual primary victims: wild animals. Organizations critical of hobby hunting speak of figures in the double-digit millions of wild animals killed per year — in some cases 30 to 40 million animals killed per season in France alone; international studies show that around 60 percent of wolf deaths are directly attributable to legal or illegal hunting.

A leisure activity with a deadly firearm

Hobby hunting is often marketed by its lobbying organizations as a “cultural heritage” and “connection with nature.” In practice, it means:

• People carrying loaded weapons in forests and fields, often in close proximity to villages, hiking trails, equestrian and cycling routes;
• a mix of adrenaline, peer pressure, unclear lines of fire, and in some cases inadequate training;
• and a system in which accidents are routinely dismissed as “tragic isolated incidents.”

At the same time, hunting associations in several countries are blocking stricter regulations — such as hunting bans on Sundays and public holidays or buffer zones around residential buildings — even though associations representing hunting victims and animal welfare organizations have been calling for exactly that for years.

The deadly normalcy of “hobby hunting”

The death of the hobby hunter in Harchies is not an exceptional case, but a symptom of a normalcy that Europe accepts with remarkable complacency:

• Recreational hunters roam public landscapes with weapons.
• People — hobby hunters and non-hunters alike — are killed or seriously injured.
• Pets and wild animals are “accidentally” shot.
• Houses and cars are damaged by bullets.
• And yet there is not even a European requirement to properly record these incidents.

As long as hobby hunting is treated as the privilege of a vocal minority rather than as a safety and animal welfare problem, reports like those from Harchies, Tuscany, or Catalonia will simply keep coming.

We do not know exactly how many people in Europe have already died as a result of hobby hunting in the current hunting season, but the best available data suggest that this year, too, the number will again be in the dozens. And most of these deaths would be preventable if politicians and society had the courage to radically restrict or abolish hobby hunting.