Cantal: 70-year-old recreational hunter shot in the chest during wild boar hunt
In Marcolès, a shot struck a participant in a driven hunt in the chest. The gendarmerie is examining whether safety rules were disregarded.
Illustrative image. Photo: Luc Santeramo / Unsplash
Driven hunt
In the French département of Cantal, a recreational hunter has once again been seriously injured during a wild boar hunt. A 70-year-old man was struck in the chest by a shot in Marcolès on Wednesday, 11 November 2026. According to the most recently published information of 12 November, his life was in danger. It is the second serious shooting incident during recreational hunting in the Cantal since 7 November.
What happened in Marcolès
Emergency services were alerted at around 2.30 pm. The incident took place near the hamlet of Fontfroide during a driven hunt for wild boar, in which around twenty recreational hunters were taking part. According to L’Avenir, a 12-gauge projectile struck the man in the chest. After initial treatment, the injured man was flown by helicopter to the university hospital in Clermont-Ferrand.
The Brigade de recherches of the Aurillac gendarmerie is investigating, under the direction of the public prosecutor, on suspicion of negligent bodily harm. According to Radio RVA, there are initial indications that safety rules and prescribed firing angles were not observed. According to RVA, the incident occurred in open, gently hilly terrain without major visual obstructions. The exact sequence of events has not yet been established.
Second serious shooting incident within a few days
Only on Saturday, 7 November, a 23-year-old recreational hunter had been shot in the chest in Leucamp, also in the Cantal. The suspected shooter was taken into police custody and released again; investigations are ongoing. WBW has reported on this case in an overview of the incidents in the Sologne, the Cantal and the Calvados.
On 11 November, two recreational hunters also died in Tuscany: one from a shot fired from his own weapon, the other after a suspected medical incident. On 7 November, a mushroom picker had already been seriously injured by a hunting shot near Céret in southern France. WBW has reported on these incidents. The WBW analysis deals with possible recording gaps in official statistics: on accident figures in Europe.
Commentary
Firing angles, safety zones, high-visibility vests: rules alone do not prevent gunshot injuries. In Marcolès, according to a witness quoted by RVA, the safety instructions were repeated once more before the start of the driven hunt. Even so, a participant was left with life-threatening injuries. Whether rules were disregarded and how the shot came about must be established by the investigation. The political question goes further: anyone who takes safety seriously must also question the risks of the driven hunt itself, and cannot limit themselves to high-visibility vests and codes of conduct.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier The Role and Criticism of Recreational Hunters we shed light on the training, power and self-image of recreational hunters. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
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