France: Cyclist shot by recreational hunter
A mountain biker was fatally injured on Saturday evening after riding into a hail of bullets from a recreational hunter on the outskirts of Montriond in Haute-Savoie.
A mountain biker was fatally injured on Saturday evening after riding into a hail of bullets from a recreational hunter on the outskirts of Montriond in Haute-Savoie.
The accident occurred at around 6:00 p.m. during a recreational hunt organised by local recreational hunters in the presence of guests, said the public prosecutor of Thonon-les-Bains, Philippe Toccanier. The incident took place just a few kilometres from the Swiss border.
Shot from 40 metres away
The victim, Marc Sutton, a British national, was a 34-year-old vegetarian restaurateur who had been living in the nearby town of Les Gets for several years. The man was an avid biker and “perfectly identifiable” by his coloured helmet and coloured mountain bike on this well-travelled road situated at 1,350 metres above sea level.
The 22-year-old recreational hunter was a hunting guest and had to be hospitalised in a state of shock after realising that he had not shot at a wild boar from 40 metres away. Marc Sutton’s spine and lungs were pierced by the bullet. The man died instantly.
Mayor bans recreational hunting in the area
An investigation for manslaughter has been opened. The mayor has temporarily banned recreational hunting in the area.
France is the only country in Europe where recreational hunters are free to indulge their barbaric impulses every day of the week. And indeed, it is also the country with the highest number of hunting accidents. In all hunting accidents, 20% of those harmed are uninvolved bystanders, and a third of those cases result in fatalities. More on crime and recreational hunting.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In our dossiers on the criticism of recreational hunting gather fact-checks, analyses and background reports. The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.
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.
