France: Hobby Hunters Drown Deer

In France, where the hunting season on horseback with packs of hounds is currently under way, anti-hunting activists from AVA are filming the unbelievable barbarities carried out by hobby hunters. Across the country, deer are being chased to death and either torn apart alive by the dogs, or drowned — for example, using inflatable dinghies.

Government supports brutal hunt

The government is ignoring the growing resistance among citizens, as President Macron has repeatedly and explicitly expressed his support for this form of “traditional” animal cruelty. Tragic accidents caused by hobby hunters also continue to occur time and again.

Public successfully fights back

In this video, local residents successfully stand up to the hobby hunters. The deer was able to return to the forest and its freedom. The mayor subsequently received messages of thanks and praise from people across the entire country.

In Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and elsewhere, this form of hunting — which involves unleashing a pack of hungry dogs on wild animals to kill them — has been banned for decades. In France, it is the subject of fierce controversy. As a result, more and more activists are venturing into French forests to obstruct the hobby hunters. This is especially true of the AVA association (Abolissons la Vénerie Aujourd’hui), whose members are regularly on the ground to document the barbarities of the hobby hunters on video. AVA activists also employ the tactic of feeding the hunting dogs in order to distract them.

On December 16th of last year, they decided to sabotage the hunt in the Laigue forest. In a video posted on Facebook, the association explains that the hobby hunters had planned to chase the deer with their pack of dogs until they drowned in a pond.

After the feeding, the dogs did not continue the pursuit. «No deer were killed today,» AVA commented with satisfaction in the video. More on this topic under Hobby hunting internationally and Animal welfare issue.

More on this in the dossier: Hunting and animal welfare