France: hobby hunters race wild animals to death at night and end up in court

On 4 June 2026, the Bourges Court of Appeal heard one of the most brutal poaching cases in France in recent years: six men aged between 24 and 43 are alleged to have pursued and run over wild animals at night with an off-road vehicle, after which they posed with the dead animals for photos and videos.

The public prosecutor demanded between five and fourteen months of suspended sentence, the withdrawal of hunting licences and firearm ownership permits, the revocation of driving licences, and fines of between 1’000 and 4’000 euros (source: France 3 Centre-Val de Loire, 4 June 2026). The verdict was postponed to 1 October 2026.

The offence: night-time hunting with vehicles targeting fallow deer, red deer and piglets

The men were accused of having hunted together at night without a hunting permit, using vehicles and weapons, in the Cher department on 25 February 2025. During the hearing, the court showed seized videos and photos in which the defendants hunted fallow deer, red deer and piglets with a 4 × 4 and posed with the animals after their death.

One of the defendants stated that, although he had been present, he had distanced himself when the animals were killed: «I wanted to see wild animals at night. When I saw that they were killing animals, I turned away from the group.»

Notably, one of the defendants was the responsible head of one of the roughly 350 hound-pack hunting outfits in France – that is, the very form of hunting that especially loudly claims «respect for the animal» for itself, even though this is utter nonsense. Even the representatives of the Vénerie, the traditional French mounted chase, sharply condemned the acts: «This is absolutely unacceptable. The Vénerie respects the hunted animal more than any other form of hunting», declared Pierre-François Prioux, President of the Société de vénerie, according to France 3.

Acquittal at first instance – due to a procedural error

The proceedings had a telling backstory. In April 2025, the Tribunal judiciaire de Châteauroux acquitted the six defendants because, in the court's view, the camera traps of the Office français de la biodiversité (OFB) had been installed without authorisation from the public prosecutor – which rendered the entire chain of evidence null and void.

The civil parties then lodged an appeal. At the first appeal hearing in November 2025, too, there was no hearing on the merits: the defence once again focused on procedural questions surrounding the OFB's camera traps.

The defence repeated this strategy on 4 June 2026 as well. The lawyers again sought acquittal on the argument that the evidence was inadmissible due to procedural errors in its collection. One of the defence counsel stated: «We firmly believe that procedural flaws run through this case and preclude an examination of the merits.»

A pattern, not an isolated case

The Cher case does not stand alone. It fits into a Europe-wide pattern that IG Wild beim Wild has documented for years.

In Switzerland, during a night-time traffic check in 2023, the Uri cantonal police seized a ready-to-fire shotgun fitted with a torch on a passenger seat – a classic equipment pattern for the night hunting of wild animals. In Teruel, Spain, the national police arrested three hobby hunters in March 2026 on suspicion of animal welfare offences. In Germany, the police crime statistics recently recorded over 1’000 cases of poaching per year, with experts assuming a considerable number of unreported cases (Federal Ministry for the Environment, response to a Green Party enquiry).

The Swiss dossier on hunting crime shows that poaching is not a marginal phenomenon: no national statistics, discontinued proceedings, structural impunity. The former President of the Valais cantonal government, Jean-René Tornay, had publicly used the formula «see, shoot, shovel, stay silent» – a phrase that became the subject of a criminal complaint (source: Dossier Poaching Switzerland, wildbeimwild.com).

Why self-regulation in the hobby hunting milieu does not work

The core problem of poaching is not a lack of law, but a lack of control. Added to this is a peculiarity of the hobby hunting milieu: many tip-offs about poaching remain internal. Those in close social contact with other hobby hunters report them less often (source: Poaching in Switzerland: prevalence, unreported cases and prosecution).

What the public understands as «controlled hunting» is in reality a self-administered model in which hobby hunters mostly monitor hobby hunters. An independent supervisory authority, a central database or an automatic withdrawal of the hunting permit upon conviction – the system knows none of these (source: Dossier: regulate hobby hunters – not the predators).

The appeal verdict in the Bourges case is announced for 1 October 2026. It will show whether a court recognises the gathering of evidence by a nature conservation authority as legitimate – or whether a second acquittal once again confirms the structural impunity within the hobby hunting milieu.

Further links

• Poaching and hunting crime in Switzerland (dossier)
• Poaching in Switzerland: prevalence, unreported cases and prosecution
• Regulate hobby hunters – not the predators (dossier)
• The Spanish national police arrest three hobby hunters
• Germany: poaching popular among hobby hunters