France refuses Sunday hunting ban

No Sunday hunting ban in France

The French government has angered anti-hunting activists after refusing to ban recreational hunting on Sundays during the season.

Instead, it has announced a ban on alcohol consumption and drug use during recreational hunting — a step that activists say is unenforceable.

Bérangère Couillard, the environment minister, said hunting organisers would be required to undergo training and that harsher penalties would apply to those convicted of causing an accident.

The government bowed to pressure to address hunting safety after a Senate inquiry was triggered by the death of Morgan Keane (25), a French-British man who was shot in December 2020 while chopping wood on his land by a hobby hunter who mistook him for a wild boar.

Powerful hunting lobby

Anti-hunting activists had demanded at least one hunting-free day per week during the season and were optimistic that the government would agree.

Most parties cannot afford to have the influential recreational hunters' lobby working against them. Current French President Emmanuel Macron has therefore maintained contact with association representatives since 2017. As a gesture of goodwill, he halved the fees for hunting licences in order to encourage the next generation of hunters.

According to figures published in September 2022 by the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB), there were 90 accidents in the 2021–22 season, six more than in the previous season, eight of them fatal.

Over the past 20 years, 88% of the victims of hunting accidents were hobby hunters themselves. However, the proportion of non-hunting participants or injured bystanders has risen from 12% to 26% over the last two decades.

81% of French people in favor of a Sunday hunting ban

In October 2021, Joël Viard, 67, was killed when a stray bullet from a hobby hunter struck him in the back of the neck as he was driving on a highway from Rennes to Nantes. In February 2022, a stray bullet from a hobby hunter killed 25-year-old Mélodie Cauffet, who was walking with a friend on a forest path in Aveyron.

Before the announcement, the French bird protection league (LPO) informed the government that it should expect an outcry if the public anger over deaths related to hobby hunting were not addressed. The alcohol ban was described as “ridiculous.”

“If the hunting safety plan ultimately consists of a few minor measures, such as banning hunting while intoxicated — which is the bare minimum — or the idea of a voluntary digital application, the government will massively disappoint the four out of five French people who want a hunting-free Sunday,” said Matthieu Orphelin, Director General of the LPO.

Couillard said the government's goal was to “move toward zero accidents.” The chairman of the French national association of hobby hunters, Willy Schraen, declared this to be impossible. Schraen had previously warned that there would be “fire and brimstone” across the country if the government yielded to the demands of activists.

An Ipsos survey in September found that 81% of French people were in favor of a hunting ban on two days per week during the season and during school holidays; 87% of respondents stated that hobby hunting poses a safety risk to hikers. The Geneva model shows that a professional wildlife management without hobby hunting works.

Mila Sanchez, co-founder of the association «Un jour un chasseur», had compiled evidence of 83 accidents during the 2022–23 season. 57 of them occurred on weekends, 39 on Sundays. According to her statistics, more than 400 people have died in hunting accidents over the past 20 years.