Recreational hunters kill red deer on star director's property

According to reports, the recreational hunters broke into the property of Luc Besson's mother in Orne, Normandy, France, after a red deer being chased by their dogs had sought refuge on the terrace and then collapsed.

According to the filmmaker, the animal was «butchered with knives» in front of his 85-year-old mother.

Red deer killed with a knife on the terrace

The ecological mass killers grabbed the completely terrified animal by the antlers and killed it with a knife. The killers repeatedly stabbed the dying red deer in the abdomen until it bled to death. The animal welfare problem of recreational hunting reveals itself here in all its brutality.

Luc Besson is outraged and condemns these practices, which he calls «butchery». He insists that he has refused to allow recreational hunting on his estate for years. «I have nothing against recreational hunters, but I want red deer to at least have a safe refuge,» he said.

Luc Besson announced that he would prosecute the perpetrators of the act and protested against the behaviour of the recreational hunters. «Shame on them, that's not hunting!» he said, recalling that these intrusions onto his property occur repeatedly. More on crime associated with recreational hunting.

Controversy over hunting with hounds in France

This new incident has reignited the controversy surrounding recreational hunting with hounds in France. Last January, Tom Arthus-Bertrand, son of photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, also denounced similar practices on his land and launched a petition to ban this form of recreational hunting. As studies show, recreational hunting fails as a means of population control.

Postscript: guilty verdict, appeal, and another dead red deer

The Criminal Court of Argentan found the two recreational hunters, aged 33 and 41, guilty on 20 January 2026. They had hunted without authorisation on someone else's enclosed land and had used prohibited methods to do so. The court withdrew their hunting licences for one year, ordered them to attend a course run by the Office français de la biodiversité (OFB) on hunting law and safety, and imposed fines of 1,200 and 600 euros. In addition, they must jointly pay 3,000 euros in damages to the civil parties. Luc Besson and his mother received the symbolic one euro they had requested.

The reasoning is remarkable: in the court's view, the red deer was not fatally wounded. This means the killing on the terrace cannot be justified as putting a dying animal out of its misery. After the verdict, Besson's mother said she would have liked to see a considerably harsher sentence. In February 2026, one of the two men lodged an appeal. Besson publicly called this shameful.

The conflict over the retreat is therefore not over. In September 2026, Besson published a photo of a headless red deer in front of his house; the recreational hunting association of the Orne rejects any responsibility. More on this in our article «Headless red deer at Luc Besson's: recreational hunting association contradicts the director». The background to the dispute is documented in «France: ecological mass murderers lose court case».