Recreational hunting: two dead in Tuscany, mushroom picker seriously injured in southern France
A shot from his own rifle, a collapse, a wild boar attack: three incidents in one day in Tuscany. In Perpignan, the public prosecutor is investigating.
Symbolic image. Photo: Chris Barbalis / Unsplash
The Others Should Watch Out
On Wednesday, 11 November 2026, two recreational hunters died in Tuscany during recreational hunting, and a third was seriously injured. A few days earlier, in southern France, a shot hit a man who was picking mushrooms in the forest. The public prosecutor in Perpignan is investigating the suspected shooter.
Tuscany: three incidents in three provinces
In Castiglion Fiorentino in the province of Arezzo, a 57-year-old recreational hunter died from a shot fired from his own rifle. According to the news agency ANSA, the shot probably went off after the man stumbled or lost his balance. His wife raised the alarm when he did not come home. The Carabinieri of Cortona are investigating; the body has been placed at the disposal of the judicial authorities.
In Pomarance in the province of Pisa, a 68-year-old recreational hunter collapsed during recreational hunting. Rescue workers tried in vain to resuscitate him. According to information so far, a medical incident is assumed; the exact cause of death is being established.
Near Civitella Marittima in the province of Grosseto, a 74-year-old was seriously injured by a wild boar during a recreational hunt for wild boars. A rescue helicopter flew him to the Misericordia hospital in Grosseto.
Southern France: mushroom picker shot near Céret
On Saturday, 7 November 2026, at around 11 a.m., a man picking mushrooms in the municipality of Oms near Céret in the Pyrénées-Orientales département was hit by a shot and seriously injured. The shot was fired during a driven hunt and, according to media reports, struck him in the leg. On Monday, the public prosecutor's office in Perpignan opened a preliminary investigation for negligent bodily harm resulting in an incapacity of more than three months (in French criminal law, "incapacité totale de travail", ITT). According to the prosecutor, a "manifestly deliberate breach of a safety or duty-of-care obligation" is at issue. The recreational hunter was taken into police custody, questioned and subsequently released. The exact duration of the incapacity has yet to be determined. The département's hunting association told ICI Roussillon that the rules had been observed in organising the hunt and that responsibility lay with the shooter. Should the investigation confirm a breach of the rules, the association intends to join the proceedings as a civil party.
The case is part of a series: only last weekend there were further incidents in France, in the Sologne, the Cantal and the Calvados, which WBW reported on here.
Not an isolated case, but a pattern
In France, reports are accumulating to such an extent that media outside the animal welfare sphere are now sounding the alarm as well. On 10 November 2026, the regional newspaper Le Progrès already counted 16 accidents since the start of the 2026/27 season, including a walker who was killed, recreational hunters who were killed, and shots fired at residential buildings. Two days later, the trail-running portal u-Trail wrote that the accidents were following one another so closely that its editorial team could no longer report on each one individually. Anyone who runs, hikes or picks mushrooms has never chosen to take part in a driven hunt, yet still bears part of the risk.
The scale of the safety problem posed by recreational hunting in Italy is shown by the AVC dossier on hunting victims 2025/2026. At the same time, the government in Rome is pushing ahead with a reform that critics describe as “Sparatutto” law a step backwards for safety and wildlife protection on accident figures in Europe.
Commentary
One man dies from his own weapon, another lies in hospital with injuries from a wild boar, and in southern France someone is hit who has nothing to do with recreational hunting. Every autumn the same picture repeats itself. Recreational hunting endangers not only the non-human animals it targets, but also the people who practise it and everyone else who happens to be in the forest at the same time. As long as politicians and associations dismiss these victims as regrettable isolated cases instead of restricting recreational hunting in recreational areas, the forest remains a risk for everyone in autumn. More in the article “War in the forest, and everyone else should watch out”.
Sources: ANSA, gonews.it, France 3 Occitanie, ICI Roussillon
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.
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