Boy to kill wild boar: justice investigates

The public prosecutor's office in the northern French city of Châlons-en-Champagne has launched an investigation against a father who pressured his son into killing a wild boar.

The video of the events had been recorded by the father himself, a farmer from Vitryat, and published on Facebook. The public prosecutor of Châlons-en-Champagne, Ombeline Mahuzier, announced that the hobby hunter was being investigated for “incitement of a minor to commit a criminal offence,” “moral neglect of a minor,” and “cruelty to an animal.”

The investigation was, according to the statement, entrusted to the gendarmerie, and the information “forwarded to the youth judge within the framework of educational assistance,” Mahuzier explained.

Conservationist draws attention to the “massacre”

The public had become aware of the video after naturalist Pierre Rigaux, founder of the association «Nos Viventia» (We the Living), shared a blurred version of the video on social networks, described it as a “massacre,” and announced a legal complaint. In the daily newspaper L’Union he explained the reasons for his outrage.

The accused hobby hunter had himself published the video on his Facebook account on November 22, before he “quickly deleted it again,” Rigaux explained.

It was a very violent scene which, towards the end of the hobby hunt, shows a wild boar cornered and run down by dogs, attempting to hide in blackberry bushes, according to Rigaux.

«The hobby hunter and father of the child films the scene.» In the footage, the child holds a knife in his hand and the father insists that his son stab the wild boar, or as he calls it, “poke” it.

«The wild boar can be heard screaming in pain»

On Facebook, Rigaux explains that the video makes it obvious that the boy does not want to hurt the animal.

«With this type of hobby hunting, the hobby hunter kills the animal with a knife when he cannot do so with a rifle. But in this case, he demands it of his son, who appears to be ten or twelve years old», Mr. Rigaux explained.

The boy “seems to be struggling” and clumsily delivers “multiple stab wounds”, he recounts. The screams of pain from the wild boar could be heard throughout, Rigaux describes the violence-laden scene.

The hobby hunter “thereby prolongs the suffering of the wild boar”, quite apart from the fact that the child “could have injured himself”.

Legal grey area regarding animal cruelty towards wild animals

The French penal code “criminalises acts of cruelty only against animals in captivity, domestic animals or tamed animals”. In this situation, “since it was captured and the death struggle continues, the concept of captivity could be applied”, Rigaux argued.

In France, persons aged 16 and over are permitted to use a rifle during hobby hunting; there is no minimum age for accompanying others on a hobby hunt.