Hunting safety: repeated accidents, when will real measures be taken?
The report of the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB) is worrying. For the 2024-2025 season, an increase in the number of accidents and incidents has been observed compared with previous years. Hunting amounts to killing wild animals, and injuring -sometimes very seriously- walkers and their four-legged companions. A great deal of material damage has also been reported. One Voice is more committed than ever to banning this outdated and deadly activity.
A spectacular rise in accidents… and deaths
The 2024-2025 season was marked by a record number of deaths: in addition to the tens of millions of animals killed, eleven people lost their lives, more than twice as many as in previous years. Out of nearly one hundred accidents, sixteen involved non-hunters. And even in the home, there are risks. The most striking increase concerned pets: fifty of them were targeted, sometimes deliberately, as in the case of Aslan, a dog shot at point-blank range by a hunter, against whom we have lodged a complaint.
These armed men are privatizing nature and, as always, it’s the silent majority who have to adapt to their hobby. How many walkers cut short their outings in the countryside under pressure from a visible and influential minority? In 2023, we took the matter to court to get the government to assume its responsibilities. To date, the response has been woefully inadequate.
An anachronistic and archaic pastime that must end
Hunting in all its forms – whether with hounds, by digging up badgers, slaughtering foxes or killing birds using traditional methods – is neither legitimate nor justified. Yet it enjoys the unfailing support of the prefects, who do not hesitate to use unfair maneuvers by publishing their decrees after the operations have begun to prevent us from attacking them.
With just a few weeks to go before the opening of the 2025-26 season, we are calling for the mobilization of all citizens to demand the immediate adoption of radical measures, including:
- a ban on hunting on Sundays, public holidays and during school vacations;
- a strict ban on hunting under the influence of alcohol or drugs;
- tighter control on hunters’ physical fitness;
- reinforcing the hunting license examination (which is a complete farce);
- a ban on the use of certain weapons and ammunition.
In the meantime, call on the authorities and sign up to demand radical measures in response to this worrying situation.