New investigation! Penned hunting infiltrated by One Voice
During the 2020-2021 season One Voice investigators infiltrated penned-hunting circles. Pregnant sows, animals in their death throes, with no escape
Hunting animals in pens allows them no opportunity to escape. In fact they are shut in and have nowhere to escape to. Our investigators infiltrated the hunters in the winter of 2020-2021. Despite Covid-19 hunting parties continued. Euros poured into the coffers of the breeders, owners or tenants of enclosures. These are hunting reserves where clients pay by the day and/or per animal shot. The animals are slaughtered without pity, day after day, by groups of hunters for whose pleasure everything is laid on. We are urging the Ministry of Ecology to put an end to it.
Using the images taken during the winter season just ended by our investigators who had infiltrated the hunters, we can shed even more light on the extent of the horror suffered by the animals targeted by this merciless type of hunting, which even some hardened hunters disapprove of. One of these is the president of the National Federation of Hunters himself, Willy Schraen, who expresses some previously unheard of thoughts during filming by our undercover investigators. The horror of penned hunting has already been written about in the French media and by ASPAS, the first association to have unmasked it.
Muriel Arnal, Chair of One Voice, declares:
«Penned hunting is canned hunting made in France !
Our investigators who infiltrated the hunters saw them in pursuit of animals that were almost tame, unsurprisingly since humans raise them and feed them, only to sell them to the guns. The final betrayal! Pregnant sows are hunted down mercilessly. Roe deer, does, fallow deer flee in terror from the bullets. Orphaned piglets are left to certain death.
Trap shooting using live animals ended more than a century ago because it was deemed to be shameful. We are asking the Ministry of Ecology for an immediately ban on penned hunting.»
Wild boar fœtuses emerge from the sows at the celebratory meal at the end of the drive
Humans raise them, release them in enclosures surrounded by walls or wire fences and organize hunts from which they can never come out alive. What our investigators heard is revealing.
“In any case, the animals are shut in. The aim is to satisfy everyone.”And: “There are enough fine wild boar in the enclosure to keep everyone happy”, and “If the tally this evening includes a pregnant sow weighing 130 kilos, it’s not a problem. It calls for a celebration. If she’s in the enclosure she’s there to be killed. Today all the sows are pregnant, so it goes without saying that if there is a sow that’s pregnant it’s not a problem. There’s no fine, no slaughter tax, nothing like that. It is your day, full stop.” Because “if there are any sows there, in the enclosure, it’s because we breeders don’t want them any more … So we have them killed.”
And in fact our investigators were able to film sows being cut up at the end of the day, immediately after being killed, their amniotic sacs intact and containing several fœtuses.
Not everyone is in favour of penned hunting
The organizers who stand in front of the board showing the tally for the day are not making a mistake in insisting: “No photos on the Internet, I don’t want any on Facebook“. They also ask that faces not be shown either, on the orders of Willy Schraen, president of the National Federation of Hunters. These hunts and in particular the displaying of the corpses are not acceptable to the public at large, and quite rightly!
The hunters don’t even use the pretext of regulating numbers, they just kill purely for pleasure! These animals, who regard humans as sources of food, having been reared in or near the enclosure where they spend their last hour, are given no quarter.
The young ones, unable to look after themselves, are left to die
The young wander through the wood at random, alone, with no chance of surviving. Wandering about in search of their mothers, who have been killed, they will become dehydrated and will die in agony. Knowing how intelligent, aware and sensitive pigs are, how important family ties are to wild boar, provides a glimpse of the extent of the massacre.
An organizer explains: “At nightfall, what a noise those little ones make, oh!” “They are crying for their mothers.” And in the case of those who don’t find them, “I have some in the room over there, every three hours they have to be given a drink, you know, otherwise they die.”
An agonizing death for the babies.
A hard life for the dogs
At the beginning of the day one of the organizers warns, because it often happens: “Watch out for the dogs when they’re among the wild boar. You don’t just shoot anywhere, anything, anyhow.”
One of the hunters explains, about one of his dogs, who had previously had twelve stitches and had just been wounded in the leg: “That dachshund over there, as soon as he gets close to one he goes for it! Little fucker! The little ones can get their faces ripped off.” Transformed into weapons, they are used as tools or hunting accessories, just like rifles or camouflage jackets, put away after use and thrown away when they become useless.
After the drive they are shut up, squashed together in a dark trailer where the largest cannot even stand up.
The hunters who adapt the regulations to suit themselves
In the midst of the Covid pandemic no precautions are taken during the drives nor at mealtimes. No social distancing, no hand-washing … and the few masks one notices are, at best, worn under the chin. Finally, discussions about ways of contravening the curfew reveal how little attention is paid to the public authorities and to the general interest. They always expect special privileges.
To get penned hunting banned we have written to Barbara Pompili, the Minister of Ecology. Please sign our petition and let’s appeal to the Ministry! Urge them to put an end to it!
Translated from the French by Patricia Fairey