One Voice supports the “Touche pas à mon Popotte” refuge against the hunters' relentlessness
Since 2022, in the Gironde region, the “Touche pas à mon Popotte” refuge has been plagued by beat hunts that flout safety regulations and terrorize the animals it shelters. Despite a complaint lodged at the end of 2023 and mediation in January 2024, the hunters did it again last December. We have written to the mayor.
While the animals taken in by “Touche pas à mon Popotte” should find a haven of peace, far from the human violence they have experienced, they are regularly disturbed by shootings. In 2023, a hunt had already caused panic among the animals, even going so far as to take place less than 150 meters from a neighboring house, without the owner’s consent. A complaint was lodged. One might have expected that the mediation held at the city hall in January 2024 would have brought peace to the village. That isn’t so…
Animals in danger
On December 30, 2024, the hunters outdid themselves, encircling the refuge in the middle of the fog, without a single beater intervening to ward off the beat hunt. Informed of the operation only an hour and a half before the event, the president of “Touche pas à mon Popotte” was unable to bring all her protégés to safety. Frightened by the cries of the dogs, one ewe fell as she had just started to walk again after undergoing major surgery. How many more victims will be claimed by trigger-happy people who respect nothing and nobody, and certainly not the most basic safety rules?
Hunting, a deadly problem
Such events are commonplace in the Gironde region, where the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB) has identified numerous breaches of the law. While hunters boast every year about the reduction in the number of accidents caused by their hobby, a few hours in their company is enough to realize that most don’t even follow the meagre “teachings” delivered by the vast joke of the “hunting license”. Drunken fanatics, loaded guns nonchalantly placed in cars or even pointed at people… there’s no shortage of examples of risky behavior. In 2023, we made a request to the Council of State to force the Ministry of Ecological Transition to make this deadly pastime safe. We are still awaiting their response…
In support of “Touche pas à mon Popotte”, we sent a letter to the mayor asking him to ban hunting in his village. To support our campaign, and because 89% of French people believe that hunting poses safety problems (IPSOS/One Voice 2023 poll), sign the petition.