The majority of French people do not feel safe in the countryside during hunting season, as evidenced by this recent IFOP poll for ASPAS and One Voice (1), from 12th to 14th September 2016. It confirms that 8 out of 10 French people want to see Sunday become a non-hunting day, and reveals that 9 out of 10 are in favour of a reform of the organization and regulation of hunting.
A Sunday without hunting? The question does not divide! 78% of the respondents are in favour (compared to 54% in 2009 (2)). This demand is not driven by “urban ecological woes” so vilified by the hunting world, but by 76% of the population living in rural areas.
Hunting accidents remain a taboo subject in France. Yet no other recreational activity than hunting poses such a public safety problem. This weekend in Loire-Atlantique, a woman took a boar bullet in her thigh while she was gardening. An accident that occurred during the opening of the game hunting season which did not begin until the next day in this department! Of the 71% of French people who regularly frequent the countryside (several times a month), 61% do not feel safe when they go out during the hunting season. Last year, nearly 2 out of 10 victims were not hunters. The death of Samuel (20 years old) in Isère, then that of Gaël (43 years old) in Haute-Savoie had once again underlined the difficult cohabitation of hunting with all the other outdoor activities.
Since 1982, there is no longer a perimeter of security around homes (3). In 2003, the obligation of a national day without hunting per week was abolished by Roselyne Bachelot. There is no regular evaluation of the knowledge or physical abilities of hunters, nor is there any alcohol tests during hunting: a laxity that the majority of French people find unjustifiable.
It is not surprising that today, 91% of our fellow citizens are in favour of a reform of the organization and regulation of hunting to adapt it to today's society!
For more than 20 years, ASPAS have been asking governments to take a simple and democratic step in sharing the space between a small million hunters and the majority of the population: the truce of Sunday hunting. Did you say lobby?
One Voice fights against the practice of hunting in France and around the world, and has been campaigning for a Sunday without hunting since its creation in 1995 under the sponsorship of Théodore Monod.
(1) Download the results of the study
(2) IFOP / ASPAS survey conducted in July 2009.
(3) Excerpt from How to walk in the woods without getting shot "Since the circular Deferre of October 15 1982 the Prefects are invited to no longer prohibit hunting in a perimeter around houses, but to regulate shooting in the direction of these dwellings. For example, shots "within range" or within a certain distance (usually 150 meters) are generally prohibited in the direction of "dwellings, tracks and public roads, railways and railway rights-of-way". power lines, airports, public meeting places and stadiums. In this context, there is nothing to prevent hunters from leaning right against a house and shooting outwards!”
