As we now live in France deep in the countryside we have to abide by the ways of our adopted country rulesn Most i gree with but when it comes to hunters shooting wild Animals I dont;
I just cannot come to terms while anyone would want to kill one of natures natural crearures and call it sport,
Even the dog’s these hunters use seem to be abused in as much that we have found stray dogs half starved & with wounds hanging around our own outside gate crying for help (each one got help )
Not all the French agree with these hunting rules and all 4 (only four other properties in this Hamlet) & all lived in by French folk agree with the huntering ;
How do you feel ?
Where I live in Scotland there are a lot of deer . They are routinely shot by people who call it sport . Normally at certain times of the year when the females are very pregnant they are not supposed to shoot females but of course ‘accidents ‘ do happen . However the Scottish government have decided that they all can be shot where or not they are pregnant or have just given birth .
I think it’s absolutely disgusting and it’s not any kind of sport . I think there is something seriously wrong with people who want to kill animals for fun .
If someone lives in a very remote place and has to kill an animal in order to survive that is acceptable but just doing it for fun is different.
Hunting for “sport” is something I have always disapproved of. I can understand that sometimes animals have to be culled because of their numbers but to chase a terrified animal who then suffers an agonising death is surely only enjoyed by psychopaths
A better sport would be to let tem hunt each other,then they would know what it was like before they got killed.
I also live in rural France. My observations of hunting here is that it is very varied. There are “good” hunts and “not so good” hunts. The reasons some hunts are not so good can be many things - usually slack control over drinking by those in the hunt during the day; dislike of outsiders and an aggressive attitude towards outsiders; poor control on placing of the guns and the shooting by the guns; poor care for the dogs in the hunt; aggression in accessing the land they want to access, rather than ensuring permission; do not have the skills or discipline to primarily kill old or injured animals - or to ensure a complete kill, leaving injured animals to run off.
Animal control is absolutely necessary. There is an inundation of wild boar in many parts of the country and with no top predator to control numbers some form of control is needed. Even the deer numbers would be out of control if they were not hunted. Excess numbers of boar and deer do significant damage to crops and gardens.
Personally, I get on very well with our local hunt and respect how they go about la chasse. I know most members by first names. I often receive a share of the hunt kill if the animal was shot on our land. I’ve learned some butchery skills to deal with these gifts. In addition I often buy the produce the hunt offers for sale and always attend the hunt community events. My view is that it is better to eat wild meat of a free roaming animal than an intensively farmed, factory raised animal. And very little of the boar and deer that have been killed are wasted.
I would note that the notion of egalitarianism comes into hunting in France. It is not the restricted to the privilege for the land owning wealthy but the right of every citizen. In poorer regions of the country, for some, the protein from the hunt is an important and low cost supplement to the weekly shop. In that respect it seems to me to “better” than much of the shooting and hunting in the UK.
I do understand the reservations of some about hunting, especially if it solely done for enjoyment and sport. But I disagree that it is inherently and consistently less humane or more prone to allowing suffering than farmed and abattoir slaughtered animal meat. And it has a long held and important place in many rural communities.
PS Just right now I watched a jay swooped in and grabbed a fledging bird from its nest while the parents shrieked their alarm. Nature is very, very heartless.
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Now i’d like to hear the views on the people who have been shot “and lived” by these hunters ,
some just driving along public roads / some chopping wood in their own gardens?
That is a fair request. There are still too many injuries and fatalities - but that was exactly my point about the not so good hunts. I have seen a video of a hunter swing round to get a shot at a boar running past - and actually shooting straight down a road, into a car, smashing the car’s rear window. That was in fact a hunter belonging to a hunt quite local to me. A hunt that has a bad reputation for pretty much all the aspects of being “not so good” that I mentioned.
However this is a criticism of how hunts are managed and how the national hunt authority regulates the hunts. That is not a criticism of hunting itself. The national authority, it seems to me, relies on the huge insurance fund it has to compensate (and silence) anyone injured. That needs to change and more hands on controls, standards and penalties to hunts breaking the standards.
The good news is that many more hunters are shot than are members of the public.
I’d be interested to know where you are deeply in the countryside. For info, I’m in the far north west of 32.
Hello Lincolnshire,
Hope you are well, “Yes” like you we escaped the UK some 20years ago now and we bought an old Farmhouse in Dept 23,
The house had not been lived in for 25yrs and needed doing up, "Hence like a lot of ex-pats we decided we loved the area and had to ask ourselves could we live the french way of country life,
Do you know something it was the best thing we ever did and we would not change our way of life for anything,
Thanks, you’ve been in France twice as long as me. And you are bang in the centre, pretty much. Brave move in doing up the house yourself. Well done. “Doing up” round here can mean some serious work.
I’m glad you love it in France. Me too. We are hugely involved in the local community - part of the committee des fetes and help out in all our events. My veg plot is now fully planted out, so looking forward to a decent crop of tomatoes and butternut. Our local restaurants vary between cheap & cheerful and exceptional.
So let’s just agree to disagree over the hunt thing. But if you get half a chevreuil let me know!!