Faced with a new environmental law proposal aimed at banning hunting on Sundays, hunters are raising their voices. Sunday hunting banwanted by the text, has the “sole objective of killing popular hunting”, estimated the president of the National Federation of Hunters (FNC), Willy Schraen, during his national congress.
“No federation of nature activities claims a Sunday without hunting”, underlined the boss of hunters in a speech in Beaune (Côte-d’Or), during the annual meeting of the Federation.
The number one hunter called on the four million hunting license holders not to be trapped in “the grotesque political trap” of “pitting people against each other”, referring to the law proposal of the MP EELV Charles Fournier, which must be debated on April 6 in the National Assembly. The text aims to ban hunting on Sundays, a measure which was already rejected in January by the government.
Eight fatal accidents last season
Criticizing the “deleterious climate against hunting”, the president stigmatized the “disproportionate media coverage of accidents”. The latter are however at “the lowest level in the history of French hunting”, he recalled. Last season, 90 accidents were recorded, eight of which were fatal. And this year, a few days before the end of the hunt, there are 70 of them, including 6 fatalities. This corresponds to respective decreases of 22 and 25%, according to the FNC.
“We have succeeded in dividing hunting accidents by four in twenty years and fatal ones by five” while the number of rifle shots has been multiplied by five, underlined the boss of hunters. The training of hunters, now compulsory, has made it possible to reduce the number of accidents below the one hundred mark, he congratulated himself, once again giving satisfaction to President Emmanuel Macron who “has a listening ear on hunting” .