At the end of October, a motorist was accidentally killed by shooting from a hunter.
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“Throw a paving stone in the pond”. The mayor of Laillé (Ille-et-Vilaine) Françoise Louapre had by municipal decree banned hunting within 150 meters of homes as well as the use of rifles throughout the town. She and other Breton mayors denounced Saturday, November 13 the inaction of the public authorities in terms of regulating hunting after the death of a 67-year-old motorist, killed by a hunter’s fire on October 30 south of Rennes.
“We want legislative decisions”, explained during a press conference the city councilor of Laillé, specifying that “the hunters themselves” were “worried about the use of more and more powerful rifles by hunters who do not have sufficient qualifications”. In an open letter to the Prefect of Ille-et-Vilaine and the Minister for Ecological Transition, Françoise Louapre and four other mayors of the department are asking for the establishment of medical certificates for hunters, better supervision of the use of rifles (with a range of up to 2 km) or the setting of half-days without hunting on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.
“We are trying to make things happen so that the State takes its responsibilities. I regret that we have no answer”, commented Michel Delmolder, mayor of Pont-Péan. “There are stray shots that are unacceptable”, estimated Philippe Salmon, mayor of Bruz. “We are not anti-hunting, we are not pro-hunting. We want to change practices”, assured Françoise Louapre. According to her, hunting is necessary in the face of “overpopulation of wild boars” that destroy cultures. In their open letter, the mayors also ask “the urgent and effective management of the overpopulation of wild boars”, “the ban on agrainage”, and “stopping the breeding of wild boars in certain private hunts”.
A hundred people demonstrated on Saturday afternoon in front of the town hall of Laillé to demand more drastic measures to limit hunting. “For us (this municipal decree), it is a step forward, but it is not enough. We want it to go much further”, estimated Jimmy Nedellec, of the Forest Shepherd collective, who calls in particular for a “moratorium on hunting in the town” and a shooting ban within 500 meters of the gardens.