“Our mere presence is disturbing”, a day with Ava’s anti-hunting activists

Ancestral tradition and controversy. In the 16th century, François 1er gave its letters of nobility to the practice of hunting on horseback, also called hunting with hounds. If today this particular hobby still claims ” 10,000 practitioners and 100,000 supporters » in France, the only petition of the 30 million Friends Foundation to demand its ban is approaching 300,000 signatures. Among the opponents of the venery, we find citizens more involved than the others: the militants of the collective “Abolissons la vénerie” today, says Ava. Friday, 20 minutes followed one of their team during an action on the last day of the hunting season in the Aisne.

Our contact is called Mika, and we have to meet him in front of Villers-Cotterêts station, in Aisne, at 11:45 a.m. Arrived a little early in the area, we stop in the small village of Longpont to have a coffee at the bar of the Hôtel de l’Abbaye. Without knowing it, it is the HQ of the Villers-Cotterêts hunting crew in which we have just entered, this same crew that the Ava militants will track throughout the afternoon. “I am Henri D’Aillières, the boatswain. The people of Ava call me the Baron,” a tall fellow very courteously introduces himself to us. He will not even lose his smile when we decline his proposal to follow the hunt with him, expected as we are by his opponents. “It’s a shame, you will only have their version,” says a septuagenarian named Bruno, who will turn out to be a sort of spokesperson for hunting.

“It’s because you are there that they do nothing”

At the scheduled time, we find the militants, easy to recognize thanks to their khaki green outfits. They are five for now, aged 27 to 62 years. Four others will join us there, in the forest of Retz. In front of a coffee, they do a quick briefing to determine the teams: two in cars and two on foot. GoPro, telephones, radios: “Since I started with Ava three years ago, we are much better organized”, recognizes Mika, who is a police officer in real life. A quarter of an hour later, we are released in the middle of the woods, route du Pendu, in the company of Raphaël and David. The pack has just been released and the riders set off. “Usually, we can’t get so close, it’s because you’re there that they don’t do anything”, is surprised David before calling out the famous Bruno. “You called me an asshole last time and now you’re not saying anything,” he tells her. “Are you kidding, it was you who attacked me,” replies the septuagenarian. Atmosphere.

The hunters are quite cordial, throwing hellos and hellos at our small group. “It’s amazing, you should come every time. They have been briefed, nothing will happen today, ”rejoices Raphaël, still incredulous. We go deep into the woods to try to follow the crew. Then begins a hike that will last all afternoon, in the mud, in the rain and the wind. Spoiler alert, at the end of the hunt, we will still have made 16 markers… “Look there, a herd”, David suddenly shouts, pointing the undergrowth in a direction barely 50 meters from us. At his heels, the howling pack, followed closely by the riders. “They have chosen their deer, they are not going to let it go,” he explains while sending the information to the other teams. According to him, it is a young male, two years old at most. The role of the militants is then to stick closer to the hunt until its conclusion. “We can’t disturb the hunt, it’s forbidden, but our mere presence disturbs them, they can’t stand being filmed,” assures David.

“It’s not our deer, we’ve lost it so far”

Logically, our group is quickly dropped. But thanks to mapping software fed by all the militants on the spot, we can follow the evolution of the hunt and try to get back to the pack. While walking, Raphaël explains his commitment to us: “I’m not anti-hunting, it’s the excesses that bother me, he assures us. And hunting is an excessive practice”. Same for David: “There are hunters in my family, I ate game throughout my childhood. Except that I do not conceive that one can harm an animal, ”he admits. Mika is not an ayatollah of the cause either, but his problem with hunting was accentuated after a particular event: “I was taking wildlife photos one day and a shooter shot down one of the most beautiful deer in the forest just a few meters from me,” he recalls.

At the crossroads, when we are now teaming up with Mika, we come across a rider he knows well. Besides, they all know each other, thanks to the hunts or quite simply because they are neighbors or work colleagues. “Everything is going well with most of them, only some of them cause us problems”, David told us a little earlier. Another herd passes in the distance, crossing a path in front of the noses of two hunters who do not flinch. “It’s not our deer, we’ve lost it so far,” says the rider before turning back. “We are not going to follow him, maybe he is trying to mislead us,” Mika is wary.

An info from another team arrives on our guide’s phone. “The pack crossed a bridge for animals and crossed the national road,” summarizes Mika. We then join the nearest road and Jenny, an activist, picks us up by car to rush towards the place, several kilometers from our position. When we arrive, dozens of cars of followers clutter the side of the national. Riders and dogs trot on the roadway which is always open to traffic. “That’s also the problem, they don’t care about other uses or the Highway Code”, plague Mika. Further, a lone dog wanders in the middle of the national, almost being hit by several cars. A rider tries hard to get him back on the right track. “A while ago, they didn’t care and left the lost dogs until the end of the day before picking them up,” says the activist.

“End of Hunt, Deer Alive”

At the end of a plain, we can see the pack and a few riders entering the forest again. No trace of the deer. We nevertheless try to follow the troop with the information that falls and by observing the behavior of the followers. Everyone seems a little dropped, including a good part of the crew. As we go up a path that looks like a thousand other paths, a rider approaches. “Well then, you don’t even know that the hunt is over,” he says, mockingly, before going deeper into the woods. “It may be a lie for us to let go of the case,” judge Mika. Except that another team of Ava confirms the info. It is almost 5 p.m., “end of hunting, deer alive”, he rejoices. It’s a victory for Ava and for the deer who wins a six-month reprieve.

We still have a long way to go in the forest to pick up a car and return to the café at Villers-Cotterêts station for the debriefing. But the atmosphere is much more relaxed than this morning. Ava Retz’s team will be able to resume normal life until the hunt resumes in September. Their commitment is not easy, twice a week chasing hunters for half the year. And despite everything, nothing suggests that their cause will one day be heard by the government. “Life is a fight, if we let everything happen, things will never change,” insists Jenny.

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