An act of barbarism? Last Saturday, the village of Chanéac, in Ardèche, witnessed a sad conflict between hunters and members of the Longo Maï community, a community heir to that founded in the 1970s by Pierre Conty, nicknamed “the killer crazy” and sentenced to death in 1980 for a triple murder. According to a press release from the Ardèche departmental federation of hunters published Monday, seven hunting dogs were killed by members of this community. Faced with this act, several complaints were filed by the hunters’ association. But how could this happen?
Shot between the eyes
A fatal hunting trip for the seven dogs. During a wild boar hunt, the dogs were attracted by the presence of game before chasing them onto land belonging to the Longo Maï community. And, according to the first elements of the investigation, around twenty shots were fired before the dogs were found shot “between the two eyes”. “People in the community told us that the dogs were going to attack the pigs they raise,” he said in The Dauphiné Libéré, one of the two owners of the killed dogs. An act deliberately denounced by the Ardèche departmental federation of hunters. The press release, published Monday, speaks of a “killing with indescribable cruelty”.
If the hunters are aware that the dogs did not have to enter the property of the Longo Maï community, located in the middle of 100 hectares of forest in a place called Treynas, they still denounce a surge of violence. Accusations from which the community defends itself. For her, the members sought to defend their pigs left free. The latter would have been targeted by the pack, described as “uncontrollable”. And, according to the community, the hunters took more than an hour to come and collect the dogs. But for one of the hunters, questioned by The Dauphiné Libéré“the land is not fenced, it is the countryside, we cannot make the dogs understand that they must not go beyond a place”.
The community already known for sectarian excesses
This is not the first time that the community in question has been the subject of accusations of sectarian excesses. According to a press release from the departmental federation of Ardéchois hunters, hunters have already encountered problems with “these people”, as soon as “their dogs approach this territory”. After the last altercation between the two groups, one of the members of Longo Maï allegedly threatened to kill the hunting dogs. A threat carried out.
Faced with such acts, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation defends hunters. “If hunters are incapable of controlling their dogs, hence their lobbying to maintain the use of electric shock collars, this does not justify the slaughter of these seven dogs in their hunt. The foundation is ready to support the complaint,” said Christophe Marie, deputy director and spokesperson for the Brigitte Bardot Foundation.