It is also a surprising solution, to say the least, that the government is preparing to propose in response to the growing controversy surrounding the practice of hunting. The latter would indeed develop an application aimed at helping walkers to locate risk areas, thanks to the help of hunters who would agree to provide their geolocation.
Each autumn, the opening of hunting in France leads to a new debate around the practice. This is now more controversial than ever, while many animal protection organizations are calling for the banning of this hobby. In 2022, the Europe Écologie-Les Verts party proposed a bill along these lines, further fueling the opposition between the two camps.
For his part, Emmanuel Macron and the government of Elisabeth Borne have always been reluctant to ban hunting in France, the hunting lobby being particularly powerful in France. However, the executive would still like to ease the tensions and is preparing an alternative for this… in the form of an application.
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Meerkat, the application to avoid Sunday hunters
Named Meerkat, this application will work according to a simple principle. Hunters will be able to share their geolocation during their Sunday sessions. For their part, walkers will only have to log on to determine which areas should be avoided during their walks. This is indeed the whole limitation of the project: to function, it will be necessary to rely on the goodwill of the hunters to provide their GPS coordinates. Not to mention that Meerkat will apparently only run on Sundays.
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According to information from Le Figaro, a presentation of Suricate should take place this Monday, January 9, at 11 a.m. It remains to be seen how the application will be received by the population. According to a recent Ipsos poll, 78% of French people say they are in favor of banning hunting on Sundays. Over the 2021/2022 season, 8 fatal accidents occurred in France, for a total of 90.
Source: Le Figaro