The government announced on Tuesday a “roadmap to improve and guarantee hunting safety”, considering in particular to introduce an alcohol offense or in certain regions half-days without hunting. “There is currently no framework for blood alcohol levels when hunting, we want to change that,” said Secretary of State for Ecology Bérangère Couillard during a trip to the Marne. “The practice of hunting involves a weapon, as with a car, it is incompatible with a high blood alcohol level.”
A phase of consultation will be initiated with the various actors, in particular the federations of hunters, with the objective of leading to concrete measures (via decrees or decrees) “by the end of the year, at the most at the start of the year,” she said. “My objective is clear: I want to move towards zero accidents in the years to come and this will go through better compliance with the rules, more information for local residents and better sharing of space”, indicated the secretary of ‘State.
90 hunting accidents in the 2021-2022 season
According to figures from the French Office for Biodiversity, the number of hunting accidents has been on a downward trend for 20 years. Nevertheless, for the 2021/22 season, the OFB recorded 90 hunting accidents (bodily injuries linked to the use of a hunting weapon), compared to 80 the previous season. Among them, eight fatal accidents, two of which involved non-hunter victims.
Among the main tracks, taken from a recent report of the Senate, the creation of an offense of alcoholism aligned with the same requirements as for motorists. Alcoholism is, however, already an aggravating circumstance in the event of prosecution after a hunting accident. “I am not here to penalize the practitioners”, however insisted Bérangère Couillard.
A possible half-day without hunting
Another track: establish a half-day without hunting. Although the government favors implementation at the local level, in peri-urban or very busy forests, the Secretary of State “does not close the door to a national orientation” and indicates that doing it on Sunday “is not a taboo subject. Everything is on the table”.
A Senate mission, set up in November 2021 after the death of a 25-year-old young man killed in front of his house in the Lot by a hunting shot, rejected in September the idea of establishing a day without hunting at the national level. . Measures to better inform walkers of ongoing hunting activities, possibly through a mobile application, or to prohibit shooting within 30 degrees to the left and right of hunters to avoid hitting a hunting companion, are also under study.