In just the month of October in France, a 67-year-old woman died in Brittany, a 33-year-old mother and her two children were shot in the legs in the Rhône region, and a 62-year-old mushroom picker was shot in the abdomen and had to be helicoptered to Marseille.
The link between these gruesome incidents? They were all caused by careless hunters.
All the more timely, then, is the French Senate’s report released in September, which called for a ban on alcohol and narcotics while hunting alongside for a spate of measures similar to those applied to drink-driving. On 25 October, the government released a policy roadmap comprising some of these suggestions, including restrictions on drinking. “Hunting involves an arm. Like driving, it is not compatible with a high blood-alcohol concentration,” the secretary of state for ecology, Bérangère Couillard, said. The Elysee is now awaiting to hear feedback from hunting federations with the view to formulating decrees by early 2023 at the latest.
