Stumbling deer makes the French rage | Abroad

It was a tumultuous opening to it hunting season. Saturday morning at 9 a.m. a deer ran in panic into the center of the northern French town of Compiègne. For hours he lay puffing his tongue out on the asphalt.

Police put down gates awaiting a vet. Campaigners from the anti-driving hunting association AVA stayed nearby to protest and see to it that the animal was actually saved.

When officers wanted to catch the deer to take and care for it, he ran back to the forest. In the meantime, the images had already started raging over social media.

When practicing drive hunting, a team of riders on horseback controls a pack of around twenty dogs, which chase one specific animal, such as a deer, wild boar, hare or rabbit. When the prey is eventually so exhausted that it cannot go any further, it is killed by the hunters. The dogs may then eat the animal.

Consternation

Of hunting with hounds has existed since the end of the Middle Ages and was elevated to art by François I. During the Revolution it was banned, but Napoleon restored the driving hunt. According to practitioners, often from the upper social classes, it is not just about the prey, but also about the traditions surrounding the hunt. There are strict rules and each ‘department’ has its own outfit, coat of arms and hierarchy.

But this form of hunting has already been abolished in many countries and is also controversial in France. According to opponents, the animal causes a lot of stress and suffering. Hunters object that their prey escapes two out of three times. If the dogs do get hold of an animal, they say they are animals that were already weaker.

–