The hunter who killed a bear during an illegal hunt in the Pyrenees in 2021 sentenced to four months in prison sentence

The Foix Criminal Court sentenced, on Tuesday, May 6, to four months suspended prison sentence the hunter who had killed a bear during an illicit battered, in 2021 in the Pyrenees, for which fifteen other hunters received fines and were removed their hunting permits. All of the defendants are also forced to collectively pay more than 60,000 euros in damages to environmental associations which had formed civil parties in this file.

The judgment concerning the shooter is in accordance with the prosecutor’s requisitions, who, during the trial, on March 19, had requested the same sentence against the 81 -year -old hunter, author of the fatal shot after being injured by caramelles, a 150 kg female, accompanied by two cubs. Defense lawyers had requested the release of hunters.

Lawyer of fourteen of hunters, Fanny campaign, who had pleaded the release, questioned “The legality of the constitution of the reserve” where the hunting accident occurred and denounces “The lack of signaling of the hunting prohibition”. She did not rule on a possible call. The hunters left the court without declaring.

“Awareness”

For the Association Pays de l’Ours, which participates with the French Biodiversity Office (OFB) in monitoring of the bear, the deliberation is ” satisfying “. “All the hunters have been found guilty, it is the most important for us. The court has established breaches “reacted Sabine Matraire, the president of the association, who claims new bear releases, believing that the Ursine population is not yet viable. “We hope that this judgment will be followed by an awareness in the hunting world”she added when leaving the courtroom.

At the bar of the court, the main defendant had admitted to having opened fire on the Bear, in a state of ” self -defense “. “She grabbed my left thigh, I panicked and I pulled a rifle. She fell backwards, she bypassed me and bit my right calf, I fell, she poured my leg, I rearmed my rifle and I pulled. She died five meters below ”had he related to the hearing. In addition to the sentence of four months suspended prison sentence, the court also sentenced him to a fine of 750 euros, to the confiscation of his hunting rifle and the withdrawal of the hunting permit.

In 2008, another hunter had been tried to have shot down in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques four years earlier. Relaxed at first instance, he had been sentenced to compensation to compensate various nature protection associations up to 10,000 euros. The Communal Hunting Association (ACCA) to which it belonged had been sentenced to 53,000 euros in damages for the death of cinnamon in 2004.

“advance reflection on cohabitation between hunting and bear”

Caramelles and cinnamon have been naturalized and are now visible to the Natural History Museum in Toulouse. Threatened with extinction in the early 1990s, the population of brown bear developed considerably in the Pyrenees thanks to a restoration program of the species, including cowardrs from Slovenia. According to OFB, which has formally identified 96 bears thanks to their genetic footprint, the mountain range now has between 97 and 127 individuals.

The sixteen hunters of Ariège hoped to escape a conviction, as well as heavy compensation required by the associations defending the presence of the bear in the Pyrenees, which claimed 100,000 to 175,000 euros, the equivalent according to them of the cost of replacing the slaughter. One of the hunting participants who led to the death of caramellas believes that the National Forest Office (ONF) has its share of responsibility: “The ONFhe said, let the battues take place for forty years in this reserve ”.

If there are many differences in views between hunters and environmentalists, the civil parties recognized the accidental nature of the fatal shot, as well as the accusation. But, underlined the prosecutor at the trial, the octogenarian hunter “Sawnely took the risk of confrontation with the bear in the reserve, which is a tranquility zone” For this animal. Beyond the conviction, Alain Reynes, director of the Pays de l’Ours association, wishes “That this trial [fasse] advance reflection on cohabitation between hunting and bear ”.