The hunter calls on his sentence to four months suspended prison sentence

The hunter who had killed the caramel bear during an illicit hunt in the Pyrenees in 2021 was sentenced to four months suspended prison on Tuesday by the Foix Criminal Court. He immediately announced to appeal the decision. Against the fifteen other hunters who participated in the hunt in a reserve above the village of Seix, in Ariège, the court pronounced a fine of a few hundred euros and, for two of them, of temporary suspension of the hunting permit.

Collectively, the sixteen hunters will have to pay more than 60,000 euros to the associations defending the presence of the bear in the Pyrenees, formed civil party, under the moral and ecological damage.

“The call was noted instantly”announced Charles Lagier, the lawyer’s lawyer. “The legal fight must continue, because the Foix court has not taken into account the non -regular existence of the Mont Vallier hunting reserve. (…) My client simply defended himself, it was him or the bear. He mentioned the state of necessity ”he said. And then, regret me, the lagier, “The damages granted to the civil parties are unreasonable concerning hunters with modest income, often retired”.

The lawyer for fourteen hunters, Fanny Campagne, also questioned “The legality of the constitution of the reserve” where the hunting accident occurred and denounces “the lack of signaling of the hunting ban”.

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The deliberation is “satisfactory”

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.

“I panicked and fired a rifle” “

“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 150 kg bear, accompanied by two cubs, in a state of “Stage 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 ”he relates 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.