The Creuse Hunters’ Federation has just joined the Game for All project. This web platform allows hunters to get in touch with individuals in order to sell them venison.
The populations of some big game are growing in Creuse. At the same time, the number of hunters is rather decreasing. This observation is one of the reasons that pushed the Departmental Federation of Hunters of Creuse to join Gibier pour tous, a web platform designed to facilitate the transfer of venison between hunters and individuals. Making the department one of the first four to join this system, with Cher, Indre and Indre-et-Loire.
A “solidarity” initiative
“This season we will drop below the 6,500 hunter mark in Creuse. But the hunting tables are increasing for certain species. Particularly for wild boar: 5,600 animals were harvested in 2023-2024 compared to 4,200 in 2022-2023,” explains Claire Thieriot, president of the Creuse federation. Added to this are the approximately 9,000 roe deer and 1,100 stags harvested last season.
Which corresponds to as much game to consume. And if hunters have always offered meat to the inhabitants of the municipalities in which they practice their favorite pastime, it can today be complicated, in certain territories, to sell all the venison. For the Creuse federation, Gibier pour tous therefore represents an “anti-waste” solution, coupled with a commitment. As Claire Thieriot explains:
It was above all the supportive and friendly side, the initial values of hunting, which attracted us.
The web platform was launched in November 2023, at the initiative of the Cher hunting federation. “In a few weeks, we received testimonials from individuals happy to be able to buy game close to home,” comments Charlotte de Fougères, founder of Gibier pour tous. People do not always have the opportunity to buy local meat on a daily basis, especially in this period marked by inflation,” she continues.
Wild boars, the bane of Creuse farmers
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Animals sold whole
The platform works simply. Individuals can register on the site, specifying the type of meat they would like to receive. Hunting associations or private hunts located within a radius of 80 kilometers can offer them slaughtered animals corresponding to their requests. And this for free, or at a price that must not “exceed that of the bracelet”*, indicates Charlotte de Fougères. Hunters and beneficiaries will then agree on a place to meet.
The only constraint: “the regulations require the hunter to give up the product of his hunt only for personal consumption and on condition that the animal is passed on whole, with its skin and gutted,” explains Charlotte de Fougères. Which must be weighed against the nutritional qualities of venison, argues the creator of Gibier pour tous. “It is a very lean meat, rich in protein and cholesterol-free,” she says. But also, without a doubt, from short supply chains.
A bracelet must be placed on an animal that is subject to a hunting plan. In Creuse, the prices for bracelets are, for example, €12 for roe deer and €35 for wild boar.
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