lawyer, doctor, elected official, hairdresser… who are the people who still practice it?

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On weekends, they head out into the forests of France to hunt with hounds. Divided into crews, for a day, the huntsmen follow a horde of dogs, chasing wild boars, hares, deer and deer.

According to the National Hunters Federation, they there would be 10,000 riders in Franceincluding 350 crews and 100,000 “sympathizers”, accompanied by 30,000 dogs, 7,000 horses, in 70 departments. However, due to lack of official statistics carried out by an independent body, actu.fr is unable to confirm these figures.

Besides this vagueness, which remains on their numbers, who are they et what are they looking for in this 600-year-old “tradition”?

Dogs, horses and good friends

First specificity, unlike other types of hunting, exit daggers, rifles and other firearms hunting wildly. Without this “pleasure of shooting” that other hunters may feel, the huntsmen of this Saturday, November 23, at the Orléans forest, are driven by other motivations.

With their feet in the snow, they all have the same common denominator: the joy of meeting up with friends. With this almost reassuring ritual of drinking apple ratafia at 10 a.m. “It’s friendly, we all know each other,” says actu.frArthur, 35 years old. This head of a company which studies the impact of agricultural products on the environment came with her two children 12 and 15 years old. The older one rides a horse with him.

“It’s the dream, in a setting as sumptuous as this,” he says, looking around him and his 36,000 hectares of white-speckled national forest. Same for Xavier, in his fifties. This lawyer from the Paris region came to find “old friends” accompanied by his wife, Aurélie. For this doctor: “To be in this environment, linked to my horse, my lungs in the fresh air, it’s great”.

Love of nature and dogs too. “When I created the Rallye Tempête with my brother and my father, it was the desire to see our dogs hunting which made us want”, underlines withactu.fr Pierre-François Prioux, president of the Venerie Society.

Everything for the family

These testimonies confirm a survey* carried out by CSA (Consumer Science & Analytics), a survey organization, and the Société de vénerie. According to this study, published in 2023, 87% of the hunters surveyed have the “main motivation of seeing and hearing dogs hunting”.

72% of them hunt with friends, 50% with family. Conversely, only 6% of crews go on weekends with neighbors, and 4% with colleagues. “It’s a family affair,” insists Philippe, the son of Pierre-François Prioux. The forty-year-old, agricultural technician, leads the Rallye Tempête crew. He is accompanied by his two sisters, Virginie and Cécile and his mother, Marie-Hélène.

Last difference: the study reveals that 28% of crew members are womencompared to 3% in other types of hunting. And draws up the “identical portrait of the huntsman in 2023”, a man, living in the countryside, 55 years old, hunting dogs for love with his family. So.

The CSP+ on horseback, the others walk

Another reality is that there are different types of hunting with hounds. Still according to the CSA study, 34% of hunting lodges hunt hares, 24% deer, 12% wild boars and finally foxes. 10% deer. And if hunters shout about “taking” hares, it’s because of the price.

According to Héloïse Fradkine, in an article published in Genesis, Spatial footprintspublished in 2015, contributions are not the same depending on the game hunted. “They would range between 200 and 500 euros in small hunting crews, for 1,500 to 2,000 euros within those dedicated to the pursuit of deer and wild boar, and up to 4 000 euros in those who run the deer.”

Considerable budgets, which are not accessible to everyone. In addition to this basic amount, it is necessary add additional costs“linked to the acquisition of outfits in the crew’s colors, to the maintenance of one or more horses,” writes Héloïse Fradkine.

During the hounds hunt which took place in the forest of Orléans, elected official, lawyer and doctor mounted the nagswhile municipal employees, butchers and fishmongers followed on foot or by electric bike.

Through a trompe-oeil effect, “the hunting industry is not abandoned,” explains the sociologist. The number of crews recorded “has increased by two and a half” since 1975, going from 154 to 387 in 2011. However, the study by the Société de vénerie wishes to qualify: 62% of huntsmen spend less than 1,000 euros per year “for their passion”.

This is already well above the average annual leisure expenditure of French people. It is located approximately 600 euros per year, reports in 2020, the Observatory of the French relationship to leisure.

*25,000 huntsmen were questioned out of a total of 100,000 practitioners in France: crew members, followers and sympathizers, according to the CSA. In total, 5,000 participants in the survey, contacted by email and subscribed to the “Amis de la venerie” newsletter.

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