Vaud: the president of hunters wants to regulate the wolf

An activity criticized –

“The hunter is a respectable being”

Alexandre Berthoud is the president of the Vaud section of Diana. It evokes the arrival of a new generation.

BotTalk

• Hunting in the canton attracts a young population close to nature.
• The number of hunters exceeds 800, reflecting the diversity of the population.
• The president of Diana believes that the wolf will have to be regulated.

How is hunting in the canton?

She is doing well. There is a slight increase in the number of permit takers. This is notably thanks to a new population who are interested in it, young and close to nature. It also becomes more feminine with the arrival of new huntresses. We see it in the training which lasts two years. Each flock has more than sixty people. This development is excellent news.

How many hunters are there today?

There must be a little more than 800 of us in the canton.

You are talking about a new generation close to nature. Is she an environmentalist?

Hunters are also ecologists. We are sentinels and nature lovers. A hunter goes into the forest all year round, with or without a gun. He participates in the census of certain species. That said, hunting is not political. I would rather say that it reflects the diversity of society. There are also people from the cities. I also believe that hunting is a good way to combat the city-country divide.

Hunting is also a matter of human relationships…

There is an important element which is camaraderie. Between us, it’s very strong. A hunting team is a group with whom we share intense moments. When you’re at a position, it’s also sometimes long periods of waiting to finally lead to a shot or nothing at all. There are landscapes that appear and which are incredible. This is the beauty of our passion.

The fact remains that among the population, hunting is a very emotional subject with sometimes very marked reactions.

It will get better. Everyone needs to understand each other. For me, hunting must be democratized. Every time we meet a mushroom grower, for example, we have to go and explain to him what we are doing. Nature is for everyone. In any case, there is no shame in being a hunter, quite the contrary. He has a permit issued by the canton and he has paid his taxes. If we are not in order with this, we cannot have a permit. The hunter is a respectable being.

What is the hunter’s relationship with game?

The worst that can happen to us is to hurt an animal. We always try to do the best we can. But we can also let an animal pass because it’s not the time, because we don’t want to. If we’re not sure, we give up. Not shooting is an act of hunting.

The hunters we met explain that the wolf has disrupted the habits of game in the Vallée de Joux. What do you think?

They are right. Today, we hunters support breeders. Personally, I think that the wolf will have to be regulated. The game has changed territory, as in the Alps. This is not good news for forestry. Because it does a lot of damage to forests. But also for the deer which does not mix well with the deer. It tends to flee the territory occupied by the latter. If we take the tray away from the deer, I don’t know where it will go.