the essential
Exasperated by the noise pollution from the gas cannons, a resident of Loubédat, in the Gers, was forced to sleep in a hotel. The farmer thus implicated assures that the detonations have stopped, and that he was simply trying to protect his crops.
“At least two weeks a year, I have to move to be able to sleep.” High in the hills of Loubédat, Mr. Croizet’s home overlooks the farmland of the neighboring town of Cravencères. Fields as far as the eye can see surround his garden. An idyllic setting, one might think.
But with the arrival of the growing season, the tranquility of Mr. Croizet’s home has turned into a veritable “hell.” The culprits: gas cannons, or scare cannons. “I can’t sleep anymore,” confides the resident. “The cannons go off at night, and the detonations are unbearable.”
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Throughout the entire planting season, Mr. Croizet claims to have heard these cannons day and night. “And it’s been going on for three years,” he adds. At the end of his tether, he tried everything: the police, contacting hunters, but nothing worked. “I contacted this farmer to ask him when all this would end. But it continued,” assures Mr. Croizet. So he turned to the town hall to file a complaint. “The use of the cannons then stopped, but I know that it won’t be enough. It will start again,” he laments. For him, the “nightmare” will continue next year.
He therefore decided to contact the prosecutor if no solution is found, regretting “having to become an informer”.
Crops in danger
“Me, I simply want to protect my crops,” confides the farmer, who wishes to remain anonymous. “I use my cannons to scare away wild boars, which destroy my crops. They are nocturnal animals, so I have to operate them at night.”
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He explains that he had sown his corn for the first time, but without the use of scare cannons, the game would have damaged part of his crops the following night. “The damage continued, so I took precautions and set up the cannons,” he says.
The farmer confirms having received a visit from Mr. Croizet, to whom he assured that his intention was in no way “to prevent him from sleeping with this noise pollution”. The use of the cannons continued for a few days after this neighbor’s visit, until the crops had reached a sufficient size. “Once they reach maturity, the wild boars no longer go there,” explains this farmer from Cravencères.
What about the law?
To date, there are no specific regulations governing the use of scaring cannons. However, the number of detonations, the time elapsed between each of them, the distance between the cannons and homes, or even the taking into account of the prevailing winds can be regulated by prefectural decrees.
In the department of Gers, the Prefect adopted a prefectural decree on December 31, 2014. Thus, the use of sound devices for scaring animals or dispersing clouds used for crop protection “are authorized on days during which the Crops must be safeguarded and as soon as the leaves appear for the vine stocks. Their establishment cannot be done less than 250 meters from a third party’s dwelling or a premises regularly occupied by a third party and their operation is authorized 1. hour before sunrise and 1 hour after sunset.
The mayor of Cravencères, Mr. Jean-Pierre Larrandaburu, claims to have contacted the farmer concerned, who then stopped using his scare cannons. “I went to see him following complaints from this citizen from the neighboring town,” he says.
