An 81-year-old French hunter has avoided jail after killing an endangered female bear that attacked him in the Pyrenees in 2021, in an incident that sparked fierce criticism from environmental associations, reports The Guardian.
The defendant, who said he had no choice but to open fire when a brown bear attacked him while he was boar-hunting in the mountain range separating France and Spain, was given a four-month suspended jail sentence.
The court also fined 15 other defendants who participated in the hunt several hundred euros and temporarily revoked the hunting licences of two of them.
In addition, all 16 defendants will have to collectively pay more than 60,000 euros (£50,900) to the environmental associations that brought the civil suit.
During the March trial in Foix in southern France, the prosecution said that the main defendant and 15 other hunters should not have been in the Mont Valier nature reserve in the first place.
Defence lawyer Charles Lagier had argued that all the defendants should be acquitted, saying that the hunter killed the bear because he had “no other option”.
On 20 November 2021, two bear cubs emerged from the woods in front of the hunter. Then their mother appeared, charging at the man and dragging him for several metres. He shot and killed the animal.
According to the investigation, the bear – nicknamed Caramelles – was killed 400 metres (1,300ft) outside an authorised hunting area.
When the cubs emerged, “I looked at them with admiration,” the defendant said during the trial. “I made myself very small. Then the mother saw me. Our eyes met, she charged.”
Read more of this AFP report published by The Guardian.