Three people were wounded in separate shooting incidents involving French hunters at the weekend, amid growing controversy over the widespread and traditional practice of hunting in rural areas.
Environmentalist associations have applauded a ruling by France's highest administrative court, the Council of State, which bans the use of netting and cages to capture birds, a traditional and indiscriminate method of hunting practiced in the north-east and south-west of the country.
As the opening of the hunting season in France approaches this month, the country’s national hunting federation is up in arms over the banning this year of the practice of capturing songbirds with a gluey substance smeared on trees. It is is also displeased with pressure brought by the EU to limit the shooting of rare bird species. In response to increasing disapproval of the pastime, the federation claims that hunters provide a key conservationist role. ‘If there is anyone who can talk about ecology, biodiversity, climatology, it’s us,’ said its president this month. But official data tells a very different story.
A 34-year-old British man who lived in the French Alps region where he had openend a restaurant, was shot dead riding his mountain bike through local woodland by one of a party of seven hunters.
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