Opponents ready to hunt
Oct 29 2004 By Robert Brooks, The Journal
Soaring numbers taking part in France
Florian Dury reports on how hunt enthusiasts face a very different situation in France.
With 450 registered hunts, 17,000 dogs, 10,000 `boutons' - members - and about 10 times as many followers, hunting with hounds is thriving across the Channel.
As English huntsmen stand on the verge of saying farewell to their centuries-old tradition, the French, who mainly hunt boar, stag, roe deer and occasionally fox, quietly started a new season on September 15.
Belgium (in 2000) and Scotland (in 2002) have already banned the practice but the situation in the French countryside seems to be the opposite with numbers of hunters with hounds experiencing an unprecedented growth in the last 20 years.
In the last 15 years or so, not a single national campaign for the ban has been set up by either the Society for the Protection of Animals or the Union of Opponents of Hunting.
The `chasse a courre', as hunting with horses and hounds is called in France, involves 1.5 million people from mid-September to late March.
During the summer, the `fêtes de la venerie' - hunting parties - bring together one million spectators and in November, hundreds of masses are celebrated for the feast of St Hubertus, hunting's patron saint.
But what makes the hunting traditions in France and in Britain so different?
To start with, hunting for wild boar or stag in France takes place discreetly in the depths of the forests rather than across open land; it's done by licence within state-run forests, with a specific number of animals to be killed each season to manage the numbers of wild boar and others.
But head of the French hunting association Pierre de Boisguilbert thinks there is a deeper difference.
He said: "In this country, the main difference is that hunting with hounds or shooting is not a political issue, whether you are from the left, the right or the centre, it doesn't matter. It is rather something the whole community takes part in without any sense of hierarchy.
"We feel deeply sad for our English counterparts. It is not possible to stay indifferent because what is happening could lend wings to our most radical opponents one day."
This eventual attack on French huntsmen could stem from the Mouvement Anti-Chasse, an anti-blood sports movement based in Eastern France. For Monique Piton, a founder-member of the association, the cruelty of the practices is the same on both sides of the Channel and there is no reason why France should stand out against the current European trend towards a total ban.
She said: "For us, what's going on at the moment in England is a real progress. We really hope that the legislative process will succeed in abolishing this cruel game. Hopefully this will boost the debate over the issue in France and we are ready to address the minister on that specific issue."
On the whole, French opponents to hunting with hounds do not appear as a real threat for the time being. They do not have the same strength as their British counterparts and it is very likely hunting horns will carry on ringing out in the French countryside for a long time.
