Wounded wild rabbits, missing a piece of truffle, a piece of ear.
Dozens of corpses of these small mammals on the ground or crammed into plastic buckets.
The images published this Wednesday by the anti-hunting association Nos Viventia are harsh.
Shot on a hidden camera by an anonymous "whistleblower", the video shows a breeding of rabbits intended for hunting, in the Gard.
The association takes the opportunity to demand the end of game farms.
“The animals live in unworthy conditions.
Females, for example, spend two years reproducing while their productivity drops, then they are sold to hunters to be shot, sighs Pierre Rigaux, naturalist and founder of Nos Viventia.
We haven't detected anything illegal, because the regulations allow just about anything.
"
Non-hunters will be surprised to learn that rabbits are raised to end their lives at the end of a gun.
We are far from the image of the tracker capable of tracking an animal for long hours, even long days to, perhaps, return empty-handed.
This is also the case for partridges, pheasants, wild boars, ... The Gard farm filmed - which we could not reach this Wednesday - displays the color on its site by describing itself as "a game farm at destination of hunting ”.
They also sell hares, pheasants and partridges.
In particular, you can buy “shooting rabbits” online for 12 euros each.
"Cannon fodder for immediate consumption", regrets Pierre Rigaux.
The installation claims an additional 4000 to 5000 per year.
Threatened by intensive agriculture
How to grow and multiply wild rabbits, what a funny idea?
The large-eared animal, however, has the reputation of reproducing at high speed.
Moreover, this small game is seen as capable of causing serious damage in vegetable gardens and in fields… True and re-true, but the species, very common in France, has in fact seen its populations drop for fifty years.
In question, intensive agriculture and the massive destruction of the hedges where the hairballs found refuge, but also of the diseases like the myxomatosis or the hemorrhagic disease of the rabbit which continue to decimate entire regions.
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Claude, hunter, "participates in the balance of natural areas"
So, farms like the one in Gard must participate in restocking.
The department is one of their regular customers to allow the release of rabbits in the depopulated scrubland.
"Hunting companies are putting resources and energy into reintroducing rabbits," defends Marc Valat, director of the Gard departmental federation.
They do it of course for the pleasure of the hunt, but not only.
These animals are part of the species that also allow the protection of raptors such as Bonelli's eagle, protected him.
"
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The argument makes Pierre Rigaux jump: “Weak excuse”.
Admittedly, Bonelli's eagles revel in the flesh of rabbits, "but they can live on other resources" judges the one who published the video.
This type of images destined to become viral annoy Johanna Clermont, a hunter who is currently lending her face to the campaign of the specialized TV channel Zone 300: "They aim to manipulate the masses by provoking strong reactions" she attacks .
The one who has become a "hunting influencer" also sees the limits: "Once you are caught
(Editor's note: by this type of video)
, the algorithms always offer you the same type of content, creating an infernal spiral", regrets- she does.