The video showing the death of the young wild boar Hercules killed by a bullet in the head by a hunter on December 21, 2019 in Liverdy-en-Brie while he was walking quietly in single file near hunters has toured social networks.
The hunter who admitted the facts in front of the gendarmes was prosecuted for endangering the life of others because the shot fired at close range in the head of the animal could have rebounded on one of the hunters of the group that day.
But the classification without follow-up to the complaint of Alain Martin, the man who had collected the boar ten months before, surprised more than one Internet user.
Contacted, the Melun prosecutor's office explains its decision.
“The offense of endangering the life of another was not sufficiently established in view of the circumstances and the distances of the shooting.
The author of the shot explained that he fired for fear of being injured by the boar without there being other hunters in the firing zone according to his memories ”.
And to finish: "The owner was not victim in this file because it is about a wild animal".
According to Melun's prosecutor, Béatrice Angelelli, “there will be no reopening of the investigation”.
Close the ban!
However, the video aroused the indignation of the Secretary of State for Biodiversity Bérangère Abba and the Minister of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili.
The latter even requested an investigation from the French biodiversity office.
At the Monceau estate, which belongs to Alain Martin in Liverdy, deer, fallow deer and wild boar live in a natural space of 170 ha./LP/Sophie Bordier
The explanation of the parquet floor revolts Alain Martin, owner of the Monceau estate in Liverdy where he has deer, fallow deer and wild boar on his 170 hectare property.
“Justice is missed.
They did not watch the video that the gendarmes had attached to the file.
Seeing the images, they would have noticed that we are far from the alleged danger that Hercules could represent.
He walked at the feet of the hunters, smelled their shoes.
The shooter's argument does not hold water.
In addition, there was a risk that the bullet would ricochet because the other hunters were right next to it!
We see them!
"
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VIDEO. Domesticated wild boar shot by a hunter: "I still have tears in my eyes," says Alain a year later.
Alain Martin recalls that he often wears a red jacket.
But this morning of December 21, 2019 when he was absent, Hercules saw the hunters and their fluorescent red vest on the edge of the property.
He visibly followed them out of the park, passing through a weak or already damaged fence.
“A wild boar cannot see well.
So he smells.
This is why he approaches the hunters one after the other, without aggressiveness.
He gives little snouts.
He feels them because he is looking for me, ”explains Alain Martin.
Hence, according to him, the “disproportionate and cruel” reaction of the hunter who suddenly takes a step towards the boar and kills the animal with a bullet in the head.
More than 116,000 signatures demand "justice for Hercules"
The affair arouses considerable commotion.
In just a few days, a petition entitled Justice for Hercules was launched on the internet.
Addressed to President Macron, Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin and Minister of Justice Eric Dupont-Moretti, it has already collected more than 116,000 signatures.
“People love animals!
»Exclaims Alain Martin, hardly surprised.
Another site gives the floor to René, member of the hunting company concerned that day.
"This person was immediately expelled from our hunt with a ban on returning," he said, referring to the shooter.
He refuses that hunters are "lynched every time an asshole does anything" and also distinguishes between hunters and "misfits", poachers who "set traps, throw dogs", even at night, to kill animals.
For Alain Martin, “the departmental hunting federation would have emerged with its head held high from this file by filing a complaint against the author and asking for an exemplary sanction against this kind of person whose abject behavior sullies hunters.
He shoots an animal out of a hunting context, with a weapon already loaded, in defiance of all safety rules!
The federation can file a complaint.
She would come out grown up!
», Insists this man who repeats it:« I am not anti-hunting.
But there is an ethic to be respected.
"
Fear is no excuse
President of the Seine-et-Marne hunting federation, Benoit Chevron wants to be clear: “We would have liked the shooter to be sanctioned and condemned by the courts.
Now, according to our lawyer, we can no longer file a complaint once the case is closed.
The hunters present that day warned the president of their company who permanently expelled the person.
But I do not know if the hunting license is withdrawn from him for life ”.
On the “fear” which would have justified the death of Hercules, Benoit Chevron says: “Fear is not an excuse.
A hunter carrying a weapon must keep his cool.
If his weapon was additionally loaded, there is an additional fault.
But the video does not show whether he loaded it before or not.
"
And last tackle for Alain Martin: “He is outlawed.
We are not allowed to tame a boar.
In addition, its park in which the animals are over-crowded is not hermetically fenced.
In 2015, 180 deer leaving his home were shot ”.
