Hunting accidents, brought back into the public debate by recent spectacular cases, recorded a decrease over the 2020/21 season, with 7 deaths, including six hunters, according to figures announced by the State Secretariat for Biodiversity.
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There were 80 hunting accidents in 2020/21, including seven fatalities (six hunters and one non-hunter), according to these figures compiled by the French Biodiversity Office (OFB).
In total, they caused "
83 victims
", dead or injured, "the
vast majority of hunters (86%)
".
Big game hunting accounts for 59% of accidents.
“
Auto-accidents
” represent 29% of the total and three of the seven fatal accidents.
Declining figures for the 2019/20 season, which had recorded 141 accidents in total, including 11 fatal, with one non-hunter dead.
They cover a season partly disrupted by confinement, but have been part of an overall downward trend for twenty years (39 fatal accidents for the 1999/2000 season).
“
But our efforts to reduce them must continue.
A hunting accident is always one accident too many,
”notes the Secretary of State in a press release.
42 accidents in the current season
The main causes are non-compliance with the 30 ° shooting angle (intended to avoid hitting another participant on the side during stationary hunts), shooting without identifying the game, "
auto-accidents
", in particular. by improper handling of the weapon.
"
The shots in the direction of roads or homes which are the cause of accidents, but also incidents (no physical victims) are still too numerous
", also underlines the OFB.
According to the press release from the Secretary of State, since the start of the current hunting season there have been 42 accidents, including three fatalities.
When questioned, he did not immediately specify the distribution of victims between hunters and non-hunters.
The announcement of these figures comes as spectacular cases have put this question back into public debate, such as the recent death of a motorist hit in his car by a bullet from a hunter near Rennes.
In December 2020 it is a young man who was chopping wood in his garden in the Lot who had been killed by a hunter's bullet.
To fight against these accidents, the ecological presidential candidate Yannick Jadot proposes to ban hunting during weekends and school holidays.
The Senate for its part announced at the beginning of November the creation of a mission on hunting safety, after "
strong support
" to a petition on its site calling for measures.
Read alsoDo traditional bird hunts threaten biodiversity?
To "
ensure better information for users and residents
", the Secretary of State announces in its press release the posting of a calendar of hunting in national forests (https://www.onf.fr/chasse/les- public-forest-hunting-calendars).
