“It's a day of peace for the forest and its animals, at last.
It is with this sentence that Martine, a resident of Fleurines (Oise), commented on her participation in the anti-hunting demonstration organized this Saturday in Compiègne.
About 300 people answered the call of the collective Ava (Abolisons la vénerie today) and demonstrated to demand "the abolition of hunting with hounds".
“This season has been cruel for the big stags, regrets Stanislas Broniszewski, president of Ava.
I am happy that these eight months of chaos and barbarism are over.
Nature is returned to those who respect it.
They will be able to walk around without being insecure.
»
This hunting season was again marked by incidents between anti-hunting and hunting societies.
Stanislas Broniszewski also thanked “the people of Bonneuil-en-Valois, Pont-Sainte-Maxence or Saint-Sauveur who sacrificed their time, their weekends to lead this fight.
»
Protesters from Aisne and Rambouillet
There were not only members of Ava in the procession of demonstrators.
Philippe came from Fleury, in the Aisne.
“I am a municipal councilor and in the municipality, we took a municipal decree to prohibit hunting with hounds on our territory and hunting societies to cross the village.
»
Measures that are not always respected.
“That did not prevent a deer from being killed at the entrance to the village last Thursday, regrets Philippe.
When we see them act, the word combat takes on its full meaning.
I'm not an Ava member, but what they're doing is legit.
»
Fabrice, Léa and Marie came from Rambouillet (Yvelines).
“We are in the middle of the forest, the hunts, we undergo them every weekend, they lament.
We were at the first event four years ago, it was obvious for us to come back this year.
»
The support of candidate Yannick Jadot
A week before the first round of the presidential election, this demonstration took on a political dimension with the passage of Yannick Jadot, the candidate invested by Europe Écologie-les Verts (EELV).
“I had to be there to support the magnificent fight that Ava is fighting.
He took the opportunity to promise "the abolition of hunting with hounds if the French so decide".
Read alsoHunting: on the eve of the presidential election, a very political end to the season in Oise
An announcement that earned him thunderous applause.
“Like the majority of French people, I am for the abolition of cruel hunts, he insists.
Hunting with hounds is the symbol of this cruelty.
We chase animals for hours to throw them to the dogs.
It is the negation of beauty.
»
Other proposals from the ecological candidate: “the ban on hunting on Wednesdays and during school holidays” and “the end of the breeding of 20 million animals intended for hunting”.
No incident was to be deplored, the hunters met in general assembly in Clermont, 20 kilometers away.