A mayor in France has lost a court case in which he was attempting to ban hunting in a wood in his commune in a bid to protect walkers.
In March 2023, the mayor of Lherm (Haute-Garonne, Occitanie), Frédéric Pasian, issued a decree banning hunting in the commune’s Escoumes woods after some “near misses” with hunters.
These included:
A mountain biker being hit in the arm by a bullet in 2009
A company having a bullet embedded in its cladding, near a hypermarket car park close to the woods, in November 2021
In a subsequent event a couple and their child were caught between a pack of dogs and wild boar during a hunt in January 2024.
The most recent incident led to two local hunters being sanctioned by the hunting association l’Association Communale de Chasse Agréée (ACCA), and being banned from organising hunts.
Decree overturn
However, Mr Pasian’s attempt to keep his decree in place has failed, after the Occitanie regional prefect requested its cancellation in court. On April 29, administrative court le tribunal administratif de Toulouse overturned the decree.
The court said that “the coexistence of hunters and walkers ‘cannot justify a total ban on hunting at all times”, and said the risk was not high enough, arguing instead for better scheduling to avoid hunter-walker clashes, reported France 3.
“It has not been established that the various uses of the site cannot be organised according to a schedule that would allow them to coexist,” the court said.
“Adding the fact that a few houses are located less than 150 metres from the hunting grounds of the municipality does not justify, in the absence of a sufficiently serious risk of disturbance to public order, a general and absolute ban on hunting on the disputed plots,” it said.
It added that “the municipality of Lherm has not demonstrated that there is currently any disturbance to public order, and that the ACCA has taken measures to prevent incidents from recurring”.
The Court added that the Escoumes woods are still within the ACCA's hunting rights after the president of the association did not respond to the request for withdrawal of these. Legally, this constitutes “a rejection of the request”, it said.
‘Obvious ruling’
Jean-Bernard Portet, president of the Haute-Garonne hunters' federation, has welcomed the court’s recent ruling, and described it as “obvious”.
Mr Portet also claimed that Mr Pasian had not provided the correct documents to properly request a withdrawal of hunting rights from the land. “In any case, the mayor of Lherm is a dogmatic environmentalist,” he said.
”It is unfortunate, but this case is wasting a lot of taxpayers’ time and money.”
Mr Portet said he is now hoping that the ACCA will offer a compromise that pleases everyone, and present it at the next meeting, in June this year.
Yet, Mr Pasian says he is still determined to prevent further hunting accidents, and maintain the decree.
“I am considering what action to take next,” he told France 3. He has two months to appeal the ruling.
Hunting accidents
Hunting accidents frequently make the news in France, and there have been a number of deaths, injuries, and ‘near misses’ in recent years.
These include the death of a driver who was in his car on a motorway when he was fatally shot by a ricocheting bullet, and a young hiker who was with her partner on a marked trail when she was killed.
In another incident, a young family were left terrified after a stray bullet smashed and entered their kitchen window as they were sitting at the table with their baby.
Another group were driving in their car when a bullet embedded itself in their vehicle; and in one tragic case, a French husband accidentally killed his British wife while on a hunt.
Similarly, friends and family of Morgan Keane, who was killed by a hunting bullet while chopping wood in his garden, have also called for increased gun control and more anti-hunting measures. Mr Pasian is not the only mayor to try to limit and/or ban hunting in a bid to prevent accidents.
However, in 2022, figures suggested that accidents were actually at a “historic low” in the country.
Read also: How often do hunting accidents happen in France?
Read also: Number of fatal hunting accidents in France at historic low
At the time, the Office Français de la Biodiversité (French Office for Biodiversity, OFB), which published the report, said that the fall in accidents was due to measures implemented over the past 20 years.
These include a change in hunting practices, such as training and awareness programmes; more checks on licences and hunting areas; changes in regulation and legislation; more safety plans, and increased hunting permit tests.
It said that these measures appeared to be having a long-lasting impact on the number of accidents, and called for them to be continued and increased. It said that the number of annual accidents should be zero.
Animal protection group Association pour la protection des animaux sauvages (Aspas), said that even a “low” figure of accidents is still too many.
Hunting remains “the only leisure activity in France which generates so many tragedies and such feelings of danger among non-participants”, it said in a report.
