“It was self defense.” Around 200 people marched this Friday to Saint-Girons’ gendarmerie, in Ariege. They were there to support the hunters being held in police custody as part of an investigation into the November killing of a bear by a hunter she attacked. .
Under the cheering and applause from the demonstrators, two men marched Friday morning to their summons at the gendarmerie.
Jean-Luc Fernandez, president of the Federation of hunters of Ariege said that six interrogations had taken place in police custody on Wednesday and Thursday. Information that the prosecution declined to confirm.
It is unacceptable to be in such a position. Jean-Jacques Meric (mayor of Caumont), a small Ariege town, said that it was the bear that attacked the hunter.
“We don’t have anything against the bear. We are after the state, which must do its job. These police custody are shocking. We are treated as criminals, “continued The Chosen One, also a hunter.”
This case dates back to November 20, 2020. A 70-year-old hunter shot and killed a bear while hunting wild boars on the heights near Seix. The bear had just attacked the hunter and inflicted severe injuries to his leg. Investigations by the gendarmes will determine the nature of the facts and whether or not the hunt was conducted in an approved area.
The president of the Hunters Federation has no doubt that justice will be done for the hunter.
Philippe Lacube is the president of Ariege Chamber of Agriculture. He said that the current situation was “unbearable”. This is despite the fact that bear hunters and bear breeders are routinely treated with a “presumption of guilty” in cases involving them.
Christine Tequi, president of Ariege, was also present at the rally and denounced “responsibility by the State” in the affair. The situation will get worse. She warned that if there is a death tomorrow, it will happen again.
France started a program in 1990 to reintroduce plantigrades (from Slovenia) when the Pyrenees bear population was at risk of extinction. They now number in the 60s.
