“Hunting sows chaos and terror, we demand its abolition”

Lhunting with hounds, horns and cries (also called venery), is a hunting practice of feudal origin which consists of launching a pack of dogs in pursuit of a wild animal, until the exhaustion of this last. The hunt for the animal can last for hours, during which it runs at full speed, in enormous stress.

Exhausted, the animal ends up collapsing. He is then pierced with a bladed weapon, a spear or a dagger, and sometimes dies screaming in pain. Sometimes the animal is torn to pieces by the dogs. Many animals die of sudden cardiac arrest due to the stress and frantic running inflicted on them. Those who survive are often injured for life or doomed to death.

Hunting with hounds sows chaos and terror: packs of dogs running on the roads, domestic animals attacked, howls, hunted animals seeking refuge in villages, stations, ports, public buildings or inside private properties , killed in front of children or hospital patients. The government supports hunters, despite so much suffering and insecurity.

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Several neighboring countries such as Germany, Belgium, Scotland, England and Wales have abolished hunting with hounds. It does not exist in the Netherlands or Luxembourg. Since its ban, English and German hunters practice it without killing animals, with simple decoys as prey. All leisure must be practiced without cruelty.

With the complicity of some elected officials

Despite these advances abroad, France is one of the six countries in the world that authorize this archaic hunt. The legislative proposals aimed at abolishing it have all been defeated by the government or Parliament, under the diktat of the hunters’ lobby and with the complicity of certain elected officials.

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Just recently, a citizen petition was launched on the Senate platform for the abolition of hunting with hounds. It was arbitrarily closed by the Conference of Presidents.

However, 86% of French people are opposed to hunting with hounds, according to an IFOP poll of April 2, 2021. The will of this overwhelming majority of French people has been flouted in favor of the pleasure of 110,000 people (about 10,000 practitioners and 100,000 followers). A total denial of democracy.

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All of the signatories, business leaders, artists, scientists, academics, writers or journalists, join the vast majority of French people who want the abolition of hunting with hounds and ask Parliament to take up this issue. and put an end to this cruel hobby.

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