The hunter sentenced to a four -month suspended prison sentence – Liberation

Man should not have been on the territory of the animal, but did he have other choices than to open fire? It is the thorny dilemma to which the Foix Criminal Court (Ariège) responded on Tuesday, May 6, on 16 hunters tried for The death of the caramel bear In 2021, having participated in the hunt in a nature reserve.

The 81 -year -old man author of the deadly shot on the protected animal was sentenced to four months in prison suspended. A conforming sentence to the requisitions of the prosecution at the end of the hearingon March 19, which also requested two years of ban from wearing weapons, suspension of the hunting license and 1,800 euros fine. The prosecutor considered that the hunter « Sawnely took the risk of confrontation with the bear in the reserve, which is a tranquility zone » For this animal.

In addition, the fifteen other hunters were sentenced to fines of a few hundred euros and withdrawals from the hunting permit, all defendants having to collect more than 60,000 euros collectively to the environmental associations formed civil parties.

On November 20, 2021, the 16 men organized an illegal hunt in an Ariège nature reserve, in the Pyrenees. The area being protected, the practice of hunting is prohibited. The group had nevertheless found itself to track wild boars when it crossed the road to caramelles, 150 kilos, accompanied by its two cubs.

At the bar of the court, the main defendant admitted to having opened fire on caramellas. Tried « Destruction of protected species »he justified himself, saying that he was found in a state of « Stage defense ». « She grabbed my left thigh, I panicked and I pulled a stroke of rifle, reported the octogenarian. She fell backwards, she bypassed me and bit my right calf. I fell. She was puffing my leg. I rearmed my rifle and fired. She died five meters below. ”

The shooter’s lawyer said he « While waiting to come from the coming judgment ».

About twenty associations defending the presence of the bear in the Pyrenees became a civil party during the trial. The argument of self -defense is bad in their eyes. Alain Reynes, of the Pays de l’Ours association, wonders: « To what extent can we assert the state of necessity, when we have committed a series of offenses which led to the death of the caramel bearing? » These associations asked 100,000 to 175,000 euros against the hunter: the equivalent in their eyes of the cost of replacing the slaughter.

For their part, the hunters defend themselves by invoking the fact that they have been going to this place for years. But for the lawyer of the 12 associations, the fact that hunting was frequent in this area « Does not detract from the characterization of the offense ». She recalls that “The civil parties are not opposed to hunting, but so that it does not harm the environment, it is necessary to respect its rules. The bears are threatened with extinction, the disappearance of a reproductive female is serious and prejudicial. ”

There are many plantigrades in this area. It is also in the Pyrenees that we find the largest bear population in France. They would be between 97 and 127 in this mountain range, according to The French Biodiversity Office (OFB)thanks to the reintroduction of the species. However, it remains threatened.

In 2008, another hunter was tried for having shot down the cinnamon bear in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Killed four years earlier, she was the last Pyrenean strain bear. Relaxed at first instance, the man had been sentenced to compensation to compensate various associations for the protection of the nature up to 10,000 euros.

Caramelles and Canelle are now visible at the Natural History Museum in Toulouse.

Update : At 2:38 p.m., with the addition of the decision rendered by the court.