For 5 years the increase in the population of boars has become out of control.
Today there are 2 million people in France: in Occitanie the Hautes-Pyrénées, Gers and Gard departments are the most affected.
As a result of global warming, the herds have never looked so well: food is more abundant, the hens are more fertile (up to 3 litters over 2 years), and more wild pigs survive the winter.
Fewer shots and bumps on the road
The interruption of hunting due to confinement, when the season had been exceptionally extended throughout March 2020, did not facilitate the regulation of this population.
Not only were the guns silent, but the cars and trains that usually mow thousands of animals stayed in the garage.
The result of this unexpected peace of mind: the spring mortality rate of wild pigs has collapsed.
I killed an average boar a year; I killed 17 last year: 2 during beatings, all the others were shots of opportunity. We kill between 9,000 and 11,000 per year in the department: it is absolutely necessary to increase the pressure of hunting
considers Lionel Candelon, farmer and hunter in the Gers.
Wild boars cause great damage to crops, primarily corn and other cereals: plots of hundreds of hectares surrounded by pine forests, as found in the moors, serve as a refuge and pantry; then they move to the other departments, which explains why the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Gers and Hautes-Pyrénées are among the most affected.
Pigs in the city
But wild pigs are getting closer and closer to built-up areas: this is a very old tradition in the Gard and near Nîmes; this is also the case now around the Toulouse metropolis.
The other side of the problem is that it is hunting companies that compensate farmers: a total of 60 million euros were thus paid in France in 2019:
we are free insurance for farmers
notes Jean-Marc Delcasso, president of the departmental federation of Gers.
This state of affairs comes from a law promulgated in 1968; However in 50 years the situation has deteriorated significantly and the departmental federations of hunters will soon no longer have the means to meet this financial obligation.
The national federation has decided to file a QPC, a Priority Question of Constitutionality, before the Council of State, the highest administrative court in France. It is Maître Patrice Spinosi who took over the file and he is hopeful of succeeding
explains Serge Casteran, president of the federation of hunters of Occitania.
The legislator has addressed the problem: a parliamentary mission on “ regulating big game populations and reducing their damage Was handed over last year.
He looks at the “ necessary compensation reform ” He also proposes to lift all restrictions on the hunt for wild pigs.
But the debate started has been postponed … because of the health crisis.-
