A discovery outing of hunting with hounds offered to teenagers by the youth space of Gabarret has sparked controversy. The community of municipalities defends an activity rooted in local culture, while the association Futur denounces a “cruel” practice and deems it unacceptable to expose minors to it.
An activity offered by the youth space of Gabarret (Landes d’Armagnac) has caught the attention of an animal rights defense association. Adolescents aged 11 to 17 participated on March 18 in an outing “discovery of hunting with hounds”, sparking outrage from the association Futur. Activists denounced, in a letter addressed to the community of municipalities of Landes d’Armagnac, manager of the youth space, a “cruel” practice and “unsuitable for minors”. The outgoing president of the community of municipalities and candidate for re-election, Philippe Latry, fully stands by the initiative.
“We offer activities adapted to our territory”
The youth space accompanied a group of teenagers on a hare hunt in the Gabarret area. According to Philippe Latry, outgoing president of the community of municipalities and candidate for re-election, it was a discovery activity, supervised and validated by the parents. He insists that “the young people did not witness the capture of an animal”, stating that no hare was caught that day. He adds: “Hunting is part of the heritage of a rural area like ours. To form an opinion, one must know.” And he details: “Here, we don’t have a skate park, no surf school. We offer nature activities adapted to the territory.”
The association Futur denounces a practice “extremely cruel”
This is not the opinion of the association Futur, engaged against hunting with hounds, which finds the outing unacceptable. Vuk, a activist specializing in tracking hunters on social networks, claims to have come across the publication of the youth space and denounces this activity “which consists of tracking an animal to exhaustion.”
She describes hunting with hounds as a practice where animals can be killed with a dagger, drowned (for deer), or “shredded by dogs” in the case of hares. “Children should absolutely not be exposed to this. It’s not just a nature walk.”
For the association, the argument of tradition does not hold: “Whether it’s for hunting, bullfighting, it’s always the same excuse. When animals are victims without their consent, we can no longer talk about tradition, we can no longer talk about terroir or anything else. In fact, it’s just things that should be eliminated,” Vuk believes.
