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Gunsmoke
France has found itself under the gun (if you’ll
pardon the expression) to bring its hunting laws in -John Gleiber Photo, One of France's greatest draftsmen and painters, Honoré Daumier, made a series of satirical sketches of both hunters and lawyers. Here, a jubilant huntsman, enthusiastically brandishing his gun, tells a local peasant: "What luck! I've killed a tree sparrow! I won't go home empty handed!" His tiny victim, melodious song stifled, lies dead at the hunter's dancing feet. The French hunting lobby's response to the European Union's Directive to curb hunting of migratory birds like this songster illustrates the same irrational mindset.
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line with the
Directives of the European Union. The Directives’ primary concern is
the protection of European fauna. The initial EU laws were passed in
1975, and the 1.6 million strong hunting lobby in France has been
violently protesting and stalling ever since. Only the threat of
possible EU fines has coerced the Jospin government to move. In France,
a compromise bill curtailing open seasons passed by a vote of 275 to 252
with 36 abstentions. There is serious doubt that it will satisfy the EU.
Dominique Voynet, the French Environmental Minister and the nemesis of
French hunters, has described it as “the nearest possible to an
armistice.”
