An 81-year-old hunter has gone on trial for killing a protected brown bear that attacked him and mauled both of his legs.
André Rives was boar hunting with 15 others in the Pyrenees when he noticed two bear cubs during the November 2021 incident, Le Parisien reported.
"I had no choice but to face a bear that was going to eat me,” he told a court in France, explaining that he had been targeted by the cubs’ mother. The pensioner said he was grabbed and dragged by the bear as he tried to fight her off.
"Our eyes met and then she charged me," he told the court. She grabbed my left thigh, I panicked and fired a shot from my rifle. She backed away growling, went around me and bit my right calf. I fell, she was eating my leg. I re-cocked my rifle and fired.”
Rives is on trial alongside the other members of the hunting party. The hunters were questioned about why they were in a nature reserve, and argued the markings were not clear.
The police investigation found that the bear, named Caramelle, was killed 400 metres outside of the authorised hunting area, according to Le Parisien.
Rives has been banned from hunting since the event, but said he would like his rifle back so he could continue his hobby with his friends.
He faces up to three years in prison for the bear’s death and a €150,000 (£126,000) fine for the destruction of a protected species, Le Parisien reports, while the other hunters face fines for shooting without authorisation in a state reserve.
Judge Sun Yung Lazare said the trial was not a “pro-shooting or anti-shooting” trial, but rather a trial to decide whether a bear had been illegally killed.
Environmental and animal protection groups have also taken part in the case.
Alain Reynes, President of the Bear Country Association, told Le Parisien it was easy to target the hunter in this trial but the key issue was whether the group had respected the hunting information and training that is available.
The One Voice Association argued that signage in the area was clear, and the hunters should not have gone near Caramelles’ territory.
Brown bears are a threatened species in the Pyrenees, but since a reintroduction program that began in the 1990s their numbers have grown, from 76 bears in 2022 to at least 83 bears in 2023, Phys Org reports the French Biodiversity Agency as saying.
Caramelles has been preserved in taxidermy by the Toulouse Natural History Museum, Le Parisien added.
