The French hunter received a suspended sentence for murder

An 81-year-old hunter in France is fined and handed over a four-month prison sentence for killing an endangered bear in the Pyrenees mountains.

The man said there was no “other option” except to find fire on the brown bear when he attacked him during a boar hunt in 2021.

Fifteen other hunters were also fined and should collectively pay more than 60,000 euros (51,000 British pounds) compensation for environmental associations that filed a civil claim against them.

The female bear of 150 kg, the nickname of the caramel, has since been preserved by a taxidermist and is on display at the Toulouse Museum of Natural History.

The Foix Criminal Court listened that the group was hunting the boar in the Pyrenees, the mountain range that divides southern France and Spain when two bears appeared.

Shortly thereafter, their mother appeared, loading to the man and dragging him a few meters before shooting and killing the animal.

“She grabbed my left thigh, panicked and shot a shot. She stepped back, she toured me and bitten my right calf, I fell, she eats my legs,” he told the court.

“I reloaded my rifle and fired.”

The shooting took place in the Nature Reserve Mont Vali near the village of Sex, Ariez. Prosecutors said they should not have been there first, since it was 1300 feet (396 million) outside an authorized hunting area.

But the defense lawyer for 14 hunters Fanny Camppan criticizes “the lack of signs showing that hunting is prohibited.”

The shooter was fined 750 euros, his rifle was confiscated and his hunting license was taken away.

In a statement, the bear consumption association pays de l’Ots said the sentence “seems to be justified”.

“All hunters were found guilty, which is the most important thing for us,” the president of the association quoted in Le Mond.

“We hope that this decision will be followed by an increase in awareness among the hunting community,” she added.

Brown bears populations are observed a sharp decline in the Pyrenees, with only about 70 remaining in 1954, According to the Tourism Council in the regionS

But their number has slowly climbed since the 1990s, when three bears were transferred from Slovenia as part of a re -introduction program.

In 2024, French office for biological diversity Calculated that the mountain range is already home to about 96 bears.