In Pierrefonds, a municipality located in the Oise department on the edge of the Compiègne forest in France, there were moments of strong tension last Saturday. Around 1.30pm, a deer exhausted from hunting and chased by dogs entered a private property to seek a safe refuge. Having received the report of the animal’s presence in the town, Stanislas Broniszewski, spokesperson for the AVA collective – Abolisons la vénerie aujourd’hui – rushed to the scene, where the situation immediately degenerated into heated arguments with the hunters.
Faced with the attempt by hunting supporters to surround the neighborhood, around thirty residents decided to take sides in defense of the territory and the animal. To prevent access to the hunters’ off-road vehicles, the neighbors set up a real filter barrier at the entrance to the main road of the residential complex. A group of women positioned themselves decisively in front of the gates of the house with sticks, forming an insurmountable human shield and transforming the private perimeter into an impregnable fort to protect wildlife.
The intervention of the authorities and compliance with hunting decrees
The gravity of the confrontation required the arrival on site of three patrols from the Gendarmerie, the Fire Brigade, representatives of the French Office for Biodiversity and the mayor Florence Demouy. Among the options examined by the police included anesthetizing the deer using darts to facilitate its transport into the forest. The mayor and the rescuers rejected this route, judging it to be too dangerous for public safety, preferring to leave the animal undisturbed in the garden waiting for it to regain the necessary strength to climb over the fences in full autonomy.
On the other side of the barricade, Thomas Drach, member of the hunting society La futaie des Amis, rejected the association’s accusations, underlining the strict observance of current regulations. Drach recalled that the decree of March 18, 1982, updated in 2014 and 2019, imposes immediate pardon for the animal that finds shelter near private homes. According to the hunter, the interruption of the hunt took place in full compliance with the operational rules, denying the reconstruction of violent resistance.
The debate on hunting with hounds in France
The Pierrefonds episode is part of a climate of ferocious social conflict surrounding hunting with dogs, a practice that has ended up at the center of bitter political and legal debates. The AVA association strongly denounces the danger and cruelty of these events, citing similar precedents that occurred in Senlis and Rethondes in 2024, and calling for the introduction of municipal ordinances to establish protected buffer zones around inhabited centers. Hunters instead defend the tradition by citing the constant increase in the presence of fauna on the outskirts of cities and the advance of urbanisation.
In the end, however, there was a happy ending, at least for this specimen. The determination of the owner of the house and the solidarity of the entire neighborhood have in fact guaranteed the safety of the deer, which remained in the courtyard until its total physical recovery before its spontaneous return to nature. Hoping that he can now live undisturbed and away from guns.
