Deer Gores French Hunter To Death With Its Antlers

A French hunter died Monday after a cornered deer charged him with its antlers in the Compiegne national park, about 53 miles northeast of Paris. Regis Levasseur, 62, was stabbed fatally when he was acting as a beater, the person who normally helps corner the animal in a particular area during a hunt. Levasseur, who was due to get married soon, died from his wounds and internal bleeding.

A police spokesman said the victim was charged at and stabbed by the deer with its antlers, according to the New York Post. Levasseur was unarmed and died before the emergency services could get to the spot for his rescue. The police described it to be an ‘uncommon’ death.

The president of the local hunters’ federation Guy Harlé said usually the deer are more inclined to run away when they see a human being, reported the Local.

Harlé said, “The antlers of the stag are like many knives piercing you, there is nothing you can do. This tragic accident reminds us that we do not play with a wild animal. There is an inherent risk with hunting. ... For Levasseur, hunting was more than a hobby, it was his life.”

Levasseur’s death came just a few days after a protest in France after hunters shot dead a stag at close range after tracking it to the garden of a private house. The hunters apparently fed the animal's corpse to their dogs after killing it in the village of Lacroix-Saint-Ouen, 52 miles north of Paris.

“Now we have a painful illustration of the dangers that wild animals represent. What would have happened at Lacroix-Saint-Ouen if the stag had been allowed to charge around the neighborhood? This should act as a lesson,” Harlé said.

After this incident, animal rights groups launched petitions calling for hunting to be banned and there were protests in nearby towns as well. The hunting group involved in the stag’s death was banned for a month while the hunter who shot the animal was facing death threats, reported the Local.

France's environment minister Nicolas Hulot described the sport of hunting with hounds as a 'practice from another century' that 'prolongs the agony' of the trapped animal, the Local reported.

According to the French newspaper La Depeche, 27 percent of hunting accidents in France occur due to mishandling of firearm and 17 percent is because of the hunters firing bullets without having identified a definite target. Last year 18 people were killed in hunting accidents in France and nearly 351 have died since 2001.

In September this year, a 13-year-boy, who joined a hunt in the Vendée department in western France, died after being accidentally shot in the head by his own grandfather. In October, a woman was fatally shot in her garden after a bullet from a hunter’s gun passed through her garden hedge.