French Hunting Accident Report 2021-2022

The trend of a decrease in accidents, observed over the last 20 years, is confirmed, despite a slight increase compared to last year. These results reflect the efforts made on safety and training by the hunting community.

Over the period 2021-2022, the French biodiversity Agency (OFB) recorded a total of 90 hunting accidents (personal injuries related to the use of a hunting weapon), 8 of which were fatal. Among these, two involved non-hunting victims.

Despite a slight increase in accidents this season (80 accidents last year), the trend of a general decrease observed over the last 20 years is confirmed and, for the second year in a row, the number of hunting accidents is below 100. These results are closely linked to the efforts made by all the hunting stakeholders, whether it be the training provided by the federal government, the hunting license examination issued by the OFB, all the practices that the hunters themselves are developing or the constant evolution of the regulations. These efforts will be pursued in order to reduce as much as possible the accidents.

The accidents recorded confirm that they are mostly the result of human error related to the disobedience of basic safety rules. Thus, among the main causes of accidents recorded, we observe the failure to respect the shooting angle (30 degrees), improper handling of weapons, shooting towards of roads, houses or hiking trails.

The OFB works in partnership with the federal bodies representing hunters in order to improve training and to set up continuous awareness actions. At the request of the Government, the OFB will maintain the control of hunting safety measures. In addition, administrative sanctions will continue to be firmly applied, such as the suspension of hunting licenses by the OFB's Director General in the case of serious safety violations.

"Hunting safety is a priority for the OFB, which works, through its missions (licensing, hunting police, awareness), to sanction or change dangerous situations. In view of the statistics, efforts must be pursued, in particular with regard to the avoidance of shooting towards roads and houses. I recognize the efforts made for several decades by the hunting actors and hope that we will continue our work together.”
Pierre DUBREUIL, Director General of the OFB