France

[lewis]

I live here in Brittany FRANCE (home of the Brittany spaniel) great here apart from the fact that yob immigrants are torching the place........

best regards

Lewis

[DeathFromAbove]

lewis mate, is it true u need a licence to hunt rabbit over there as they aren't seen as vermin but more of a delicacy?

[lewis]

Death fro above........

I take it you saw my excuse for the poor written welsh in the forum "names".

Here in France you need a permit for a permit......

You need a permit to hunt.
you need a permit to keep birds of prey (generally frowned upon)
you need a permit to exhibit to the public
you need a permit to move them around the country
Birds of prey must enter country with valid health certificates, a10's if appropriate for the species or breeders certificates showing they were bred in captivety.
For hunting you are only allowed a maximum of 6 birds

Permit to Hunt.....
Multi choice question paper to which the pass rate is at 80% from memory. You must also take a shooting test with a shotgun and must take a walk through the countryside with a loaded shotgun and a wildlife policeman so that he can make sure your safe. After that you can get your hunting permit. The hunting exam covers all methods of hunting including stalking, archery, shotguns, rifles, ammunition chokes calibres and trajectories, legislation and safety to name but a few. Strangely they do not cover falconry you only have to be ble to identify the local common species like the kestrel and buzzard. No very much mentioned on other raptors like goshawks (which you can trap in the wild with yet another permit !!!) or eagles and vutures. It is also possible to have the hunt go through your property (private or not) in pursuit of game. My mate who i go flyfishing with says that his friend cannot go out into the garden on sunday mornings as it can get very dangerous from hunters shooting. He says that his friends house is peppered with gun shot............

Permit to keep a bird of prey.....
Took over 2 years in the system to get mine as i have many different species. Some of my students have taken over a year to get a permit just for a harris. Again took over 2 years for the public display permit. Again the permit for moving was over a year.

Other than the above falconry is a growing sport. There is only around 3-400 falconers France wide. There are only 2 falconry clubs...........

Im starting to rant back to the original question the permit is not just for rabbit it is for all species being hunted.Wether they think they are a delicasy or not i dont know. They all seem to breed them in little cages in the garden. There is very few around in the wild.....

Hope i answered your question

Do you live in wrexham or is it Wrecsam ?

Only joking fella spoke to the mother in law last night about my welsh spelling

Best regards

Lewis

[DeathFromAbove]

heheh yeah, saw and replied to the 'names' posting bud..... i offer a leek of peace :P (and that doesn't mean i'm gonna urinate everywhere hehe).

yeah it's either wrexham or wrecsam - the welsh confuses the english folk hehe

Sh*t mate.. how do you cope with all them permits? you must have been at your wits end waiting years for all them permits to come thru and going though all that procedure just to be able to fly and hunt your birds...... wouldn't cope with that myself...... my hat is well and truly off to you my friend.

:prayer:

how's the law reacting there with falconry and this bird flu on it's way?

[lewis]

What law ?????

Have you not seen the news everyone is torching the place. They cannot deal with that they are hardly going to be concerned with some bird flu !!

Seriously though when a bird of prey gets injured and cannot go back to the wild 100% fit then they slot it. A friend of mine who works with injured Vultures and Eagles (in fact anything else he can get his hands on legally of course )in the Pyrenees has said that as soon as they get any confirmed cases all centres such as his will close and he will be our of a job. I presume once they close the centres any birds that need to be looked after will be slooted quickly. He is also on the goverment board for CITIES so i suspect he knows what is happening.

Presently all domestic fowl have to be kept under cover.

Best regards

Lewis