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Boy killed by his grandfather on opening day of France’s hunting season

The opening of the hunting season in France was marred on Sunday when a 13-year-old boy was shot dead by his own grandfather in a tragic accident in the west of the country.

Published: 18 September 2017 11:35 CEST

Boy killed by his grandfather on opening day of France's hunting season

Photo: AFP

Every year people die in hunting accidents in France and this year the first deaths came on the opening weekend of the season.

A 13-year-boy, who had joined a hunt in the Vendée department in western France, died after being shot in the head by his own grandfather.

The boy was shot at 11.30 am near the village of Triaize as he went to pick up a game bird that had been shot.

He was taken by helicopter to hospital in Nantes but later died from his injuries.

An investigation has been opened to determine the exact circumstances of the accident.

READ ALSO:

All you need to know about France's hunting season

But sadly Sunday’s tragedy was not a freak event given that each year the hunting season in France claims several victims in shooting accidents.

Indeed the 13-year-old boy was not even the only fatality on the opening weekend of the season.

A 57-year-old hunter was also killed in the south east Alpes-Maritimes department on Saturday afternoon.

The hunter was not a victim of an accidental shooting but reportedly lost his balance and fell into a ravine as he tried to dispose of an animal carcass.

In another incident a man and his 12-year-old son were both hit by bullets fired from another hunter in the Var region of the south east. But their injuries were not fatal and they are now out of danger.

The Association for the Protection of Wild Animals (ASPAS) has long been campaigning for a ban on hunting on Sundays.

Speaking to The Local previously, Pierre Athanaze, the head of ASPAS, said the laws needed to be changed in France to prevent more deaths.

“France is the only country in Europe where people can hunt every day, which is why we are the country in Europe with the most accidents.

“Hunting needs to be stopped on Sundays, because this is the most dangerous day. There are more and more people heading out into the countryside on a Sunday, whether it's for walking, mountain biking or collecting mushrooms. We want an end to it,” he said.

Aya Biran , a paternal aunt of Eitan Biran who was the sole survivor of a deadly cable car crash in Italy, arrives at Tel Aviv’s Justice Court on October 10, 2021

Aya Biran , a paternal aunt of Eitan Biran who was the sole survivor of a deadly cable car crash in Italy, arrives at Tel Aviv’s Justice Court on October 10, 2021. Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP

The battle for custody of Eitan Biran, the sole survivor of the May accident that killed 14 people, has captured headlines since his maternal grandfather, Shmulik Peleg, brought him to Israel on a private jet last month.

The child lost his parents, younger brother and great-grandparents in the May 23 accident near the top of the Mottarone mountain in the northwestern Piedmont region, where the family was out on a Sunday excursion to the scenic spot served by the cable car.

The cable car’s pull cable snapped just before it reached destination. It then flew backwards, dislodging itself from a second, supporting cable, and crashed to the ground.

Investigations later revealed that emergency brakes that could have stopped the car on its supporting cable, avoiding the tragedy, had been deliberately deactivated to avoid delays following a technical malfunction.

Three individuals responsible for the cable car’s management were subsequently arrested.

The wreckage of a cable car that crashed on the slopes of the Mottarone peak above Stresa, Piedmont on May 23, 2021, killing 14.

The wreckage of a cable car that crashed on the slopes of the Mottarone peak above Stresa, Piedmont on May 23, 2021, killing 14. MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP.

Peleg has insisted that he drove Eitan from Italy to Switzerland before jetting him back to Israel – instead of returning him paternal aunt Aya Biran, who lives in northern Italy – because Eitan’s late parents wanted him to be raised in the Jewish state.

But Peleg has become the subject kidnapping probe by Italian prosecutors and Israeli police questioned him over those allegations last month.

A statement Monday from the Tel Aviv court where Aya Biran had filed a complaint said judges “did not accept the grandfather’s claim that the aunt has no custody rights”.

It recognised an Italian judgement that established Biran as a legitimate guardian and said Peleg had “unlawfully” removed the boy from his aunt’s care.

The court “ordered the return of the minor to his usual place of residence in Italy”.

The court also found that “a connection” between the surviving members of the Italy- and Israel-based relatives was in Eitan’s “best interests”.

Peleg was also ordered to pay Biran’s legal fees, amounting to 70,000 shekels ($22,000).

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Shmuel Peleg, the grandfather of Eitan Biran, hugs a relative outside the Justice Court in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on October 8, 2021.

Shmuel Peleg, the grandfather of Eitan Biran, hugs a relative outside the Justice Court in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on October 8, 2021. Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP

The case has stirred emotions in Israel, and throngs of journalists had surrounded the Tel Aviv court for hearings last month, with some pro-Peleg protesters insisting it was wrong to send a Jewish child out of Israel.

Before judges ordered the sides to stop talking to the media, Peleg told Israel’s Channel 12 in September that his grandson was “in the place where he is supposed to be, in his home, in Israel.”

Eitan and his parents, Amit Biran and Tal Peleg, had been living in Italy, where Amit Biran was studying medicine, together with their other child, Tom.

Eitan suffered severe chest and abdominal injuries and spent a week in intensive care after the May accident that occurred when a cable snapped on the aerial tram bringing weekend visitors to the top of the Piedmont region’s Mottarone mountain.

The accident was one of Italy’s worst in over two decades.

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