A British woman has filed a police complaint that a hunter’s bullet was fired in error into her garden and missed hitting her by only a few centimetres.
Rachel Moody, 59, believes a hunter mistook her for an animal as she was gardening.
Rachel Moody
She had heard the sound of a hunt in woods a few hundred metres from her land in Fenioux (Deux-Sèvres), Nouvelle-Aquitaine, but had received no warning that a hunt was planned nearby.
“I assumed it was safe for me to be in the garden,” she said. “Then I heard a very loud shot. It sounded really close and terrified me.”
Ms Moody, a former psychology teacher from Hampshire, is developing a permaculture food forest garden with her partner on a five-hectare plot and their property is several kilometres from the nearest neighbour.
Between her and the hunt was a line of trees and an open field. She said she quickly tracked down the hunters and was reassured that nobody had fired in her direction.
“But the next day, I saw a bullet lying on the ground in our porch,” said Ms Moody.
She had earlier noticed a piece of wood debris in the utility room and was curious as to how it arrived there.
She then realised it had come from the cladding on the inside of their front porch.
“The bullet came through two layers of tough cladding, then hit the wall of the house.”
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Ms Moody later noticed a recently broken tree branch: “You can make a direct line from that broken branch to the hole in the porch. I was practically in line with it.
“That’s why I think they were shooting towards me.”
'Regrettable'
Ms Moody lodged a complaint with the gendarmerie, who have since visited the property. Local hunt activities are on hold in the area.
Frédéric Audurier, director of La Fédération des Chasseurs des Deux-Sèvres, said: “If it turns out the incident was as described, it is regrettable and should never have happened.”
Ms Moody is calling for hunting to be more tightly regulated: ‘I think the vast majority of people in France would prefer not to have hunting at weekends, so you can enjoy your garden or the forest without fear.”
In 2020, British-born Morgan Keane, 25, was shot dead by a hunter while chopping wood in his garden in Lot.
The hunter responsible, said to be inexperienced and incorrectly positioned by his hunt leader, claimed he simply failed to clearly identify his target. He was given a two-year suspended sentence and a hunting ban.
