Savoir

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1998:

PARIS––An estimated 130,000 to
150,000 French hunters mobbed Paris on
Valentine’s Day to protest a European Union
directive that France must protect migratory
birds. Headed by leaders of both the
Communist Party and the far-right National
Front, the hunters repeatedly hanged French
environment minister and Green Party member
Dominique Voynet in effigy.
“Men with whips drove forward a
pack of dogs and a wild pig at the head of the
parade,” Jean-Marie Godard reported for
Associated Press. “The marchers sounded
hunting horns and tossed firecrackers the
length of the protest route.”

Added Julian Nundy of the London
Daily Telegraph, “Near the end of the route,
a young woman held a heart-shaped placard
stating, ‘We have heart. Do you?’ The
marchers pelted her with empty beer cans.
Many demonstrators were drinking beer and
wine. ‘They were staggering, not marching,’
said photographer Francis Apesteguy.’”
“History will record,” said Journal
de Dimanche editor Alain Genestar, “that
the biggest demonstration in France in years
was about the right to shoot migrating––and
therefore foreign––birds. The image of the
day will be of demonstrators carrying placards
insulting a woman.”