In the footsteps of a team specializing in hare hunting with sticks on the Sauveterre causse

Les chasseurs rameutent leurs chiens et décident d’un nouvel endroit pour chercher des voies. Midi Libre – Célian Guignard

À l’occasion de l’ouverture générale de la chasse, ce dimanche 8 septembre 2024, rencontre avec des passionnés qui ne sortent pas le fusil mais uniquement leurs chiens et leur canne.

“Neither weapon, nor violence and without hatred.” This message was found in the offices of the Société Générale in Nice, in 1976, after the robbery of the century committed by the accomplices of one of the most famous French gangsters, Albert Spaggiari. This slogan, which has become legendary, is said to reflect a form of romanticism among certain bank robbers, keen to spare human lives. The Lozériens Laurent and Christelle Castan, Jacques and Joris Gazagne, Henri Bourgade, Bastien Chabert and Gabriel Mougeot, who regularly accompanies them, could almost take it up for themselves.

The seven friends meet from September to March, every Saturday and Sunday, not to empty safes, but to hunt hare with sticks, that is to say without a gun, simply with a pack of hounds and a cane to help them clamber over the Sauveterre plateau. “If the dogs end up leading the hare, the hare gets away with it in 99% of cases, says Jacques Gazagne. It's a rather fascinating animal, very cunning.” Laurent Castan agrees: “We don't take. We're not hunting. Our passion is the dog's job, to chase the hare and see it. If there is a catch, then we systematically leave it for the dogs to reward them.”

In search of the ways of the night

On this Sunday, September 8, the day of the general opening of the hunt, five members of the crew are available. They are more motivated than ever, after six months of deprivation. At 7:45 a.m., they are at La Tieule, at Laurent Castan's, who has set up the kennel on his land. Around ten dogs, including two young ones born in 2023, are loaded into the vehicles, heading for the place called l'Aoumet, between the village where the Castans are from (Emmanuel Castan, Laurent's brother, is notably mayor of La Tieule and has been at the head of a wild boar team, the Vautré du Sauveterre, editor's note, for thirty years) and Le Recoux.“We will be”on the border between the hunting society of La Canourgue and that of Massegros”, specifies the master of the place.

The dogs are loaded into the vehicles. Midi Libre – Célian Guignard

When the old Land-Rover leaves the asphalt for the dirt roads, the dogs get excited. “You hear them ? Asks Laurent Castan. They know they are going to hunt.”Barely out of the chests, the canines, mostly Ariégeois crossed with Bleu de Gascogne, but also Comminges reds and a Vendéen griffon, set off in search of the night paths, that is to say the smells that the hare leaves in the early morning before going to bed. But be careful, there are traps. “The hare makes what are called chains to deceive its predators, explains Laurent Castan. It makes loops, it goes from one point to another, before making a final leap of several meters. It is where it falls that it will hide to spend the day." The Afaccc (French Association for the Future of Hunting with Hounds) type pack therefore has a lot of effort to make if it wants to throw a prey and lead it away.

Laurent Castan is certain, a hare is hiding in the vegetation. Midi Libre – Célian Guignard

“Sharing what I learned from my father”

As the crew anticipated, this first day is laborious. “We didn't attack early enough, he regrets. The routes are difficult to exploit.”Yet, after about three hours of effort and several kilometers swallowed on foot, the dogs throw and lead their first leporid, before losing its track. Then a leveret passes by. “It must not weigh more than 2 kg”, estimate the hunters. It hides behind a bush, when the dogs return. The decision is quickly made to stop them so as not to risk killing the young specimen.

Joris Gazagne and the dogs try their luck in the wooded area. Midi Libre – Célian Guignard

Back at Laurent Castan's, it's time to relax and debrief. “It wasn't fantastic, but it was a recovery, the latter puts it into perspective. In a month, the tracks will be much better. The most important thing for me is to share what I learned from my father, who learned it from my grandfather…" For the greatest pleasure of beginners, as well as experienced hunters.

Hunting with a stick until March

Normally, hare hunting ends in December. However, members of the French Association for the Future of Hunting with Hounds in Lozère (Afaccc 48) have the opportunity to extend the pleasure until March. Afaccc 48 has more than 200 members. It also allows them to participate in numerous competitions throughout France.

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