Fury in France as 81-year-old hunter is put on trial for shooting a bear as it dragged him away after breaking both his legs in horror mountain attack

A French hunter has gone to trial after killing an endangered bear that mauled him in a horror attack in the Pyrenees.

Andre Rives, 81, was boar-hunting on November 20, 2021 when a female brown bear nicknamed Caramelles launched a vicious attack on him, charging at him and dragging him by the legs for several metres.

The violent attack came to an end after Rives managed to shoot and kill Caramelles, but the pensioner was left with fractures in both of his legs and an open artery.

But because the brown bear is a protected species in the Pyrenees – a mountain range that separates France and Spain – Rives was charged with killing an endangered animal.

In addition, 15 fellow hunters also face charges for hunting in the Mont Valier nature reserve, after an investigation found that the bear was killed 1,300 ft outside an authorised hunting area.

Speaking in court on Tuesday in the city of Foix in the Ariege department in southwestern France, Rives described the moment Caramelles charged at him.

‘She grabbed my left thigh, I panicked and fired a shot. She backed away growling, she went around me and bit my right calf. I fell, she was eating my leg,’ he said.

‘I reloaded my rifle and fired.’

The case has sparked fury in France, where hunters have held demonstrations in support of Rives, as they insist the pensioner acted in self-defence.

Jean-Luc Fernandez, president of a local hunting federation, said Rives killed the bear in self-defence.

‘He fired,’ he said.

‘He should have let her do it? No, he saved his own skin.’

‘A bear is dead. A man is alive. It’s sad, but I prefer that to the other way around,’ Fernandez said outside the court.

‘The bear had dragged him for dozens of metres and he owed his survival to the presence of the volunteer firefighter.’

But activists have contested that Rives acted in self-defence, with wildlife associations also staging demonstrations outside the court.

‘To what extent can one argue necessity, when one has committed a series of offences that led to the death of the bear Caramelles?’ asked Alain Reynes of the bear-preservation association Pays de l’ours.

Presiding judge Sun Yung Lazare told lawyers for the defence and the 20 wildlife charities taking part in the trial, that the only issue was whether the hunters had illegally killed the bear.

‘This is not an anti-bear or a pro-bear trial, or pro-shooting or anti-shooting,’ she said.

According to Spanish bear conservation charity Fundacion Oso Pardo, there are 83 bears currently in the Pyrenees.

Bears had nearly disappeared from the mountainous region before France began a reintroduction programme in the 1990s, which saw the country import the animals from Slovenia.

The trial is expected to end today.

This article by Sabrina Penty was first published by The Daily Mail on 19 March 2025. Lead Image: French hunter Andre Rives has gone to trial after killing an endangered bear that mauled him in the Pyrenees.

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