Wild Boar Crashes Into Bakery Window While Fleeing Hunters

Chaos in the Village

On the morning of Saturday 25 October 2025 at around 10:30, the normally quiet town of Commelle-Vernay was jolted by a scene of panic. A boar, terrified and pressed by the chase, burst through the glass front of the bakery Au gré des vents. The glass shattered, the vitrine collapsed, and several customers inside narrowly escaped injury. The bakery owner, Olivier Brise, told local media: “A customer saw the boar coming and moved just in time. Without that, the glass could have fallen directly on her head.”

Despite the dramatic smash-through, the boar did not stop—it fled the shop and was later shot by the hunters in the street. The hunters later apologised, the shop-owner made an insurance claim and reopened the next day.

A Broader Pattern: Danger, Distress & Public Risk

This is not an isolated incident. Several other examples across France illustrate how hunting with packs of dogs, chaotic drives and insufficient safeguards can cause serious harm:

• Near Millau (Aveyron), walkers were attacked by a wild boar being chased by hunting dogs. The boar, weighing between 50-60 kg, slammed into the couple twice while under the chase.
• In another case near Aurillac (Cantal region), a 25-year-old woman was killed by a stray bullet during a wild boar hunt led by a 17-year-old hunter. She was walking with a friend on a marked trail when the shot hit her.
• A large hunting expedition in France killed 158 wild boars in one drive—an amount many animal-rights groups described as a “bloody spectacle from another age.”

These examples highlight systemic problems: drives that push animals into villages, hunters shooting under pressure, packs of dogs pursuing terrified wildlife into public spaces.

Cruelty and the Animal’s Point of View

It’s worth turning the lens to the wild boar itself. In the bakery incident, the boar was not attacking innocents—it was fleeing. Driven by fear, pursued by dogs and hunters, the animal entered the building in a desperate bid to escape. Once inside, it was shot dead.

Traditional imagery of boar hunting invokes bravery and the “noble hunt.” But today’s evidence suggests something quite different: animals chased, terrified, sometimes wounded, leading to public danger and ethical questions. In fact, commentators have described French wild boar hunting as a “bloody spectacle” and criticised the lack of respect for the animal’s suffering.

One academic paper studying wild-boar hunting in France deconstructs each component—the drive, the dogs, the weapons—and concludes that modern hunting often places the animal in extreme distress before death.

Public Safety and Hunters’ Responsibility

Beyond animal suffering, there is a significant public-safety dimension. When a boar rams through a bakery window, it’s not just symbolic—it’s a danger to human life. The walkers attacked near Millau, the woman killed near Aurillac, all show how poorly regulated or controlled hunts can have tragic consequences.

The French government has recognised this. In 2023 it announced plans to tighten hunting laws—prohibiting alcohol and drug use in hunts, enhancing safety measures, and providing extra protections for walkers and residents near hunting zones. However, critics say the reforms don’t go far enough, and that the very culture of chasing game en masse remains unchanged.

What This Means for Our Society

This bakery incident, set in a peaceful town but ending in violence and death, is more than a quirky “wild boar in a shop” story. It is emblematic of deeper questions:

• Why do hunts still deploy large packs of dogs that chase game into villages and shops?
• How much risk to human safety is being accepted by communities near drive-zones?
• When an animal flees for its life only to be shot in the street, what does that say about “ethical” hunting?
• Should lives—human or animal—be endangered for the sake of tradition or sport?