Prof Theodore Monod is an ageing scientist and explorer, famous in France for his nature treks through great deserts. He heads the anti-hunting group ROC. "Hunting has become a pastime, an amusement, a game," Mr Monod says in a full-page advertisement in Le Monde, above a photo of a green-clad hunter aiming his rifle at the camera. "Alas, people continue to kill, and with more and more efficient weapons, simply for pleasure, for fun."

The law passed by the French parliament last month was a great disappointment for Mr Monod. The deputies caved in to the hunting lobby, he told Le Figaro. "They have destroyed the credibility of our country, which committed itself, along with its European partners, to protecting European birds during the most sensitive periods of their reproductive cycle. I consider it scandalous that they show such contempt for the 60 per cent of French people who are against hunting, and for European institutions through this vote."

Mr Monod would like to see all hunting outlawed "because respect for life, in all its forms, must constitute the foundation of a new society." Hunters justified their "sport" on the grounds of tradition. "But even if that is true, it can evolve. Otherwise, why did we abolish slavery . . .? If you think that way, why try to renounce war, which was always part of our history?"

Mr Monod says the disappearance of hunting is part of the "humanisation" of man, "of this evolution towards a superior state . . . Don't let people claim that hunting is still useful. It became anachronistic once it was no longer done out of necessity."

More and more French young people oppose hunting. "Seventy-four per cent of 16 to 25 year-olds condemn it today," Mr Monod said. "I am counting on them. Three generations should be enough to get rid of all the hunters."