VIDEO. Wild rodeos, new farmers nightmare

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They make the engines to the open field on improvised circuits between the corn and vineyards. Motorized rodeos Invited today to the countryside and cause damage in agricultural plots. In the Val d’Oise, Laurent Chatelain, nursery farmer shows in the morning of Wednesday July 22, traces of passage discovered in this wheat field. “They went there, they returned, they did their turn”he says.

Two weeks ago, quads or cars devastated part of the field. In the middle of the lying ears, pieces of sheet metal were even abandoned. In all, 500 euros of losses estimated for the farmer, but it is far from the first time. He had already been able to film the three quad rodeo in the spring on his plots. Illegal and planned races.

The surveillance cameras of another farmer captured the vans used to go to the starting point of the rodeos and avoid controls. Inside, their motorcycles, often without license plate. Since the start of the year, in the Val d’Oise, 45 vehicles have been seized, nine people arrested. And this is not the only department concerned. Last month, in the Oise, these plots were deteriorated by the passages of quads.

The farmer fails to be compensated. “We assure our cultures for climatic vagaries and not for degradations. But nothing happens. If we do not find the authors, we cannot inflict damage to them”deplores Frédéric Picard, farmer. If arrested, the authors of Rodeos face 15,000 euros fine and the confiscation of their vehicles.