100 farm-bred pheasants in crates: two driven hunts in Burgenland cancelled

Animal welfare activists from the Verein gegen Tierfabriken (VGT) say that last weekend in Hof am Leithagebirge (district of Bruck an der Leitha) they discovered around 100 pheasants penned in cramped transport crates on a trailer. The animals were to be released and shot at two driven hunts in neighbouring Burgenland. This is what the VGT states in a press release of 27 October. The newspaper «Heute» also reported on the case.

The tip came from within the hunting community

According to the VGT, the starting point was a tip-off from a recreational hunter. Seven activists set out during the night and found the birds on the premises of the hunt leader's company. By their observations, the pheasants had by then been sitting in the crates for at least ten hours.

Police operation at 4 a.m.

At around 4 a.m., VGT chairman Martin Balluch alerted the police. The officers woke the hunt leader, questioned him and inspected the animals. According to the VGT's account, the man initially denied knowing anything about the pheasants. He later admitted that he intended to release and hunt them in Burgenland, in a hunting ground between Kaisersteinbruch and Wilfleinsdorf. He also stated that he had obtained the animals from Hungary without the necessary papers. The first driven hunt was due to begin four hours later, with a second scheduled for the following day.

According to the VGT, the police obliged the hunt leader to take the pheasants back to the seller in Hungary without delay, as he owned neither a pheasantry nor an aviary. A few hours later the animals were on their way back. Both driven hunts were cancelled.

Possible violations

According to the VGT, releasing farm-bred pheasants for recreational hunting has been banned in Burgenland since 2022. Releasing them immediately before a hunt has been prohibited for decades. The association also sees possible breaches of animal welfare, animal transport and import regulations. Whether criminal offences have been committed is for the authorities to determine. Balluch hopes that the hunt leader will have his hunting licence withdrawn.

Assessment: Delivered for the kill

This case has nothing to do with population control. No existing wildlife population was being hunted here. The animals were to be delivered from a breeding facility, released shortly before the hunt and then shot. According to Balluch, they come from factory farming, are barely used to flying and are therefore helpless and particularly easy targets. What remains is shooting for pleasure, with non-human animals as living targets.

Further background on the treatment of pheasants in Austria: Field trials at the expense of pheasants and ducks and a pheasant hunt next to a wildlife rescue centre in Lower Austria.

And in Switzerland?

In Switzerland, too, pheasant kills have for years been concentrated almost entirely in Ticino. A legal opinion commissioned by the Confederation noted in 2005 that hunting pheasants were released there for the most part. Whether this practice continues today is not publicly documented. Our article sets out the figures and the open questions about the legal situation: «Pheasant hunting now takes place almost exclusively in Ticino».