Animal abusers: PETA accuses hunting association of hypocrisy

According to media reports, eleven red kites under strict species protection have been found dead over the past three years south and southeast of Neumünster.Red kites were found dead.

Four of them were discovered in the past two months in the villages of Renswühren, Rickling and Daldorf. Who is the animal abuser?

According to the State Office for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Areas, at least nine of the birds of prey demonstrably died from an insecticide that has been banned for years. The police are investigating.

PETA offers a reward

To bring the animal abuser or abusers to justice, PETA is now offering a reward of 2’000 euros for information leading to the conviction of the perpetrators. Witnesses are asked to contact the police and may also reach the by email at the animal rights organization — anonymously if preferred.

«PETA wants to help finally bring the animal abuser to justice,» says Nadja Michler, wildlife expert at PETA. «The investigation should focus especially in local recreational hunting circles. In Germany, birds of prey are repeatedly poisoned or shot by hobby hunters, as they view these animals as competitors for game. The perpetrator must be stopped, as by laying out highly toxic substances they are endangering not only strictly protected birds and other wildlife, but also dogs, cats and people. For small children who, unobserved, put things in their mouths during walks, the banned toxic substances can also have serious consequences.»

Hypocrisy of the recreational hunting community

The Schleswig-Holstein State Hunting Association had offered a reward of 1,000 euros for tips leading to the resolution of the case. PETA sees this as an attempt to distract from the fact that hobby hunters and even hunting officials have previously been convicted of illegally hunting birds of prey. For example, a hobby hunter who had poisoned at least nine birds of prey in the Cloppenburg area in 2018 was sentenced a year later to a total fine of 5,400 euros. In 2016, a court convicted a member of the presidium of the NRW State Hunting Association and fined him. The hobby hunter from Albersloh had illegally set up a goshawk trap near his home and pheasantry in August 2015. In her written judgment, the judge cited as possible motives that the man wanted to prevent hobby hunting for pheasants by birds of prey, and that as a game warden he had an interest in reducing the population of predators. More on hunting myths at wildbeimwild.com.

PETA advocates for a ban on hobby hunting. Scientific studies show that hobby hunting is not suitable for sustainably regulating wildlife populations. Researchers demonstrated that, for example, female animals in hunted wild boar populations reach sexual maturity earlier, which increases the birth rate. Accordingly, high hunting pressure causes the population of the wildlife species in question to increase in that area. Prof. Dr. Josef Reichholf, a renowned biologist at TU Munich, also sees no biological necessity for hobby hunting from a wildlife biology perspective: the near-extinct wolves do not need to be replaced by human hobby hunters, since natural regulation of animal populations living in the forest occurs through environmental factors such as weather, food availability, and disease. More on this at wildbeimwild.com.