D: Animal welfare organisations call for ban on trap hunting
For most animal species, there is not even a legitimate reason within the meaning of the Animal Welfare Act to kill them as part of hunting.
On 7 July, the Hessian state parliament passed a law banning so-called kill traps.
Already banned in five federal states
In five other federal states, recreational hunting with these supposedly instantly lethal snap traps is already banned (Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland, with exceptions in Baden-Württemberg and Saxony).
In the joint letter, the Federation Against Animal Abuse, the German Animal Welfare Federation, the German Legal Society for Animal Welfare Law, and Wildlife Protection Germany point out that these traps pose a significant risk of injury to all animal species.
Trap hunting is counterproductive
Recreational hunters claim that trap hunting is necessary to effectively reduce populations of foxes, raccoons, and raccoon dogs. However, as numerous scientific studies demonstrate, recreational hunting of predators is broadly ineffective.
The example of Luxembourg shows that things can be done differently. Although fox hunting has been banned there since 2015, the red fox population has not increased to this day. Over the same period, more than 18,000 foxes were shot in the similarly sized Saarland — without the situation for prey species improving in the slightest.
Further reading: Petition: Foxes – Birds – Pets: No recreational hunting without legitimate justification!
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In our dossiers on the criticism of recreational hunting gather fact-checks, analyses and background reports. The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
