Bavaria faces ban on otter hunting
This is a rather explosive case, because it touches on several levels at once: state law, federal law, European species protection law — and on top of that, the practical question of how strictly protected animals can be effectively protected when state regulations facilitate their killing.
Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), together with Bund Naturschutz Bayern (BN), has filed a norm review application with the Bavarian Administrative Court of Appeal for the protection of the Eurasian otter .
The aim is to examine the legality of the Bavarian hunting regulation, which broadly permits the capture and killing of the strictly protected Eurasian otter.
After DUH won an urgent injunction on 30 June 2025 against one of the species protection general orders authorising the shooting of Eurasian otters in Upper Franconia, this norm review brings about a judicial examination of the amendments to the hunting law exemption regulation (GVBl.2024, p. 397).
Under the current regulation, pushed forward by Deputy Minister-President Hubert Aiwanger, the capture and killing of the strictly protected Eurasian otter at fish ponds is permitted year-round — and in a particularly brutal manner through hunting. Juvenile animals may even be shot by hobby hunters and adult animals may be caught in box traps despite the considerable risk of injury, with males killed after a weighing procedure. In addition, Bavaria permits so-called night-sighting technology and artificial light sources, as well as the use of non-selective traps for otter hunting.
The Bavarian regulations violate the protected status of the otter in numerous Natura 2000 (FFH) areas and contravene European species protection law. The night-vision devices prohibited under European law cannot reliably determine whether an animal is a female with dependent young. This violates, among other things, the protection of parent animals! Live traps, meanwhile, do not meet the requirements regarding selectivity and integrity when used on otters. Bavaria must finally protect threatened and strictly protected species such as the otter – and that is only possible with hunting legislation oriented towards nature conservation. – Sascha Müller-Kraenner, Federal Director of DUH
Support for the judicial review application comes from DUH’s most recent success before the Bayreuth Administrative Court: after the authority in Upper Franconia initially refused, DUH this week secured the withdrawal of the last two removal orders. This means that not a single otter may be killed in the Upper Franconia district while proceedings against the general order are ongoing.
A judicial review does not examine a single order but the validity of the regulation as a whole. If DUH and BN prevail, the contested hunting regulation would be overturned across the whole of Bavaria, not merely in individual cases.
Background:
Through exemption regulations under species protection law and hunting law the Bavarian state government has for years been attempting to circumvent European species protection law. In the assessment of DUH and BN, the killings and captures now permitted jeopardise the stabilisation of the otter population in Bavaria, which was once nearly eradicated.
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