Breeding Ground for Terror: Hobby Hunting Under the Microscope

It has always been a great concern of Wild beim Wild to support hunters in their public relations work.

Indeed, many people have a completely false picture of hunting and those involved in it.

The hobby hunter no longer comes down from the mountain with an injured Bambi on his back and nurses it back to health. No, the hobby hunter has in the meantime become a plague on wildlife himself.

The size of the bag is what counts, not the welfare of the wildlife.

Hobby hunters find it very difficult to explain themselves in society. They are inadequately, or not at all, educated — presumably because they were trained within a cult-like environment And so most hunting license holders and hobby hunters waddle through nature today with the following attitude:

• Vermin must be killed;
• Wildlife are fruit just waiting to be harvested;
• Ecology means poisoning the soil, groundwater, and wildlife with ammunition;
• making as much noise as possible in the forest;
• Fur is fashion;
• Meat consumption is healthy and innate to humans;
• Hunting and animal cruelty are animal protection;
• Alcohol and other drugs are part of the fun with a rifle;
• Hunters' tall tales are science;
• Hunting is deep meditation;
• Killing is a commandment of Moses;
• Hunters are the advocates for wildlife;
• etc.

The dominant conservation achievement of the hunting community is, in any case: blasting away at living targets. Hunters brag mainly about such images within hunting circles — not about photos of blooming hedgerows or new habitats selflessly created for wildlife for the benefit of the public.

The cheerful back-slapping among hobby hunters looks like this today, for example when it comes to foxes: (even though every normal wildlife biologist knows that fox hunting is also a far-fetched fairy tale — hunters' tall tales, as it were)

There is a very informative book on this subject, which we present HERE.

You could place any wild animal in the fox's position — after all the care and tending done by hunters.

From the current press

…on that evening just over a year ago, the hunting leaseholder of the territory, who lives in the Kelheim district, wanted to get to the raised hide where a hunter was already sitting. The bullet struck him on the way there. It was a tragic hunting accident: A hunter, now 43 years old, was sitting on a raised hide on the evening of October 10, 2014, lying in wait for wild boar. Around 8:30 p.m., the hunter noticed movement at the edge of the forest. He believed a wild boar had broken out of the woods and was running toward the already-harvested cornfield in front of him. The man aimed his weapon at the presumed boar and pulled the trigger. The shot connected. But instead of a boar, the shooter had hit the 57-year-old hunting leaseholder, who was severely injured as a result. The victim had not known that the four-meter-high hide was already occupied by the visiting hunter. The projectile pierced the chest and exited through the buttocks of the 57-year-old. In the process, hip bones were shattered. This resulted in what is known as a tension pneumothorax, in which air enters the chest cavity, creating a life-threatening situation. In addition, bone fragments driven into the abdomen effectively shredded the small intestine, leaving it with 15 holes.

Yes, hobby hunters — both women and men — spread unspeakable suffering, terror, and misery among both people and wild animals.

It doesn't have to be this way

Without the terror caused by hobby hunters, more ordinary people would likely become actively engaged in nature and wildlife conservation again — in a more decent cultural landscape.

But as long as eco-terrorists are spreading themselves through our forests, this is hardly inviting. What ordinary person wants to have to obtain a firearms license first just to enhance habitats or to care for and nurture wild animals with decency, respect, and dignity?

More and more city dwellers are leaving their offices to get out into nature — not only for recreation, but also for conservation. If meaningful opportunities for slowing down were offered here, they wouldn't have to end up at hunting, sinking into it and becoming dulled by it.

Over 99% of the population has no desire to first learn how to gut a noble wild animal before they can engage in serious and ethical conservation work.

Hobby hunters have no mandate or right to kill for the sake of killing either! What is needed is something like an uprising of decent people against the barbarities of hunting. Evil can only ever prevail because good people allow it through inaction.