Nesting Rooks Disturbed: Fine for Bern City Resident
While the intelligent birds are a true wonder of nature for some, others are bothered by the loud cawing of these sociable animals or by droppings on their car or park bench.
The Federal Court has sentenced a Bern resident to a suspended fine because he rooks during the protected period while they were nesting.
Nests illegally thrown from plane tree
Using a cherry picker, the now 61-year-old threw four to five nests from a plane tree in the Bern district of Breitenrain-Lorraine to the ground.
Federal Court confirms ruling
With his unilateral action in March 2018, the man incurred a suspended fine of ten daily penalty units of 100 francs each. The Federal Court confirmed in a ruling published on 14 July 2021 the judgment of the Bern Court of Appeal. The court costs of 3,000 francs are imposed on the appellant.
The act took place during the protected period lasting from 16 February to 31 July and is therefore punishable under the Hunting Act.
The day after the nests were removed, the game warden found eggshells under the tree. This showed that the plane tree had been inhabited by rooks that were already nesting, as established by all instances.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier Poaching and hunting crime in Switzerland we document cases, legal questions and recurring patterns. 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.
