Hunting Fair Dortmund: Endangered Birds in the Crosshairs
Conservationists criticize the fact that the hunting fair "Jagd & Hund" continues to offer trips focused on shooting as many rare migratory birds as possible along their migration routes.
As the Committee Against Bird Slaughter reports, the current exhibitor catalogue features at least a dozen companies that continue to offer species for shooting in Hall 7 that are endangered in Germany.
Mass Shootings of Endangered Migratory Birds
The hunting agency Vojvodinasume (Stand D15), for instance, offers trips to Serbia where hobby hunters can pay to shoot turtle doves, garganeys, quails, and other bird species. A few metres away (Stands F18 and C52), competitors sell “wildfowl shoots” targeting turtle doves and quails in Bulgaria. Right next door (Stand B58), a company from Baden-Württemberg offers bird hunts in Montenegro, where among other species snipe and song thrushes can be shot. The company Blaser Safaris (Stand E02) offers, among other things, the shooting of snipe and songbirds in France.
Garganeys, snipe, and turtle doves are classified as “critically endangered” or “severely threatened” in the current Red List of breeding birds in Germany. Quails are listed in Category V (early warning list). Part of the Central European populations of these species demonstrably also migrate through Eastern Europe and the Balkans in autumn. The recreational hunting poses a massive threat to the biodiversity of these species.
26’300 Euros for Mass Shootings in Corsica
The company Premium Jagd from Dortmund (booth D25) advertises paid mass shootings of migratory birds in France and Serbia, where customers are allowed to kill dozens of quails per day. “Even average marksmen can expect a daily bag of around 20 birds. For experienced hobby hunters, the yield is often considerably higher,” the company states on its website. Customers wishing to kill as many animals as possible in a short time must dig deep into their pockets. A group of 6 to 12 hobby hunters pays around €26’300 for a multi-day bird hunt in Corsica. This includes daily bags of 500 thrushes, woodcocks, and other species.
Those wishing to shoot puffins and seals in Iceland are catered to by travel agencies Malepartus and Fabrig (booths B12 and B58). “If protected birds are deliberately shot, a charge of €200 per bird will be applied,” reads the telling warning notice on the Malepartus homepage. The Atlantic puffin is classified as “Vulnerable” on the global IUCN Red List.
Trade fair exposed as hypocrisy
The fair advertises on its website as being an “international trendsetter and pacesetter for the improvement of species protection and an ethically sound hunting culture.” The Committee Against Bird Slaughter describes this as hypocrisy. The canned hunting offers at the fair are also causing outrage.
“Hobby hunting of endangered migratory birds has nothing to do with responsible or sustainable hunting — it harms species conservation. The booth fees of these exhibitors are stained with the blood of species threatened in Germany and Europe,” said Committee Executive Director Alexander Heyd.
The bird protection advocates are calling on Messe Dortmund GmbH to finally draw consequences and exclude the relevant companies from the fair. More on the animal welfare problem of hobby hunting and the hunting myths.
