Violence and lies: two sides of the same coin at the German Hunting Association

Violence and lies belong to the same coin.

And nowhere is this as visible as at the German Hunting Association.

The fundamental lie: “nature conservation”

For decades the DJV has claimed that hobby hunting is “applied nature conservation”. Scientific studies prove the opposite: intensive hunting causes the growth of many animal populations. Hunting destroys family groups and social structures, the life expectancy of wild animals drops drastically, sexual maturity comes earlier, the birth rate rises. Wild animals possess natural regulatory mechanisms thousands of years old. Interventions through hunting regularly lead to the opposite of the stated goals: to stronger reproduction and more wildlife damage. Hobby hunting creates the very problem it claims to solve. The DJV knows this. It simply does not say so.

Feeding of wildlife: the self-made problem

The wildlife populations, particularly excessive in the case of wild boar, have been catapulted to these population levels by hunters with thousands of tonnes of supplementary feed each year. The danger to our nature does not come from the wild animals, but from the people who keep these animal populations high and want to hunt them. The sequence is always the same: feeding, breeding up, shooting, reporting record hunting bags, talking about nature conservation.

“Management with the gun”: shooting nature to pieces

The DJV invokes the legal “duty of management” – the supposed mandate to ensure healthy wildlife populations through hunting. Management with the gun: shooting nature to pieces in order to protect it. This is not a contradiction one can overlook. It is the business model.

The canton of Geneva has proven since 1974 that there is another way. Before the hunting ban, well over 400 hunting licences were sold every year. Today, twelve professional game wardens of the «Police de la nature» carry out all necessary interventions – for the entire canton, without any additional posts. Biodiversity has increased markedly. The number of overwintering waterfowl has multiplied from a few hundred to around 30’000. Red deer and wild boars, practically wiped out before the ban, have returned. Geneva today is home to the largest brown hare population in Switzerland. And the costs? Less than a cup of coffee per person per year – including game damage prevention and compensation. That is genuine nature conservation. Not 400 hobby hunters with high-tech rifles and SUVs.

Game meat: lead, carcinogens and the WHO

Without days of marinating, intensive seasoning or further processing into sausages and smoked products, game meat is simply inedible for most people. Nobody eats it raw – that is reserved for predators, who need neither fire nor a kitchen. In practice, this places game meat squarely in the very category that the World Health Organization (WHO) has classified as a Group 1 carcinogen: processed red meat, in the same risk class as arsenic, asbestos and tobacco smoke.

Anyone who fails to understand these simple, scientifically proven connections – or deliberately suppresses them – has no business in nature. An association that mentions WHO warnings neither in its hunting training nor in its press releases is not running a nature conservation body. It is running a sect, and besides the wild animals it is quite deliberately harming its own members as well.

Added to this are metal residues from the ammunition. The problem is structurally unsolvable: lead-based ammunition has been shown to leave elevated lead levels in the wound channel and the surrounding tissue. Yet even the much-praised «lead-free» alternatives – copper, zinc, tungsten, tin – do not solve the problem; they merely shift it. Studies show that released zinc and copper ions from alternative ammunition can be highly toxic to certain organisms. Even the US Army introduced tungsten-based training rounds as a «less toxic» alternative, but ended their procurement after later studies called their safety into question. The fundamental problem remains: anyone who shoots metal projectiles into an animal that is afterwards meant to be eaten inevitably introduces heavy metals into the food. Lead-free does not mean toxin-free.

In Germany, lead ammunition is already banned for hunting in several federal states, and in Lower Saxony it has been fully banned since April 2025. The hunting lobby celebrates this as progress. What it conceals: the ammunition problem persists. Added to this are uncontrolled hygiene during the processing of game in the field and the fact that 60 per cent of known human infectious diseases are of animal origin. Game processing operations are subject to far less stringent controls than slaughterhouses. The risks of game meat are a health topic in their own right, which the DJV consistently conceals.

The wolf: manipulation of figures in the service of the kill

On the subject of the wolf, the DJV demonstrates how lobbying works with manipulated figures. The association is attempting to portray the scientifically recognised «Central European lowland population» of wolves as part of a much larger Baltic population. The reasoning behind this is simple: then 250 adult wolves instead of 1’000 would be sufficient for a «favourable conservation status» – and approval for hunting would be easier to obtain. The wolf population is to be calculated down so that its killing becomes legal. This is not biology. This is interest-driven politics with a scientific veneer.

Up to 40 deaths per year: the great silence

Jedes Jahr sterben in Deutschland bis zu 40 Menschen durch Jäger und Jägerwaffen. Weder der Jagdverband noch staatliche Behörden noch das Statistische Bundesamt führen Statistiken darüber. Tödliche Beziehungsdramen, bei denen Hobby-Jäger ihre Partnerin, Familienangehörige oder Nachbarn erschiessen, gelten rechtlich nicht als «Jagdunfall» und tauchen in keiner offiziellen Aufstellung auf. Eine Studie des Max-Planck-Instituts über zehn Jahre kommt auf rund 100 Tote bei Familiendramen jährlich in Deutschland, meist mit legalen Waffen. Opfer sind nicht nur Jägerkollegen: Ehefrauen, Kinder, Nachbarn, Spaziergänger, Bergwanderer, spielende Kinder.

Was nicht gezählt wird, existiert offiziell nicht. Das ist kein Zufall. Das ist System.

Lobbyregister und politischer Arm

Der DJV ist offiziell im Lobbyregister des Deutschen Bundestages eingetragen. Er berät in Gesprächen und Fachveranstaltungen, verfasst Positionspapiere und gibt Stellungnahmen zu Gesetzgebungsvorhaben ab. Mit anderen Worten: Der Verband sitzt direkt an der Quelle der Gesetzgebung und formt Jagdrecht nach seinen Interessen. Dass er gleichzeitig behauptet, im Dienst der Allgemeinheit und der Natur zu handeln, ist die grösste Lüge von allen.

Das Muster

Gewalt und Lügen gehören zusammen, weil sie dasselbe Ziel verfolgen: das Recht zu töten zu sichern und zu erweitern. Die Lüge – «Naturschutz», «Artenvielfalt», «gesundes Fleisch», «Hegepflicht» – schafft die gesellschaftliche Akzeptanz. Die Gewalt, ob durch Jagdwaffen, durch den Abschuss von Beutegreifern, durch das Totschweigen von Opfern, vollzieht das, was die Lüge legitimiert hat.

Der DJV ist kein Naturschutzverband. Er ist eine Waffenlobby mit grünem Anstrich und politischen Verbindungen bis in den Bundestag. Wer das vergisst, versteht nicht, warum die Jagdgesetze in Deutschland so sind, wie sie sind – und warum sich das so schwer ändern lässt.

Weitere Hintergründe zur Psychologie hinter der Hobby-Jagd und zur Kriminalität durch Hobby-Jäger auf wildbeimwild.com.