Federal Administrative Court: Property in the Olpe district to be declared hunting-free
The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled on 18 June 2020 that the properties of a married couple from the Olpe district are to be granted hunting-free status with immediate effect.
The plaintiff, a veterinarian, runs an animal sanctuary together with his wife, taking in horses, dogs and cats referred through animal welfare organisations or from his own practice. He rejects hunting on ethical grounds.
In February 2015, the veterinarian applied to the competent Lower Hunting Authority of the Olpe district for the hunting-free designation of his land. The areas, which lie outside a built-up locality, automatically belong to a hunting cooperative. The hunting cooperative had leased the right to hunt to a hobby hunter. The lease expired on 31 March 2015. However, before the Lower Hunting Authority had even forwarded the application for hunting-free status to the hunting cooperative and the hunting lessee, they extended the lease by a further nine years.
The Olpe district rejected the application for hunting-free designation in October 2015. The stated reason: the landowner had allegedly failed to credibly demonstrate ethical grounds for opposing hunting. Furthermore, public interests were said to stand in the way of granting hunting-free status to the land in question.
Legal action before the Administrative Court against the rejection of the hunting-free application
The veterinarian filed a lawsuit before the Administrative Court against the rejection of his application. The Administrative Court ordered the Olpe district to declare the land a pacified district with effect from 1 April 2024, the expiry date of the extended hunting lease. The Administrative Court held that it was reasonable to expect the plaintiff to wait for the expiry of the hunting lease, as required by the legislator as the standard procedure.
Administrative Court: Property to become hunting-free at the end of the new hunting lease agreement
For the veterinarian who wants to save the lives of animals and cannot reconcile with his conscience that hobby hunters shoot animals dead on his property, it was unthinkable to wait — contrary to his declared ethical convictions — until the end of the hunting lease agreement in 2024, a full 9 years after his application for the hunting-law pacification. The Geneva model shows that wildlife management without hobby hunting is possible.
Federal Administrative Court: District must pacify the area with immediate effect
In its ruling of 18.06.2020, the Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG) obligated the district of Olpe to pacify the area with immediate effect.
The reasoning of the BVerwG:
The decisive reference point for when the pacification takes effect is not the lease agreement current at the time of the administrative decision, but the one current at the time the application was submitted. If the authority only decides on the application during the course of the new lease agreement, the pacification is to be ordered with effect from the end of the current hunting year. The district of Olpe should therefore have already pacified the area with effect from 1 April 2016. In view of this, it is now to be obligated to pacify the area with immediate effect.
