Gelnhausen: Hobby Hunters Torment Wild Animal

Further proof of the sadistic cruelty of hobby hunting: in Gelnhausen, Hesse, on 16 November 2019, hunting dogs attacked and bit a wild boar for ten minutes.

Not a single hobby hunter intervened. After a whistleblower filmed the incident near the local landfill site and passed the footage to PETA, the animal rights organization filed a criminal complaint on 6 February against the perpetrators, whose names are not yet known.

Violations of Section 17 2b) of the Animal Welfare Act and of the code of fair chase are being considered, as are several regulatory offences. The Hanau public prosecutor's office has now initiated criminal proceedings (case number 9 UJs 41246/20). PETA is calling for the responsible hobby hunters to be appropriately punished, for their hunting licences to be revoked, and for recreational hunting to be banned as quickly as possible.

“It is incomprehensible how long the hunters watched the wild boar suffer without intervening. The pain and suffering of the boar must have been horrific, as the hunting dogs attacked it with bites and assaults for nearly ten minutes”, says Dr. Edmund Haferbeck, agricultural scientist and head of the legal and scientific department at PETA. “We demand that the perpetrators be severely punished, that their hunting licences be revoked, and that recreational hunting be banned entirely, as such incidents are no exception.”

The defendants massively neglected their duties as hunters by failing to intervene and allowing the dogs to act freely during the attack. Because these sadistic hobby hunters stood by and did nothing while the scenes — clearly to be interpreted as a death struggle — unfolded before them, they also violated the principle of fair chase enshrined in hunting law. This is not the first time PETA has been provided with video footage of such scenes occurring during wild boar hunts in which animal welfare laws are clearly and seriously violated. Courts are repeatedly required to deal with comparable cases. However, the number of unreported incidents of comparable acts that go unpunished is likely to be high.

The current case in Gelnhausen also only came to public attention by chance. The whistleblower's video shows, among other things, how hunting dogs brutally attack the wild boar. The incident lasted a total of ten minutes before a hobby hunter appeared on the scene. Six minutes of this were filmed. The animal rights organization assumes that the pain and suffering endured by the pig must have been intense and considerable. From a legal perspective as well, an attack by several trained hunting dogs exceeds the threshold of negligibility, based on PETA's experience. PETA therefore hopes that those involved in the hunt in Gelnhausen will be consistently held accountable and severely punished.

A similar case in Saxony-Anhalt ended last year with a substantial penalty for a hunter who caused unnecessary suffering to a wild boar during a driven hunt in Hohengöhren-Damm. The animal was shot seven to eight times and spent at least half an hour trying to find safety while in the throes of death. The hobby hunter stood by indifferently instead of putting the animal out of its misery. Following a complaint by the animal rights organization, charges were brought against the shooter. In September 2019, the proceedings were ultimately dropped only upon payment of a fine of 1,500 euros.

We commend the canton of Geneva for its professional wildlife management — without hobby hunters, but with dedicated game wardens. In Geneva, foxes, martens, badgers, and similar animals are not regulated simply because hunting season is open and misguided individuals want to pursue a hobby. This is also reflected in the federal hunting statistics. Typical Swiss values such as safety, animal welfare, and ethics are the guiding principles in Geneva. Geneva's game wardens, for example, do not conduct driven hunts, nor do they rely on abnormally bred hunting dogs. In the canton of Geneva, there are also no high seats marring the landscape.