German Hobby Hunter Not a Wolf Poacher After All?

In the case of a fatal shot fired at the wolf M63, a German retiree was acquitted on Friday by the District Court of Brig on charges of poaching.

The man received a suspended fine for violations of firearms law and hunting legislation.

The heavily decomposed wolf carcass was discovered on March 7, 2016, by a fisherman on the bank of the Rhône river west of Raron VS. The cause of death was a rifle shot that had struck the animal's heart.

DNA analyzes confirmed that the shot animal was wolf M63. The public prosecutor's office of the canton of Valais subsequently brought charges against a German retiree who had been living in the region for many years before the District Court of Brig.

Insufficient Evidence

In its ruling published on Friday, the court described the circumstantial evidence presented by the prosecution as “insufficient” to establish the man's guilt. The projectile could not be matched to any specific rifle.

Furthermore, the prosecution was unable to provide sufficient evidence that the wolf had actually been present in the area where the defendant was hunting foxes. And it had not even been established that the man had actually been fox hunting in the area in question.

The court also acquitted the defendant of poaching a wild boar, a deer fawn, and a young stag during the 2016 open hunting season, of various violations of firearms law, and of the charge of document forgery.

Suspended Fine

However, the man was found guilty of the unauthorized export of a military carbine to a Schengen state and of the unlawful possession of two silencers. In addition, he had carried an unauthorized weapon during a wild boar hunt, unlawfully used a laser lamp, a motion detector, and a wildlife camera during the 2016 mountain hunting season, and carried a loaded weapon outside of hobby hunting.

For this, the man received a fine of 1’000 francs or a prison sentence of twenty days, and a suspended fine of 3’000 francs, with fifteen days of pre-trial detention credited. The confiscated silencer will be destroyed.

Of the procedural costs, the canton of Valais must pay 9’000 francs and the defendant 800 francs. The prosecution had sought one year in prison on probation, a fine of 4’000 francs, and a hunting ban for ten years. The defendant had denied any guilt in the death of the wolf. The prosecution intends to appeal the verdict to the cantonal court.

More dead wolves in Valais

Since the death of the Raron wolf, two more wolves have been shot in Valais. In February 2017, the female wolf F16 was found dead in Mayoux in the Val d’Anniviers with a bullet in her shoulder. Investigations into the case are ongoing.

In February of this year, a Valais hobby hunter accidentally shot the female wolf F28 during a fox hunt. He immediately informed the authorities. An investigation was also initiated in this case.

However, according to the newspaper «Le Nouvelliste», the prosecution does not accept this decision. It intends to bring the verdict before the cantonal court. More on crime and hobby hunting.