Germany: Drunk animal abuser is a recreational hunter

Two men are alleged to have killed a critically endangered bird in the Black Forest. They were attacked by witnesses and doused with beer.

Wild beim Wild Editorial Team · 16 August 2019

The death of a capercaillie has given the police in Titisee-Neustadt a great deal of investigative work.

According to police reports from Sunday, officers were first alerted via an emergency call that two men had killed a capercaillie in the Black Forest municipality of Feldberg. The act had reportedly been observed, and the animal abusers were now being detained.

The subsequent investigation revealed that the two intoxicated animal abusers, aged 20 and 22, had beaten the capercaillie with a bottle on Saturday, killing it. The men claimed that the animal had threatened them beforehand and that they had to defend themselves.

According to the Badische Zeitung, the incident occurred near the Todtnauer Hütte, around 150 metres from a hiking trail. A larger group of young people apparently witnessed the incident and then attacked the men. Both are said to have been beaten, kicked, choked, and doused with beer, according to further statements from the police in Freiburg. This also makes it less likely that the perpetrators killed the bird in self-defence.

Violent blows and kicks from the animal abusers

Todtnau capercaillie expert Christian Sütfeld told the Badische Zeitung that the capercaillie must have been repeatedly struck with a bottle and kicked. It had injuries to the head and chest, where feathers were missing. Such a bird can withstand quite a lot, which is why the kicks and blows must have been severe. The bird had apparently been healthy.

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The police have now seized the bird as evidence and frozen it. In Germany, the capercaillie is classified as a critically endangered species.

The capercaillie expert has no understanding for the perpetrators' behaviour, especially because the 20-year-old holds a hunting licence. A recreational hunter must know exactly how to behave, even when confronted by a wild animal is attacked: he must withdraw. Killing the animal is simply not on.

«Up there, nobody was sober anymore»

Sütfeld now hopes that the young man will lose his hunting licence. A capercaillie may well attack if its territory is threatened. However, there is no need to be afraid of it.

According to police, the perpetrators were intoxicated. For Sütfeld, however, that would be no excuse. They had apparently been at the Laurentius festival on the Feldberg, where «nobody up there is sober any more», the expert explained to the Badische Zeitung. He is now calling for a hefty fine for the killing of the capercaillie.

More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier Poaching and hunting crime in Switzerland we document cases, legal questions and recurring patterns. The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.

The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.

Wild beim Wild editorial team

All articles are written by IG Wild beim Wild as well as by external co-authors. Research, structuring and editorial processes may be supported by AI-assisted tools.