Hobby Hunters Open Wild Boar Guantanamo

The State Hunting Association of Rhineland-Palatinate is opening a so-called wild boar training enclosure in Wüschheim, which is set to begin operations in March 2022.

Dogs trained to attack wild animals

In such enclosures, “hunting dogs” are trained for wild boar hunting: the dogs are taught to systematically track wild boars and drive them out of the undergrowth. The training enclosure already holds seven wild boars, which the hunting association received from the Kaiserslautern Wildlife Park. PETA sharply criticises the wildlife park for handing over the wild animals to this facility, which is incompatible with animal welfare. The wild boars must repeatedly endure attacks from their natural enemies within a fenced area.

The outdoor keeping conditions and focus on native species at wildlife and animal parks create a deceptive idyll compared to exotic zoos in major cities. Because even in wildlife parks, animals are treated with callousness and contempt for life. It is repulsive that such a practice — in which hunting dogs are trained to attack wild animals — is knowingly supported by the Kaiserslautern Wildlife Park.

Nadja Michler, Wildlife Policy Officer at PETA

Training enclosures mean stress and suffering

Wild boar training enclosures are, in PETA’s view, incompatible with animal welfare, because the wild boars are subjected to persistent stress and therefore considerable suffering. Under the Animal Welfare Act, it is therefore also prohibited to set one animal upon another. With one exception: for recreational hunting, the Animal Welfare Act is suspended in this regard.

Appalling animal suffering at driven hunts

From For animal rights reasons the work in wild boar enclosures and earth dog trial facilities is clearly to be rejected. This is a training method using live, hand-tame animals that spend their lives in an enclosure and are killed once they are no longer of use or deemed unsuitable.

Hobby hunting of wild boar is incredibly cruel; serious violations of animal welfare and hunting legislation are repeatedly brought to light. During driven hunts, up to two thirds of shot animals do not die immediately, but drag themselves deeper into the forest with shattered bones and protruding intestines.

The exploitation of dogs for hobby hunting is also always associated with animal suffering. The animals are not only “trained” on live wild boar, foxes, or ducks — their own lives are repeatedly put at risk during dangerous deployments. Countless dogs are injured in the course of hobby hunting. Hobby hunters accept this and effectively abuse the animals as hunting weapons.

The IG Wild beim Wild likewise rejects the facility, because it means stress and risk of injury for wild boar and dogs, and because driven, beating, and push hunts using hunting dogs also cause appalling animal suffering due to the many missed shots.