Hunting accidents and criminal offences involving hunters' weapons
In Germany, hunting accidents and criminal offences involving hunters' weapons are on the rise. Recreational hunters endanger people and animals during driven hunts and drive hunts.
Autumn has barely begun and already cruel driven hunts and drive hunts are taking place everywhere.
War in forest and field
War reigns in forest and field: roe deer, wild boars, foxes and hares are being shot down en masse by recreational hunters. Social structures are blown apart, young animals lose their parents, wounded animals suffer days of agony. Wild animals flee across busy roads – causing traffic accidents –, public paths are closed off, gunshots ring out everywhere. Domestic animals and livestock are 'mistaken' for wild animals, and people are shot at too.
The victims have included fellow recreational hunters and beaters, but also wives, relatives and neighbours of recreational hunters, walkers, cyclists and children at play. And time and again people are hit in their own gardens by shots fired from adjoining woods and fields.
Besides the human victims of recreational hunters' unbridled trigger-happiness, it is above all animals that suffer: in Germany alone, between four and five million forest dwellers such as roe deer, foxes and wild boars, as well as several hundred thousand cats and dogs, are killed every year. Many of these wild animals die a painful death because they sustain severe gunshot wounds inflicted by recreational hunters but are still able to flee.
Shot-up wildlife populations produce more offspring than those in unhunted areas. Recreational hunters are therefore responsible for the damage, and especially for the many wildlife-vehicle collisions.
The initiative for the abolition of hunting has compiled below a number of reports from recent weeks – the tip of the iceberg – which make one thing clear: It is high time recreational hunting was abolished!
September/October 2021: hunting accidents and criminal offences
24.9.21: Man shot and seriously injured during a driven hunt
A serious hunting accident occurred during a driven hunt in a maize field near the 2036 state road at Heretsried. The shot fired by a 53-year-old recreational hunter struck a 36-year-old man. The seriously injured man had to be flown by helicopter to the university hospital in Augsburg.
20.9.21: Recreational hunter shot a domestic cat
In December 2020, a recreational hunter near Zusmarshausen is alleged to have killed a domestic cat, which she had caught in a live trap, with several shots. The Augsburg public prosecutor opened an investigation on suspicion of cruelty to animals.
15.9.21: Recreational hunter sets dogs on cat
Because in 2017 he set several hunting dogs on a cat in the Hunsrück region and watched as the dogs killed the cat, a recreational hunter was fined 5,000 euros by the Simmern district court. The recreational hunter kept a pack of 26 hunting dogs.
14.9.21: Child severely impaired after hunting accident
During a harvest hunt, the shot fired by a recreational hunter hit a six-year-old girl in an adjoining garden. The child suffered life-threatening injuries. The father told the district court that his daughter remains severely impaired by the serious injuries. Since the shooting she has been in constant pain in her hip and arm.
11.9.21: Man shoots woman and himself
A man shot a woman dead in the southern Eifel region. The bodies were found the next day in a car beside a high seat.
6.9.21: 58-year-old shoots mother and brother
A 58-year-old shot dead his 84-year-old mother and his 63-year-old brother on a farm in Bad Salzuflen. The homicide squad is investigating.
13.8.21: Horse shot dead: recreational hunter must surrender hunting licence
A recreational hunter from the southern Palatinate shot the mare Gina at night in a paddock in September 2020, supposedly having mistaken the animal for a wild boar.
11.8.21: Recreational hunter mistakes horse for wild boar
A recreational hunter shot a horse in a pasture in Usingen, Hesse, supposedly having mistaken the quarter horse for a wild boar.
It is time for nature without recreational hunting!
Read the full documentation: Hunting accidents and offences involving hunters' weapons 2021
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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.
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