Hunting travel agency under fire: goose hunting as a business model
"This company has turned the shooting of migratory birds into a business model — and in one of the most important waterfowl staging areas in Germany, of all places," criticises conservationist Axel Hirschfeld of the Committee Against Bird Slaughter.
Conservationists have called on the state government in Schwerin to impose stricter controls on organisers of commercial bird hunting safaris .
At the centre of the criticism is a hunting travel agency from Dargun that currently organises and sells the shooting of internationally threatened waterfowl in the Peene lowlands, as well as hunts within the national park.
Goose hunting as an all-inclusive package
The company in question is «Jagdwelten», run by Dennis Wortmann, which openly advertises all-inclusive package trips for hobby hunters on its website “from the Baltic coast through Müritz National Park all the way to the Lower Saxony border.” The company’s programme also includes a four-day “goose hunting package” for 590 euros, which covers accommodation directly on the Peene as well as “all shots at greylag, bean, and white-fronted geese (including venison).”
Endangered taiga bean goose in the crosshairs
Particularly problematic: a large portion of the population of the internationally highly endangered taiga bean goose winters in the Peene lowlands — a species whose numbers have declined by around half over the past 20 years. While other federal states, most recently Brandenburg, have responded to this situation and banned the shooting of bean geese , the species remains on the list of huntable species in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Since the owner of «Jagdwelten» has turned the shooting of bean geese and other migratory birds into a commercial enterprise, the Committee Against Bird Slaughter has today reported the hunting travel agency to the responsible hunting authority in Demmin.
This is partly due to a provision of the Federal Wildlife Protection Ordinance (BWildSchVO), which prohibits the sale and offering for sale of bean geese. «We hope that the district will respond quickly and send a clear message to the company,» said Axel Hirschfeld, who also sees the Schwerin state government as having a responsibility. «Opening up hunting on endangered migratory birds is not sustainable and may be viewed by the EU as a violation of the Birds Directive, whether it involves killing songbirds in southern Europe or shooting endangered geese in Germany — legally and ecologically, there is no difference,» said the biologist.
