Germany: Jogger shot during driven hunt

During a driven hunt a jogger was shot in a forest near Schneverdingen.

The 51-year-old sustained a leg injury from a shotgun blast, a police spokesperson said on Sunday.

The man was using a publicly accessible path in the Heidekreis district of Lower Saxony, where signs had been posted warning of the hunt.

He was taken to hospital on Saturday. Police are treating the incident as an accident. It remains unclear who fired the shot.

An investigation has been launched as a result of the driven hunt, according to a police statement.

«How many more people have to be seriously injured or killed before hobby hunting is finally banned? Year after year, countless tragedies occur because trigger-happy hobby hunters shoot around irresponsibly. It is long past time for legislators to step in and put a stop to it. For forest animals too, hunting is nothing short of permanent terror.»

Nadja Michler, wildlife expert at PETA

Around half of Germans oppose hobby hunting

Hobby hunters kill not only more than five million wild animals annually; serious hunting accidents also occur time and again. A representative Forsa survey conducted on behalf of PETA in 2018 confirms that around half of German citizens — 49 percent — reject hobby hunting. The more than 380’000 hobby hunters in Germany are opposed by only around 1’000 professional hunters, primarily forestry officials. In its current form, hunting involves numerous cruel practices, such as training hunting dogs on live animals, earth hunting, and trap hunting, in which many animals are literally crushed to death each year. Particularly during driven hunts, which also injure many people, up to two-thirds of wild animals do not die immediately, according to the Veterinary Association for Animal Welfare. With shattered bones and severe wounds, the animals often hide for days and die in agony.

Hunting is unnecessary from a wildlife biology perspective

Recognized wildlife biologists confirm that hunting is not necessary from an ecological standpoint. According to the renowned biologist Prof. Dr. Josef Reichholf, wolves, for example, do not need to be replaced by human hobby hunters, as animal populations living in forests regulate themselves through environmental factors such as weather, food availability, and disease. The Canton of Geneva, where hobby hunting has been banned for over 45 years, is just one example of this. Here, nature regulates itself primarily on its own. The result: high biodiversity and healthy, stable wildlife populations.

Biologist Dr. Karl-Heinz Loske views hunting as a superfluous hobby that serves to satisfy the hunting urge of hobby hunters. When he obtained a hunting license in his younger years, it quickly became clear to him that this had little to do with nature conservation or species protection. Today, Dr. Loske is a recognized expert in landscape ecology, for whom hunting cannot be justified from an ecological or moral standpoint.