Germany: Start of the Main Hunting Season

Risk while out walking: Despite mandatory "hunting training", it happens time and again that hobby hunters endanger passers-by through stray shots or ricochets.

In the past 12 months alone, according to media reports, 17 hunting accidents occurred across Germany. One person and five horses were killed, and six individuals were partly seriously injured. Further people came under fire and escaped unharmed.

The animal rights organisation PETA therefore advises the public to exercise increased caution during the main hunting season, which runs from the beginning of October to the end of January. Nature lovers are urged to avoid hunting areas and to pay attention to warning and information signs. Particularly at dusk, it is additionally advisable to wear a high-visibility vest. This may help reduce the risk of being struck by those carrying out hunting activities.

"In the past 12 months there have once again been numerous incidents in which stray shots or ricochets have endangered, injured or even killed people and animals," said Peter Höffken, specialist advisor at PETA. "The fact that several hunters also shot horses because they thought they were wild boar is further proof that shots are being fired recklessly and negligently at anything that moves. Hobby hunting is a danger to every sentient being in the vicinity – it must finally be prohibited by new legislation at the federal level."

Accidents involving fatal shots and self-inflicted injuries are on the rise

Serious hunting accidents regularly cause outrage. While attempting to kill a wild boar in Heubach (Ostalbkreis) in August, a 41-year-old man shot a fellow hunter in the head area. The 59-year-old was admitted to hospital with serious injuries. In June, a woman suffered a through-and-through gunshot wound to the thigh during a hunt in Huglfing when a shot discharged from a hunter's pistol. In May, a hunter attempted to kill a fox in Aholming (Deggendorf district) and struck the wall of a residential building. The rifle bullet landed in the bedroom under the residents' bed. In January, a female jogger in Saxony was shot during a driven hunt. In mid-November 2023, a hunter in Thuringia injured his hunting partner with a shot to the face. In early November 2023, an 82-year-old farmer in North Rhine-Westphalia died after being struck by a shot while driving a tractor during a driven hunt.

Renowned experts confirm: hunting is cruel and superfluous

Recognised studies demonstrate that there is no ecological necessity for hunting. According to the renowned biologist Prof. Dr. Josef Reichholf, natural regulation of wildlife populations living in forests occurs through environmental factors such as weather conditions, food availability and disease. British experts likewise concluded that fox populations, for example, regulate themselves based on food availability and social factors. Hunting, by contrast, destroys the age and social structures of animal populations, leading to increased reproduction among survivors. Losses are thus rapidly compensated — or even overcompensated — through offspring and immigration. Hunting is unnecessary, counterproductive and cruel. Germany's approximately 400,000 hobby hunters are matched by only around 1,000 professional hunters, primarily forestry officials.