Recreational hunter shoots narrowly past anglers
A 77-year-old recreational hunter shot at cormorants in Feldkirch, narrowly missing two anglers. Police seized an illegal weapon.
A Vorarlberg recreational hunter narrowly missed two anglers on Wednesday while hunting cormorants in Feldkirch. The 77-year-old was reported to authorities for endangering physical safety and for unauthorised possession of weapons.
While the two men were fishing at the gravel pit of the Feldkirch agricultural cooperative, the recreational hunter fired at cormorants from the opposite bank. When a projectile struck the water just a few metres away from them, the anglers alerted the police. The wildlife killer admitted to firing the shots, but insisted that he had noticed the anglers and had been watching out for them.
Recreational hunter regularly shot from his car
Officers from the Feldkirch police station learned through the local fisheries inspector that the recreational hunter responsible for this area allegedly always shot from his car. Such incidents reveal how poorly oversight of armed recreational hunters works in practice.
The elderly recreational hunter, who was found at his home shortly afterwards, stated that he had previously been watching for cormorants at the gravel pit and had also fired at them. He showed no remorse for the danger he had caused and played down his behaviour.
Illegal weapon seized
Police officers issued a temporary weapons ban and confiscated all of his weapons and ammunition. An unregistered pistol along with its ammunition was also seized. The wildlife killer is being reported to the public prosecutor's office in Feldkirch for endangering physical safety and for unauthorised possession of weapons. Such hunting accidents and safety incidents are not isolated cases, as the analysis of hunting myths shows.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier Poaching and hunting crime in Switzerland we document cases, legal questions and recurring patterns. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
