Recreational hunter fined 11,200 euros after his hunting dog bit four neighbours' cats to death

This case, too, is no isolated incident.

The tomcat «Robin» was not the first victim of «Rufus», the German wirehaired pointer. The dog belonging to a hunting lease holder in Marburg had apparently set his sights on the neighbour's pets: before Robin, Rufus had already killed three other cats belonging to the 78-year-old woman. The recreational hunter had already stood trial over this in 2025. He appealed against that earlier verdict. Neither the first nor this new verdict is legally binding yet.

«Jumped out of the car»: the recreational hunter's version of events

In court, the dog handler described the fatal incident on Christmas Eve as follows: «Rufus» had jumped out of the car and suddenly bolted off without a muzzle. At that moment, the tomcat «Robin» had emerged from under another car, and the dog could no longer be restrained.

For the district court, this account was not a mitigating argument but the core problem. The court held against the man that known risks should have been more carefully safeguarded against. The hearing addressed, among other things, a possible muzzle or securing the dog earlier during transport. What mattered to the judge was not the animal's hunting instinct, but the owner's responsibility. Because the danger had already been known, additional precautions had been necessary.

In other words: anyone who knows that their hunting dog kills cats, and nevertheless lets it out of the boot without a muzzle, knowingly accepts the risk of the next dead cat.

Little insight, much damage control

The man's defence lawyer stated that his client had reacted to the previous incidents: the dog was now only taken onto the property on a leash and was otherwise kept indoors. In addition, the man had ordered fencing. The defence lawyer sought to have the recreational hunter merely cautioned. The court did not follow this request.

Particularly striking: the dog owner is said to have shown little insight overall. According to a witness who testified during the trial, the man is said to have stated that he could not help it if his neighbour kept getting a new cat.

So the blame does not lie with the owner, who does not have his dog under control, but with the woman who, after three dead animals, still has not stopped loving cats. An argument that quite precisely reflects the attitude of some recreational hunters towards the lives of other animals.

No animal-keeping ban, but a clear signal

Despite the conviction, the court did not impose a ban on keeping animals. In the judge's view, the measures taken in the meantime speak against a similar case occurring again. For the affected neighbour, this changes little. At its core, the proceedings were not only about a criminal matter, but also about the repeated loss of several pets. Whether the defendant will also appeal this verdict remains to be seen.

When the «well-trained» hunting dog becomes a killer

The case fits into a long series of incidents in which hunting dogs get out of control, kill pets, or injure livestock. The recreational hunting lobby's self-portrayal, according to which hunting dogs are particularly rigorously tested, well-behaved and reliable, repeatedly fails to hold up against reality. A German Wirehaired Pointer is a high-performance pointing dog with a pronounced prey drive. Whoever keeps such an animal takes on responsibility — for every single living creature that comes within its reach.

The fact that it takes four dead cats, two court proceedings and a fine running into five figures before this point sinks in says more about recreational hunting culture than any image film produced by a recreational hunting association.