Recreational hunter shoots rare albino deer
A recreational hunter has shot a rare albino deer. The killing of the protected animal has sparked outrage among animal welfare organisations.
“Camouflage”
Until recently, one could encounter a white deer at Häutligen in the canton of Bern.
Now the animal has been shot by a foreign recreational hunter. The game warden is furious.
It attracted many curious hikers: for the past several months, a rare albino deer had been living between Konolfingen and Wichtrach. Now, however, the snow-white animal is dead, as the «Berner Zeitung» reports, citing the account of a reader. He came across a car with a Bosnia-Herzegovina licence plate while walking in the forest. «Then a dog came charging across the path, a shot rang out, and I couldn’t believe it», the man is quoted as saying. Just a few metres further on, the white deer lay on the ground — shot dead. Furious, he confronted the recreational hunter, the reader continues. The hunter explained to him in broken German that he had the necessary licence and was permitted to hunt in this forest.
According to game warden Fritz Dürig, the canton of Bern generally recognises the hunting examination from Bosnia-Herzegovina; with this, hunting licences or corresponding guest permits can be obtained in Switzerland. Even if an albino deer is legally considered a deer like any other, Dürig sharply condemns the shooting: «The man showed a complete lack of sensitivity and did the hunting world no favours», Dürig told the «Berner Zeitung». Already in hunting education, one learns that an albino animal is not to be shot — «out of respect for this quirk of nature».
«White deer are a great rarity», says another game warden. This is best illustrated by the fact that in his area as a game warden, only a single full albino and three partial albino roe deer have appeared. And that over 33 years.
White roe deer need not fear the recreational hunters, by the way. Because shooting one brings a great deal of bad luck, says the game warden: "In hunting circles, it is said that you only have one year left to live if you shoot a white roe deer.»
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier The Role and Criticism of Recreational Hunters we shed light on the training, power and self-image of recreational hunters. The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.
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.
