Recreational hunters lie in court too
Recreational hunters are repeatedly caught lying in court. False statements in hunting accidents and poaching cases are on the rise.
Because she allegedly urinated on his house wall, a wildlife killer in Hesse shot his neighbour’s cat.
Stephan W. (67) now appeared before the presiding judge in Dippoldiswalde on charges under the Animal Welfare Act.
In June 2021, a gunshot shattered the silence of the night. Andreas W. (56) ran outside. «The dead cat lay in a pool of blood on the street. He was standing on his property opposite«, said the shaken neighbour, who had only just received the black-and-white cat from other neighbours.
«He said she had urinated on the house wall.» Jens Z. (57), also a neighbour, was still furious in court: «You just can’t do that. Next he’ll be bothered by a child and shoot them too, or what!«
Tomcat Ringo died in December in Glashütte. Even then, the neighbours had suspected the hunter as the «killer». Stephan W. (67) confessed to killing a cat in June. © Steve Schuster
Neighbour Frieder N. (78) had this to say: «He always used to say ‘the upper village should become cat-free’, and talked about traps.» When tomcat Ringo was found dead in December by Frieder and his wife, they suspected Stephan. They did not report him at the time. «But I ended the friendship.»
During the trial, the recreational hunter had his lawyer present a different version of the June incident. According to this version, the cat had been attacked on his property by his dachshund and seriously injured. «The intestines were already hanging out.«
He said he had given the animal a shot to the back of the neck to end its suffering. The cat had then dragged itself to the street — notably: across six steps from the property and over the wall onto the street where it was found.
Stephan W. (67) came to court in hunting attire. Although the district office had already confiscated his weapons and hunting licence, he filed an objection against this decision. © Steve Schuster
«You have blatantly lied to us here«, the judge concluded. «They have a terrible hatred of cats.» Verdict: 3,000 euro fine. In addition, the district authority had already confiscated his weapons and revoked his hunting licence, writes Tag24.
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.
