Game warden shoots lactating roe deer caught in pasture netting

The game warden from the district of Andelfingen in the canton of Zurich had found a lactating roe deer doe entangled in a pasture fence.

Every year, thousands of animals in Switzerland die in or are injured by fences.

Misappropriated pasture netting became a trap

A farmer was therefore accused of creating a significant danger for wildlife living in the area from mid-June to the end of July 2016 through improper and unintended use of a mobile pasture net («Flexinet») near the forest.

The farmer had wanted to protect his raspberries — which he used to distil schnapps — from wildlife damage using the mobile fence. “I bought it at the agricultural co-op — as wildlife protection netting,” said the farmer. And so the animal tragedy unfolded: the game warden, having been alerted by third parties, attempted, according to the indictment, to free “the heavily breathing and loudly crying animal” — without success. He then killed the roe deer doe with a shotgun. The public prosecutor found the farmer guilty of negligent animal cruelty.

The fatal shot was likely unnecessary

The defence counsel placed great emphasis in his closing argument on critically questioning the actions of the local game warden. The lactating roe deer appears to show no external injuries in the evidence photograph. The fatal shot that was fired was likely not necessary at all; on the contrary, the animal could well have been freed unharmed. The game warden, however — according to the defence counsel — simply had no interest in doing so, as reported by the newspaper Schaffhauser Nachrichten.

I am now registered nationwide as an animal abuser and am even being treated as a convicted criminal. I cannot accept that. I am being hanged for the fact that someone else shot a roe deer.

TIR welcomes consistent enforcement

The Foundation for the Animal in Law welcomes the consistent and decisive action taken by the District Court of Andelfingen. In the view of TIR as well, the risk created for wildlife could have been reduced — at least in part — through additional measures and without great effort. The official fact sheet by Swiss Animal Protection titled “Safe Fences for Livestock and Wildlife” contains helpful information on this issue.

Unfortunately, it happens time and again that pasture fences prove fatal to wild or domestic animals — without any such intention on the part of the person who erected them. For this reason, TIR takes the view that the locally responsible game wardens and hunting supervisors, as well as the regional farmers’ associations, have a duty to inform themselves on this matter and to make farmers aware of the problem. More on Crime and Recreational Hunting and on the Animal Welfare Problem.