Hunting-Free Zone: Now Also in the Münsterland
As one of the first landowners in North Rhine-Westphalia, André Hölscher (39) has declared his ten hectares of land in Ladbergen (Steinfurt district) a hunting-free zone — for ethical reasons.
Since then, no one is permitted to hunt on Hölscher's property north of Münster.
Official authorisation has been granted for this. A new paragraph in the Federal Hunting Act allows landowners to refuse recreational hunting on their land. Until now, landowners like Hölscher were required to tolerate recreational hunting on their property, even if they had moral objections.
Anyone who owns a plot of land smaller than 75 hectares automatically becomes a member of a hunting cooperative, explains Torsten Reinwald of the German Hunters' Association. The cooperative is a compulsory association of the affected landowners. They may hunt recreationally themselves or lease their land to tenants. Previously, a member of the cooperative could not exempt their property from recreational hunting — not even on ethical grounds. That has now changed.
Compulsory Membership in Hunting Cooperatives Found Unlawful
A lawyer from Baden-Württemberg had brought a case before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and won. The judges ruled that compulsory membership in a hunting cooperative was incompatible with human rights. The legal obligation to tolerate recreational hunting on one's own land, contrary to one's ethical convictions, constitutes a disproportionate burden, the ECHR ruled.
As a consequence, Germany was required to amend the Federal Hunting Act. The new Section 6a has been in force since December 2013. Anyone who convinces the authorities that they object to recreational hunting on ethical grounds now has the option of having their property declared a hunting-free zone.
«It is indefensible that humans, as one species among many, claim the right to decide over the life and death of others», says Hölscher, who earns his living as a cabaret artist. «I cannot reconcile it with my conscience that animals are killed on my property.» At meetings of his hunting cooperative, no one wanted to sit next to him anymore, says Hölscher. «Many people gave me the cold shoulder and asked why I was making such a fuss.» The response from the state hunting association sounds like this: «Every resignation from the community represents an act of de-solidarity that is difficult to bear.»
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