Hunting Law Amendment: A Disaster for Wildlife

Federal Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner (CDU) presented the draft amendment to the Federal Hunting Act on 4 November 2020.

But the disaster for wildlife is this: instead of reducing the number of animals shot on animal welfare grounds, more roe deer and wild boar are to be killed. Germany already had the longest hunting seasons in Europe for roe deer, red deer, and wild boar. The result: despite — or perhaps because of — intensive hobby hunting, kill numbers have been rising for decades. The hunting law amendment now even permits hobby hunting during the night, using night-vision technology and spotlights.

The coalition mandate was to standardise hunting training nationwide, reduce the toxic lead contamination caused by hunting ammunition — harmful to both humans and animals — and introduce a shooting practice certificate. But what use is a shooting practice certificate? More effective from an animal welfare perspective would have been a marksmanship proficiency certificate — one that would allow only those hobby hunters who have demonstrated they can actually shoot accurately to go out hunting.

The more roe deer and wild boar are shot, the more they reproduce

Although more wild boar are being shot in Germany than ever before since records began in the 1930s, the wild boar population continues to rise. The reason: hobby hunting leads to uncontrolled reproduction among wild boar. As paradoxical as it may sound, the more hobby hunting of wild boar takes place, the more rapidly they reproduce. A growing number of scientists are pointing to this connection. Nature had actually regulated everything remarkably well: experienced female wild boar, known as lead sows, maintain order within the sounder and keep births in check. The hormones of the lead sows determine the receptiveness of all females in the group and prevent young animals from becoming pregnant too early. When lead sows are absent because they have been killed during hobby hunting, this order breaks down. The social structure is destroyed and the animals reproduce without restraint. More on this in the dossier Why hobby hunting fails as a method of population control.

Hobby hunters also keep the roe deer population consistently at a high level. A sustained high hunting pressure of around one million roe deer shot per year has not reduced the population to the desired level, but has instead kept it highly productive at an elevated level. The more roe deer are shot, the more they reproduce. Rather than preventing wildlife damage, hobby hunting actually provokes it. By nature, roe deer are inhabitants of meadows and forest edges. It is hobby hunting that drives the animals into the forest, where they cannot find the grasses and herbs vital to their survival and have no option but to nibble on buds.

The renowned zoologist Prof. Dr. Josef H. Reichholf summed it up as follows: «Hunting does not regulate. It creates inflated and suppressed populations.»

Driven and push hunts: up to 70% of animals not killed instantly

In most push hunts, everything that comes within rifle range is already shot today, including by hunting tourists from the Netherlands and Denmark, who can barely find cheaper trophy kills than in Saxony or Bavaria. This type of hobby hunting is frequently in violation of animal welfare standards. Roe deer and wild boar are often merely wounded. Hit rates in “movement hunts” (where animals are flushed out and shot while fleeing) are extremely low. More on this animal welfare problem.

According to the Veterinary Association for Animal Welfare (Tierärztliche Vereinigung für Tierschutz e.V.), up to 70 percent of wild animals — particularly during driven hunts — do not die immediately, but instead suffer agonizing jaw, abdominal, and leg wounds. Studies indicate that during driven hunts, only about one third of wild boar were killed with a clean heart/lung shot, while the overwhelming majority were merely wounded, "showing gut wounds, haunch wounds, or leg wounds." Additionally, 60 percent of female roe deer were found to have sustained abdominal wounds.

In this way, many animals are "only" wounded and manage to escape. These animals often die in agony over the course of hours or days. The "tracking search" — if it takes place at all — often takes hours or days. Many animals are not found until days later, having perished miserably somewhere from their injuries. Some wild animals do not die from the gunshot wound itself, but from its consequences — for example, because a shattered jaw makes it impossible for them to feed.

Bernd Krewer, a forester and tracking handler who searches for animals wounded during hobby hunts with his dogs in order to deliver a final killing shot, wrote more than 20 years ago: "We should be glad that such things do not come to public light too often — it would not reflect very well on our claim to be conservationists." (Bernd Krewer: Über Hirsche, Hunde und Nachsuchen. Neudamm-Neudamm, 1998, 2nd ed., pp. 80, 85)

The fact that wild animals are rarely hit cleanly and are sometimes torn apart alive by hunting dogs is openly acknowledged among hobby hunters in internet forums. In public statements and official announcements by hunting associations, however, it is regularly claimed that wild animals die instantly from the shot. Such hunting myths do not withstand scientific scrutiny.

Tracking handler Bernd Krewer does not believe the truth can be kept secret indefinitely: "If animal welfare advocates ever managed to win over a busy tracking dog handler, we would lose hunting for good the very next day. Much must change in the conduct and practice of hunting if we are to hold our own before an increasingly critical public and receive from it the mandate for hunting to continue. If society no longer accepts hunting, it will disappear and be replaced by other forms of use and regulation." (ibid., p. 180).

The amendment to the hunting law by Minister Klöckner was also criticized in the press and on television, sometimes in no uncertain terms:

A must-see report on ZDF.de, 4 November 2020: «Hunting should be abolished», discussion about a ban on hunting wild animals:

A must-read commentary by editor Peter Carstens in GEO magazine: Underestimated animal welfare problem: Tens of thousands of roe deer die in agony after being shot.

Article by Prof. Josef H. Reichholf on the current debate about forest conversion: «Shooting more roe deer will save neither forests nor the climate.» Sustained high hunting pressure of around one million roe deer shot per year has not regulated the population to the desired level, but has instead kept it highly productive at a high level, according to Prof. Reichholf.