Militant clergyman advocates for recreational hunters
Franz Salcher: “Every stalking trip is an experience that takes you away from everyday life and brings you closer to God.”
A dedicated «parish priest» for recreational hunters exists in Linz.
The «priest» Franz Salcher (66), appointed by Bishop Manfred Scheuer for this role, serves as the primary contact person for 20’000 recreational hunters in Upper Austria in matters of pastoral care. “Topics such as creation, respect for nature and the responsible stewardship of the cultural landscape, which also includes the taking of animals, move me deeply,” Salcher explained.
Killing as a «matter of course»?
The harvesting of animals is among the self-evident duties of the recreational hunter, so that the plant world, the forest and the animal world remain in balance, the newly appointed hunting chaplain stated on record. “For centuries, humans have helped shape nature. It is their task to intervene.” Properly understood, recreational hunting also corresponds to Pope Francis’s guidelines for viewing creation as a “common home,” under whose roof humans and nature live together. The fact that recreational hunting fails as a means of population control, the «priest» conveniently ignores.
From the seminary to the hunting grounds
As the son of a farmer and recreational hunter, Salcher has been connected to recreational hunting all his life. He passed his hunting examination during his time at the seminary, but only became an active recreational hunter when he was a parish priest in Gaflenz (Steyr-Land district). When he later took over the Linz parishes of Guter Hirte and St. Franziskus, this passion had to be put on hold for an extended period. Five years ago, the «priest» leased his own hunting ground in his home village of Kleinreifling. Hunting takes him “away from everyday concerns,” as every stalking trip is “an experience” that brings him closer to God, according to a press release from «Katholiken».
Mass stupefaction in Austria. The Animal welfare problems of recreational hunting cannot be dismissed with religious rhetoric.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In our dossiers on the criticism of recreational hunting gather fact-checks, analyses and background reports. 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.
