Murder is their hobby

An activist in a hobby hunter costume poses over a hunting display of “shot wildlife”: Activists dressed as a fox and a lion lie in a “pool of blood,” symbolizing the suffering caused.

Others hold signs bearing the provocative message “Murder is their hobby” as well as “Animals are not trophies.”

With this dramatic scene, PETA demands a legal ban on hobby hunting. The organization also calls on the city of Dortmund to ban the hunting fair from the city's exhibition halls.

“Regardless of whether it takes place in Africa or domestically – promoting the killing of animals as entertaining recreational sport is tasteless,” said Peter Höffken, policy advisor at PETA. “Our protest action is meant to shake up those responsible in local politics, so that in an age of global species extinction, no exhibition hall will be rented out for so-called legal hobby hunting.”

PETA calls for a nationwide ban on fox hunting

The animal rights organization fundamentally opposes hobby hunting and calls on policymakers to introduce, as a first step, a nationwide ban on fox hunting as well as a ban on the import of hunting trophies. Although there is no comprehensible justification for hobby hunting of species such as foxes, birds, and martens in German forests, hobby hunters kill between four and five million wild animals as well as several hundred thousand cats and thousands of dogs per year across the country — primarily as a "leisure activity." Many hobby hunters also eventually seek the thrill abroad: from killing bears in Eastern Europe to elephants in Africa. An estimated 50’000 Germans travel abroad each year to engage in big-game hunting. Germany is the world's third-largest importer of hunting trophies from internationally protected species: In 2022 alone, trophies from 463 rare animals were imported, including body parts from 24 elephants, 16 leopards, 139 zebras, nine lions, and three white rhinoceroses. An animal welfare problem of enormous proportions.

Hobby hunting not necessary according to experts

Recognized wildlife biologists agree that from an ecological perspective there is no necessity for hobby hunting. According to the renowned biologist Prof. Dr. Josef Reichholf, natural regulation of wildlife populations living in forests occurs through environmental factors such as weather, food availability, and disease. English scientists also concluded that fox populations, among others, regulate themselves based on food availability and social factors. Hobby hunting, on the other hand, destroys the age and social structures of animal populations, which leads to increased reproduction among survivors. Losses in the population are thus quickly offset or even overcompensated by offspring and immigration. Hobby hunting is therefore unnecessary, counterproductive, and cruel.

Fishing fair: Criticism of a leisure sport that causes animal suffering

The trade fair «Fisch & Angel» (Fish & Fishing) also takes place as part of «Jagd & Hund». Anglers lure many millions of fish into traps every year, pierce their mouths with hooks, and some let them suffocate or gut them while they are still partially conscious. Fishing trade fairs not only trivialise the cruel treatment of these sensitive animals, but actually advertise the deadly hobby. PETA is calling for a ban on fishing in Germany. In Switzerland too, the question of thepsychology behind killing as a leisure activity is being raised ever more loudly.

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