No hunger, no need, just desire: The fact-check on the national recreational hunting association's celebratory PR

The piece in the Austrian tabloid rags is based one hundred percent on a single source: the association's press conference.

The photo comes from the OÖLJV, i.e. from the association itself. Only voices close to the association are given a say — the state hunting master, a social scientist who herself hunts, and a moral theologian. Not a single critical question, no animal welfare perspective, no counter-argument.

This is not journalism, this is press-release journalism. An interest group supplies the text and image, the local media outlet passes both on unchecked, and at the end it says "Editorial Team" above it. It is precisely this mechanism that keeps recreational hunting socially acceptable: the friendly self-description is repeated so often and so unchallenged that it eventually sounds like a neutral fact. Anyone who sees through it reads such celebratory reports differently.

"A real chance to escape"? The association dismantles itself

The most revealing part is what the state hunting master admits almost in passing. The essence of hunting, he says, is that wild animals "have a real chance to escape". In the same breath, he warns against artificial intelligence in target acquisition and calls on his members to exercise "self-discipline".

Anyone who takes that seriously has just reduced their own legend to rubble. When technology has advanced so far that only voluntary restraint gives the animal any chance at all, then there is simply nothing left of a fair contest of strength. High seat, night vision device, silencer and now computer-assisted target acquisition against an unsuspecting roe deer: «fair hunting» is an advertising slogan, not a real state of affairs. What lies behind this myth is something we document continuously in our dossier on recreational hunting.

No hunger, no need, just the kick

The association sells the rise in membership as a longing for nature, tranquility and «self-harvested food». But this is exactly where the sore point lies: no one in Upper Austria has to hunt in order to have enough to eat. This is not about hunger or need, but about a hobby whose climax is the fatal shot.

A predator in the forest kills because otherwise it would starve. The recreational hunter kills because it gives him satisfaction. No amount of polished press release can talk this difference away. Just how deep the desire to kill runs is documented by the findings we have compiled in our articles on the aggression behind the hobby and on the findings of brain research: released reward neurotransmitters, emotional numbing, the kick at the moment of pulling the trigger. Anyone who looks into the psychological disposition of many recreational hunters quickly recognises that the romance of nature and origin conceals a far uglier reality.

What «self-evident» really means

That leaves the central claim that recreational hunting is a «self-evident part of society». 22,000 active recreational hunters sounds like a lot, but it amounts to not even one and a half percent of the population of Upper Austria. A small, extremely well-organised lobby is selling its private pastime as a public good, and a local media outlet is providing the stage free of charge.

Particularly brazen is the formula claiming they want to «give wild animals a voice». One gives animals a voice by protecting them, not by shooting them. That task is taken on by people who consistently campaign for animal rights wildlife protection

Conclusion

80 years of association history change nothing about the core of the matter: recreational hunting is neither nature conservation nor a service to society, but a leisure pastime at the expense of sentient beings. The fact that a newsroom like MeinBezirk.at adopts such press releases word for word is not journalism, but part of the problem. We counter this with facts instead of hunters' tall tales. Just how clearly the hunting scene often exposes itself is shown by our collection of Quotes on Hunting.