Austria: Another Hobby Hunter in the Final Stage

Police are publicly searching for the suspected perpetrator, Roland Drexler (56).

A second fatality was confirmed, while a third could not be officially confirmed. The anti-terror unit «Cobra» is deployed, and residents are barricading themselves in their homes. The act may have resulted from a dispute over hunting rights. The hobby hunter has a death list in his possession. It is not known whether he recently attended a Hubertus Mass. He is considered very dangerous by police.

250 emergency personnel are searching in Austria alone; police in Germany and the Czech Republic have also been placed on alert. The first crime scene is located just 22 kilometres from the German border.

In the village he was known as “problematic” and “quick-tempered,” according to police.

Yet his murderous plans appear to be far from over — as evidenced by a death list found by investigators. 50 individuals from the suspect’s circle are now considered to be at particular risk. Most of them come from the recreational hunting community and are currently receiving personal protection or have been brought to a safe location. Crime in the context of hobby hunting is a recurring phenomenon.

According to police, the killer is believed to be carrying two long-barrelled firearms and a handgun. Roland Drexler also apparently became severely mentally ill in the course of his hobby hunting activities.

18 cats are said to have gone missing

When the police searched the residences, they encountered a surprise: the two hunting dogs belonging to the suspect had been left behind. The passionate hobby hunter had loved them dearly, but his methods in dog breeding, which he had practiced previously, were controversial. His conduct in the hunting territory was also notable: a resident of Altenfeld reports that 18 cats had disappeared after the 56-year-old took over hobby hunting in his neighbourhood.

The case evokes memories of the hobby hunter and poacher from Annaberg in Lower Austria — at the time, a 55-year-old hobby hunter shot three police officers and a paramedic before turning the gun on himself in his farmhouse in Grosspriel (Lower Austria).

Hobby hunters live off meat. That is why they are often angry, violent and aggressive. This is not strange, but entirely natural. When one lives off killing, one has no respect for life. One is hostile toward life.

Violence alters the brain

At the point where violence is discharged, damage is caused just as surely as at the point toward which it is directed.

And this in a very concrete sense at the neuronal level. Scientists have established this through research. Neuropsychologists also confirm: the amygdala, a core region of the brain, is noticeably atrophied or impaired in perpetrators of violence. When this central part of the brain is defective, the sense of disgust, among other things, is switched off. Read more in the section on Psychology and Hobby Hunting.

Violent acts such as hunting therefore alter the brain. The balance between intellectual faculties and lower animalistic drives is disturbed. Hobby hunters frequently lack respect for fellow living beings. Their inner demons react with hostility to restrictions, advice and criticism from the general public. Citizens can repeatedly observe this for themselves in conversations with hobby hunters when the latter speak candidly.

Those who obtain a hunting licence always receive two things: a licence to kill and a licence to become foolish.

Read more in the dossier: Psychology of Hunting

Studies / Sources:

1. Solothurn government defends animal cruelty
2. Amygdala and violence
3. Understanding the link between animal cruelty and family violence: the bio-ecological systems model
4. Childhood without conscience
5. Why some people become murderously evil
6. Violence as a source of pleasure or displeasure is associated with specific functional connectivity with the nucleus accumbens
7. People who torture animals rarely stop there
8. Hunting fever
9. Serial Killers Have Under-Developed Brains, Says New Study
10. When children torture animals – how parents should respond
11. Why Men Trophy Hunt: Showing Off and the Psychology of Shame
12. “Killing can be fun”
13. Hunting and Illegal Violence Against Humans
14. Understanding hunters better
15. Interview: Petra Klages with serial killer Frank Gust
16. Psychological-sociological differences between hobby hunters and non-hunters
17. Anatomy of human destructiveness
18. Is he out of his mind?
19. The passion of the hunter
20. Hunting and Illegal Violence Against Humans and Other Animals: Exploring the Relationship
21. Hunters and molesters
22. Ohio data confirms hunting/child abuse
23. Michigan stats confirm hunting,  child abuse
24. Preventing domestic violence through weapons
25. Cazadores deportivos – Mentes criminales?
26. Hunting and hunters: Psychoanalysis
27. A researcher finds a specific pattern in the brains of serial killers
28. The brain
29. Hobby hunters and their pattern in the brain
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