Over 500 badgers killed: hobby hunter reported

Senseless killing: Following a criminal complaint filed by PETA against those holding hunting rights in the Traunstein district for the killing of over 500 badgers between 2019 and 2021, the Traunstein public prosecutor's office rejected the opening of an investigation at the end of July.

The prosecuting authority stated as its justification that no concrete case-specific indications of unlawful killings had been presented. Last week, the animal rights organisation filed a complaint with the Munich General Prosecutor's Office against the decision not to open an investigation, and applied for the initiation of criminal proceedings. In light of the more than 500 dead badgers, PETA takes the view that the public prosecutor's office is obliged to examine whether there was indeed — as claimed by the hunters — a “reasonable cause” in each case within the meaning of the Animal Welfare Act. Badgers are not known for causing significant damage or posing a threat to species protection or to people. However, a “reasonable cause” is, pursuant to Section 1 of the Animal Welfare Act, a prerequisite for the killing of an animal.

We regard the justification given by hunters from the district — as reported in local media — that the badgers had caused considerable damage through their setts as a defensive claim. It is no secret that badgers in Germany are typically killed out of a desire to hunt and out of ‘tradition’. The public prosecutor's office is therefore, in our view, responsible for examining in respect of each animal killed whether a genuine ‘reasonable cause’ existed. A badger sett in the landscape cannot under any circumstances serve as justification — especially since their long-established burrows are generally not located in fields that are regularly ploughed, but are preferably found in woodland.

Peter Höffken, Policy Advisor at PETA

Badgers may not be shot without a “reasonable cause”

According to the North Rhine-Westphalian state association of NABU, badgers are killed “exclusively out of tradition.” A recent publication in the renowned legal journal “Natur und Recht” examines the hunting of badgers from a legal perspective. Although badgers are listed as huntable species in the hunting law, the author argues that this alone is not sufficient justification for killing them. There must also be a “reasonable cause” within the meaning of the Animal Welfare Act — for example, an intention to consume the animal or its release from suffering following a serious injury. This requirement is regularly not met in the case of badger hunting. 

Badgers belong to the marten family and, as nocturnal animals, live largely hidden in forests. There they construct extensive underground burrow systems, which are sometimes inhabited by many family groups over decades. Their diet consists mainly of worms, insects, and sometimes mice. The German Hunting Association reports the number of badgers killed in the 2020/2021 hunting year — the so-called annual bag — at a total of 86,745 animals nationwide. The animals are often caught in traps; in some cases they are dug out of their burrows and then shot.