PETA sharply criticises hunting fair in Neuburg
This weekend, the «International Hunting and Shooting Days» are taking place at Schloss Grünau. The fair attracts hobby hunters and interested visitors with hunting dog demonstrations, bird of prey displays and numerous exhibitors. The animal rights organisation PETA voices sharp criticism of the event and calls for an end to so-called hobby hunting.
According to the organisation, hobby hunters in Germany kill more than five million wild animals as well as an estimated around 200’000 cats and numerous dogs every year, mostly out of recreational interest or under the banner of “nature connectedness”.
Hunting fairs such as the one in Neuburg, according to PETA, trivialise the violent treatment of wild animals and serve to promote a “deadly hobby”.
PETA is particularly critical of the involvement of Bavaria’s Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger, who is announced on the fair’s website with a welcome address.
The lobbying by State Minister Hubert Aiwanger on behalf of a bloody and cruel hobby is shameful, said PETA policy officer Peter Höffken. In addition, numerous dogs and wild birds are subjected to the stress of the fair through demonstrations.
In support of their demand for a ban on hobby hunting the organisation cites scientific findings according to which animal populations regulate themselves without human intervention. Hobby hunting, it is argued, destroys social structures within animal populations and may produce the opposite of the desired effect. PETA also draws attention to the risk of hunting accidents.
The fair organisers, by contrast, regularly emphasise the supposed contribution of hobby hunting to species conservation and the stewardship of the cultural landscape.
