PETA: Hunting Accident Involving Bayern Boss as a Warning

A life-threatening hobby: One week ago, Jan-Christian Dreesen was seriously injured in a hunting accident in Brandenberg, Austria.

According to media reports a shot was accidentally discharged from his shouldered rifle on the way back to the car and struck his hand, causing the FC Bayern Munich CFO to lose a finger.

PETA calls for a rethink

PETA sent Dreesen a letter this week with wishes for a speedy recovery and urged him to give up recreational hunting entirely in future. To convey the message that animals should only be «hunted» with a camera, the animal rights organisation also included a T-shirt bearing the slogan “Shoot Selfies, Not Animals” as a gift. PETA is calling for a ban on recreational hunting, because despite mandatory “hunting training,” dozens of people are killed, injured or endangered by hobby hunters every year in German-speaking countries.dozens of people are killed, injured or endangered by hobby hunters every year.

“We wish Mr Dreesen a speedy recovery and hope that the accident will prompt a rethink, leading him to stop killing animals in future,” said Peter Höffken, policy adviser at PETA. “Just like us humans, animals living in the forest also want to live free from fear and pain.”

Recreational hunting not scientifically justifiable

There is no comprehensible reason for hunting by private individuals. Recreational hunting undermines both the rule of law and public safety and order. Scientific studies confirm that recreational hunting is not suited to regulating wildlife populations on a lasting basis. The renowned biologist Prof. Dr. Josef Reichholf also sees no necessity for hobby hunting from a wildlife biology perspective: The nearly exterminated wolves do not need to be replaced by human hobby hunters, as natural regulation of animal populations living in the forest occurs through environmental factors such as weather, food availability, and disease. One example of this is the Canton of Geneva, where hobby hunting has been banned for 40 years. The result: high biodiversity and healthy, stable wildlife populations. Biologist Dr. Karl-Heinz Loske views hunting as nothing more than a superfluous hobby that serves to satisfy the hunting instincts of hobby hunters. When he obtained a hunting license in his younger years, it quickly became clear to him that this had little to do with nature and species conservation. Today, Dr. Loske is a recognized expert in landscape ecology, for whom hobby hunting is indefensible from both an ecological and moral standpoint.

Approximately 350,000 hobby hunters in Germany are opposed by only around 1,000 professional hunters, primarily forestry officials.