Roe deer fawn intentionally killed during mowing
Death by the blades of agricultural machinery: During a mowing operation in Herrieden in mid-May, a roe deer fawn had no chance against the sharp blades of the mowing machine.
The farmer began work even though passersby told him that a fawn was present in the meadow.
Criminal complaint against farmer
The young animal was run over, mutilated, and died as a result of its severe injuries. The animal rights organisation PETA has now filed a criminal complaint against the person responsible with the Ansbach public prosecutor's office.
It is shocking that the farmer began mowing even though he knew a roe deer fawn was in the meadow. He therefore knowingly accepted the death of the fawn.
Dr. Edmund Haferbeck, Head of the Legal and Scientific Department at PETA
Failure to take protective measures is a criminal offence
PETA has repeatedly filed complaints against farmers in similar cases in the past. Final convictions confirm that failing to take appropriate protective measures is a criminal offence. Under the Animal Welfare Act, it is prohibited to kill a vertebrate animal without a “reasonable justification”.
100,000 roe deer injured or killed annually during mowing
In Germany, approximately 100,000 roe deer are severely injured or killed each year during mowing operations. The “crouch instinct” of young animals means that roe deer fawns typically remain motionless on the ground when faced with danger, relying on their camouflage rather than fleeing.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier Poaching and hunting crime in Switzerland we document cases, legal questions and recurring patterns. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
