Criticism: Neunkirchen Zoo supports animal cruelty facility
Hobby hunters have not only a licence to kill, but also a licence to inflict animal cruelty.
Following charges filed against the operators of the artificial earth facility in Lemgo, PETA filed a complaint earlier this week with the Saarbrücken public prosecutor's office against those responsible at the German Dachshund Club – St. Ingbert Saar/Palatinate Group – as operators of the artificial earth facility in Neunkirchen-Kohlhof.
The reason is alleged violations of the Animal Welfare Act. As in more than 100 other artificial earth facilities across Germany, foxes are repeatedly driven into underground tunnels. Inside these tunnels, dogs subject them to mortal terror. In addition to those responsible for this facility, PETA has filed complaints against more than 100 other operators throughout Germany in order to draw attention to the severe and ongoing suffering of foxes in artificial earth facilities. The animal rights organisation is demanding the closure of the facility in Kohlhof and the confiscation of any foxes that may still be held captive there. PETA has also sharply criticized the director of the Neunkirchen Zoo, who announced last week that he would make foxes from a new zoo enclosure available for use in an artificial earth facility.
Foxes, like humans and all other animals, have a right to freedom — it cannot be acceptable for them to be locked up and exploited for the training of hunting dogs. Artificial earth facilities are virtually unrivalled in their cruelty and disregard for animal welfare. It is telling of hunters and their bloodthirsty “hobby” that they expose foxes, without any compassion, to unimaginable mortal terror. The fact that Neunkirchen Zoo now wants to take part in this unscrupulous exploitation of animals is shameful and unacceptable.
Dr. Edmund Haferbeck, Senior Staff Member in Special Projects at PETA
Fox hunting is counterproductive and cruel
Despite their clearly animal-abusive nature, artificial earth facilities have so far not been banned in Germany — nor has den hunting. In the view of the organisation, such operations are fundamentally in violation of Section 17 of the Animal Welfare Act as well as the relevant criminal law and regulatory offence provisions. Following a complaint filed by PETA against the operators of an artificial earth facility in Lemgo (North Rhine-Westphalia), a hearing has been scheduled for September 2022 (case no.: 23 Js 200/20 AG Lemgo). Foxes in these facilities are in a permanent state of mortal terror, as hunters repeatedly send dogs into the tunnel system designed to simulate a fox burrow. Although the fox is placed in a chamber separated from the dogs by a grating, so that it can be located, it is still forced to fear for its life constantly within its “home.” In general, captivity as well as contact with humans and dogs causes considerable stress for wild animals such as foxes. According to PETA, it is not only the “training” for den hunting that is cruel and unnecessary — but hunting itself.
Hobby hunters pursue foxes using traps, rifles, and den hunting. Animals that have been shot frequently flee with open wounds, or die slowly and in agony in traps. In the last hunting year alone, around 3,000 foxes were killed by hobby hunters in Saarland, and nearly half a million animals across Germany. Foxes serve hobby hunters primarily as living targets, since there is no justification for their mass hunting — neither from a wildlife biology nor a public health perspective.
Furthermore, hunting foxes has no regulatory or population-reducing effect whatsoever, because losses are quickly offset by immigration and rising birth rates. Fox populations regulate themselves through social structures, food availability, and disease. Given the facts, fox hunting has been banned in Luxembourg since April 2015. Such a ban is long overdue in Germany — which is why PETA has launched a corresponding petition on the matter.
