Hobby hunter shoots protected birds
A 73-year-old hobby hunter from the canton of Bern was convicted after shooting, among other things, a protected golden eagle.
Police in the canton of Bern caught a poacher in their net in March 2019.
The 73-year-old has now been convicted by the Bernese court — in part because he had shot a golden eagle.
In the Gantrisch area, next to his holiday home at the edge of the forest, the sheep farmer maintains numerous nesting boxes for birds. However, “foreign” birds — including protected species in particular — are shot by the man without hesitation. In addition to many crows, a common buzzard, a common raven and at least two red kites, the man also has a golden eagle on his conscience. Nor was he particularly scrupulous about following the law in other respects.
All of these shootings were unlawful: the Regional Court of Bern-Mittelland convicted the poacher on Tuesday, 4 August 2020, sentencing him to a suspended fine as well as a penalty. He must also pay the canton of Bern compensation for the birds he shot. According to the «Berner Zeitung» the shooting of the eagle carries the greatest weight: for this he must reimburse the canton of Bern 10,000 francs.
Killed bird was equipped with a GPS transmitter
But how did investigators get on the trail of the 73-year-old poacher in the first place? The trigger was the shooting of a red kite in March 2019. The bird was part of a monitoring project run by the Swiss Ornithological Institute in Sempach and had therefore been fitted with a GPS transmitter. When a concerned staff member of the institute tried to locate the bird in the Gantrisch area at the end of March using GPS data, he found himself confronted with a bird graveyard.
In the field he finds a few feathers from a kite, but nothing more. In the forest, however, he comes across feathers from a common buzzard, a common raven and at least two red kites in one spot. “That could not have been a coincidence», said the man. Then he sees a bird's foot protruding from a compost heap. He pulls on it. A dead golden eagle. «I thought something really serious was going on here, this is poaching.» He calls the game warden and the police.
A police officer subsequently alerted reports, according to the «Berner Zeitung», of a gruesome scene. Dead wild animals and feathers had been lying scattered all over the ground around the man's holiday home. In the 73-year-old's holiday home, police also found weapons and silencers. And the sheep carcass in the meadow — without legs, without a head, gutted and without its hide. This animal, says the police officer, he simply let «perish».
When he kills a badger, he does not report it to the game warden. He burns leaves in the forest without a permit. He stores veterinary medicines — but not in the manner required. He owns several small-calibre rifles, including a shortened, prohibited accessory; the weapons are partly stored loaded in the house or car.
According to the defence counsel, the man is a «farmer, self-sufficient smallholder, hunter, butcher, nature lover, bird enthusiast, hiker». He had had to learn how brutal nature is. Nevertheless, the Bernese court regards the man's actions as offences — and he must now answer for them.
