DJV: The Fatal Misconception of Recreational Hunters
The German Hunting Association claims that recreational hunting regulates wildlife populations. Studies show the opposite: hunting stimulates reproduction.
Raccoon dogs, raccoons, and nutria have been spreading as new animal species across Europe for decades.
Contrary to the constantly repeated claim by problem hunters that raccoons, raccoon dogs, and similar species are enemies of native fauna, they exert no significant predatory pressure on potential prey populations, as they are typical dietary opportunists and foragers. Current studies have confirmed this for years.
In areas with remnant populations of rare species, they may locally represent an additional problem. A large-scale control effort is therefore neither necessary nor effective.
The German Hunting Association (DJV) funds lethal research projects aimed at population control with considerable financial resources.
In a civilised society, it should not be sufficient for bumbling hunting clubs to accuse wildlife and launch smear campaigns against them. Rather, it is necessary to find ethically justifiable solutions that are scientifically sound and fit for the times.The hunting practices of the DJV and their militant research findings have demonstrably failed completely for decades.
Anyone who portrays raccoons and similar species as a primary cause of population declines in birds and amphibians,as the German Hunting Association does, fundamentally misidentifies the actual causes. These include, rather, shrinking habitats, an over-manicured cultural landscape, and increasingly intensive agriculture. It therefore stands to reasonthat the increased deployment of bumbling hunters using methods such as traps only creates more animal suffering, without resolving any species conservation issues.Bumbling hunters make no meaningful contribution to dyke protection or species conservation in Germany by hunting nutria and many other wildlife species. The more these animals are hunted, the higher their reproduction rate!
Although nutrias are absolutely harmless and their responsibility for river flooding has not always been conclusively proven, nutrias have in recent years been targeted by the DJV in what amounts to a full-scale extermination campaign.
The senseless behavior of the dimwit hunting fraternity toward the so-called “Invasive Species”“ (even though the EU does not prescribe killing them, but rather recommends the use of other non-lethal measures) is quite clearly reflected in the development of hunting bag statistics in Germany.
Not only in Italy have populations — for example in Lombardy, Piedmont, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, and Tuscany — been successfully controlled and sustainably reduced for years through sterilization,since hunting, as years of experience have shown, is bad for agriculture, wildlife, and the environment.
These projects demonstrate that it is possible to find bloodless and effective solutions: coexistence is possible,without resorting to the extreme and cruel solutions of the dimwit hunters —you just have to be willing!
Through sterilization and subsequent reintroduction into the area, the land available to the animals continues to be occupied by the same individuals, thereby preventing repopulation and, above all, ensuring that the number of individuals does not increase.
Who or what is a nutria?
The nutria (Myocastor coypus) is a rodent species native to South America, found in Brazil, Argentina, and Peru.
Its proper name is COYPU; in Italy it is colloquially also called Castorino, and in Germany it is colloquially known as Sumpfbiber or Biberratte (swamp beaver or beaver rat).
When fully grown, male specimens, for example, can reach a length of 60 cm and a weight of 10 kg. They are easily recognizable by their very distinctive dentition — two very robust incisors coated with an orange-colored enamel.
It is a semi-aquatic animal, predominantly herbivorous, crepuscular but also active during the day to forage for food. It has an excellent sense of hearing and smell but poor eyesight, which makes it a timid and cautious animal.
It has a gentle temperament, not aggressive at all, so much so that it is also kept as a pet in South America.
In its own habitat it does not disturb any other species; it lives very peacefully alongside other animals, as nutria-info.com reports.
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