Thuringia: First Properties Finally Declared Hunt-Free
Antje H. has done true pioneering work: she was one of the first people in Thuringia to submit an application for legal exemption from hunting on her land.
After more than four years, her tireless efforts have finally paid off.
The administrative court in Gera ruled: her nine properties will be officially declared hunt-free at the end of the hunting year on 31 March 2023!
Antje H. owns nine properties in the Saale-Orla district of Thuringia. Three of them are woodland plots. Six are meadows and arable land that border directly on a forest — and are filled with hunting stands. «It leaves me speechless that there are hunting stands on my land and in my meadows,» says the animal and nature conservationist. «Some of the stands are less than 20 metres apart.»
«The animals should be able to live in peace on my land»
The animal welfare advocate cannot reconcile it with her conscience that hunters shoot animals dead on her properties. That is why in 2019 she submitted an application for a legal hunting exemption to the responsible Lower Hunting Authority of the Saale-Orla district office: «I reject hunting on ethical grounds and cannot reconcile it with my conscience that animals are killed on my properties. The animals should be able to live in peace on my land!»
She is also concerned about safety when hunters are shooting in the adjacent forest while her family is in the garden.
The properties are located in the "Green Belt" between Thuringia and Bavaria along the former inner-German border. For animals and plants, the "death strip" was a habitat in which they could develop and flourish undisturbed. At the end of 2018, Thuringia designated the "Green Belt" as a "National Nature Monument" because it is considered a treasure trove of biodiversity. But why is hunting permitted in this ecologically valuable area? — that is the question Antje H. and her family are asking. “We cannot understand why there are no more deer in our area and why hunting is still taking place even in the nature reserve (which is owned by the state forest authority, the Treuhand, and in part also by NABU),” says the animal and nature conservationist. “Unfortunately, a great deal has happened in Thuringia’s forests in recent years: due to drought, bark beetles, and not least deforestation, hardly any trees are left standing. Wildlife has lost its refuges and is, in a very real sense, on the run every day.”
The property owner engages a lawyer
Because the authorities did not respond, Antje H. turned to the initiative «Zwangsbejagung ade» and sought support. On their advice, she engaged lawyer Peer Fiesel. Lawyer Fiesel is handling 104 hunting exemption proceedings nationwide, around 42 of which are before the courts. Three cases have been taken all the way to the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig. This makes him arguably one of the most experienced legal practitioners in Germany when it comes to the process of exempting private land from hunting. Peer Fiesel is also President of the Animal Welfare Association of North Rhine-Westphalia and has been committed to animal welfare, animal rights, and a nature free from hunting for 30 years.
Administrative Court in Gera: properties to be officially declared hunting-free at the end of the hunting year on 31 March 2023
After extensive correspondence and because the hunting authority was unwilling to grant a hunting exemption for the properties, the Administrative Court in Gera was ultimately called upon.
On 10 August 2022 — more than four years after the application for a hunting exemption was filed — the hearing before the Administrative Court took place. The lower hunting authority must now officially declare the properties hunting-free by the end of the hunting year on 31 March 2023.
«Mr. Fiesel and I had the best arguments of all time – and yet this hunting exemption took so many years. The binder since April 2019 is 6 cm thick!», reports Antje H. All the greater is the joy that her properties will finally become hunting-free!
