Vienna Animal Protection Association: Protecting Young Wild Animals

No matter how endearing young wild animals may appear to many people: the circumstances in which such abandoned young animals are found without their mother are often deeply dramatic, according to the Vienna Animal Protection Association.

Mother animals frequently fall victim to road traffic, leaving their young behind alone. «Or they are – which happens almost even more often – victims of hobby hunting», says Madeleine Petrovic, President of theVienna Animal Protection Association (WTV). At the associated animal shelter in Vösendorf, many of these wild animals receive competent care, as was recently the case with the young wild boar «Berta».

Unfortunately, particularly in eastern Austria, regulations still exist that are unbearable and incomprehensible to civilised people with compassion – and indeed to many upstanding hunters themselves. For example, in Lower Austria there are still no closed seasons whatsoever for small predators such as foxes, martens, stone martens, polecats or weasels, nor for wild boars, wild rabbits or raccoons. One example: fox mothers currently nursing their young in their dens can essentially be shot at any time. This situation has a particularly devastating impact on the young of the species mentioned, who without their mother die slowly and painfully from hunger, thirst or cold. The WTV launched a petition against this barbarity several years ago. «Unfortunately, all motions against these practices in the Lower Austrian State Parliament have consistently been rejected», says Petrovic of the Vienna Animal Protection Association. The responsible member of the state parliament once remarked that decent hobby hunters would not do such a thing anyway.Logically, however, it would also be entirely possible to introduce a ban. The animal welfare problem of the absence of closed seasons is systemic.

"The fact is, unfortunately, that it does happen. Just a few days ago we fought in vain to save the last surviving fox cub whose mother had been shot. Sadly, walkers only discovered the whimpering baby once it was already completely dehydrated and beyond saving. Its siblings had already perished beforehand. Does this correspond to a modern hunting law? I rather think not," says Petrovic.

Special case: wild boar

Speaking of hunting law: with wild boar the situation is particularly questionable. Because sows that have young — so-called “leading sows” — are in principle not permitted to be hunted, but if the piglets (for which there are no closed seasons) are shot first, the mother, who then no longer has young, can subsequently be killed as well. All of this is legal under the law. "It may be legal, but it is and remains a moral outrage and a declaration of human and political bankruptcy," says Petrovic.

The WTV president therefore identifies an urgent need for action: "It is high time for a modern hunting law that also takes animal welfare into account and not the advantages of a few dishonest individuals among the recreational hunters who still regard wildlife as unwelcome competition for their quarry," says Petrovic. The WTV president adds: "Yes, a little piglet is cute. But the story behind it is almost certainly a tragedy and a violation of everything that an overwhelming majority of the population considers legally permissible."