Tragic hunting accident in Lower Saxony: According to a media report, a hobby hunter killed a colleague last Sunday (22.3.2020) at around 7 p.m. in the municipality of Marklohe. According to the report, the 64-year-old believed he saw a wild animal, fired a shot, and hit the other hobby hunter. The mentally disturbed man called the police, but by the time emergency services and officers arrived, the
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Tragic hunting accident in Lower Saxony: According to a media report, a hobby hunter killed a colleague last Sunday (22.3.2020) at around 7 p.m. in the municipality of Marklohe.
According to the report, the 64-year-old believed he saw a wild animal, fired a shot, and hit the other hobby hunter.
The mentally disturbed man called the police, but by the time emergency services and officers arrived, the 44-year-old was already dead. The 64-year-old is now being investigated for negligent homicide. The two men had been hunting independently of each other on Sunday evening in a wooded area, without any knowledge of the other’s plans. At around 7 p.m., the 64-year-old had spotted something at a greater distance that he mistook in the twilight for a piece of game, and subsequently fired a shot in an unsportsmanlike manner. In doing so, he struck the other wildlife killer.
It could just as easily have hit an ordinary person, such as a nature lover or a pedestrian. The IG Wild beim Wild also points out that every year hundreds of thousands of animals suffer considerable harm due to stray shots by hobby hunters, and that several dozen people are killed and/or injured by hobby hunters each year. We strongly recommend a ban on so-called hobby hunting.
In Switzerland, according to statistics, the risk group of hobby hunters causes more human injuries and fatalities every year than Islamic terrorists, cults, the Mafia, wolves, and biker gangs combined.
Background information
In recent years, numerous serious hunting accidents have also caused outrage in Germany. In October of last year, a hobby hunter in Lützkampen shot a horse that he allegedly mistook for a wild boar. A hunting leaseholder suffered a serious knee injury in August 2019 after a shot accidentally discharged from his companion’s weapon. In January 2019, a 19-year-old was killed in Ettlingen when a shot discharged from her father’s weapon as he was preparing to go hunting. In November 2018, an 86-year-old woman in Dalberg was fatally struck in her own garden by a stray shot fired by a hobby hunter. In July 2018, a six-year-old girl was seriously injured while playing in the garden in Saara, Thuringia, by a shot fired by a hobby hunter. Two days later, a man died in a hunting accident in Ochtrup, North Rhine-Westphalia; two days after that, a hobby hunter lost his life when a shot was fired during the driving of wild animals from a field in Unterwellenborn, Thuringia.
Scientific studies show that hunting is not an effective means of permanently regulating wildlife populations. Researchers demonstrated that, for example, female wild boar in hunted populations reach sexual maturity earlier, thereby increasing the birth rate. [1] Accordingly, high hunting pressure causes the population of the wildlife species concerned in a given area to increase. Prof. Dr. Josef Reichholf, a prominent biologist at the Technical University of Munich, also sees no necessity for hunting from a wildlife biology perspective: the nearly exterminated wolves do not need to be replaced by human hunters, as natural regulation of the animal populations living in the forest can occur through environmental factors such as weather conditions, food availability, and disease.
We greatly admire the Canton of Geneva with its professional wildlife management — without hobby hunters, but with dedicated wildlife wardens. In Geneva, foxes, martens, badgers, and so on are not culled simply because it is hunting season and misguided individuals wish to pursue a hobby. This is also reflected in the federal hunting statistics. Typically Swiss values such as safety, animal welfare, and ethics are the guiding principles in Geneva.
[1] Servanty et al. (2009): Pulsed resources and climate-induced variation in the reproductive traits of wild boar under high hunting pressure. Journal of Animal Ecology. No. 78, Issue 6.
More on the topic of hobby hunting: In our dossier on hunting we compile fact checks, analyses, and background reports.
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With your donation, you help protect animals and give them a voice.Donate now→
Hunting accident: Hobby hunters shoot themselves
Tragic hunting accident in Lower Saxony: According to a media report, a hobby hunter killed a colleague last Sunday (22.3.2020) at around 7 p.m. in the municipality of Marklohe. According to the report, the 64-year-old believed he saw a wild animal, fired a shot, and hit the other hobby hunter. The mentally disturbed man called the police, but by the time emergency services and officers arrived, the
Tragic hunting accident in Lower Saxony: According to a media report, a hobby hunter killed a colleague last Sunday (22.3.2020) at around 7 p.m. in the municipality of Marklohe.
According to the report, the 64-year-old believed he saw a wild animal, fired a shot, and hit the other hobby hunter.
The mentally disturbed man called the police, but by the time emergency services and officers arrived, the 44-year-old was already dead. The 64-year-old is now being investigated for negligent homicide. The two men had been hunting independently of each other on Sunday evening in a wooded area, without any knowledge of the other’s plans. At around 7 p.m., the 64-year-old had spotted something at a greater distance that he mistook in the twilight for a piece of game, and subsequently fired a shot in an unsportsmanlike manner. In doing so, he struck the other wildlife killer.
It could just as easily have hit an ordinary person, such as a nature lover or a pedestrian. The IG Wild beim Wild also points out that every year hundreds of thousands of animals suffer considerable harm due to stray shots by hobby hunters, and that several dozen people are killed and/or injured by hobby hunters each year. We strongly recommend a ban on so-called hobby hunting.
In Switzerland, according to statistics, the risk group of hobby hunters causes more human injuries and fatalities every year than Islamic terrorists, cults, the Mafia, wolves, and biker gangs combined.
Background information
In recent years, numerous serious hunting accidents have also caused outrage in Germany. In October of last year, a hobby hunter in Lützkampen shot a horse that he allegedly mistook for a wild boar. A hunting leaseholder suffered a serious knee injury in August 2019 after a shot accidentally discharged from his companion’s weapon. In January 2019, a 19-year-old was killed in Ettlingen when a shot discharged from her father’s weapon as he was preparing to go hunting. In November 2018, an 86-year-old woman in Dalberg was fatally struck in her own garden by a stray shot fired by a hobby hunter. In July 2018, a six-year-old girl was seriously injured while playing in the garden in Saara, Thuringia, by a shot fired by a hobby hunter. Two days later, a man died in a hunting accident in Ochtrup, North Rhine-Westphalia; two days after that, a hobby hunter lost his life when a shot was fired during the driving of wild animals from a field in Unterwellenborn, Thuringia.
Scientific studies show that hunting is not an effective means of permanently regulating wildlife populations. Researchers demonstrated that, for example, female wild boar in hunted populations reach sexual maturity earlier, thereby increasing the birth rate. [1] Accordingly, high hunting pressure causes the population of the wildlife species concerned in a given area to increase. Prof. Dr. Josef Reichholf, a prominent biologist at the Technical University of Munich, also sees no necessity for hunting from a wildlife biology perspective: the nearly exterminated wolves do not need to be replaced by human hunters, as natural regulation of the animal populations living in the forest can occur through environmental factors such as weather conditions, food availability, and disease.
We greatly admire the Canton of Geneva with its professional wildlife management — without hobby hunters, but with dedicated wildlife wardens. In Geneva, foxes, martens, badgers, and so on are not culled simply because it is hunting season and misguided individuals wish to pursue a hobby. This is also reflected in the federal hunting statistics. Typically Swiss values such as safety, animal welfare, and ethics are the guiding principles in Geneva.
[1] Servanty et al. (2009): Pulsed resources and climate-induced variation in the reproductive traits of wild boar under high hunting pressure. Journal of Animal Ecology. No. 78, Issue 6.
More on the topic of hobby hunting: In our dossier on hunting we compile fact checks, analyses, and background reports.
Support our work
With your donation, you help protect animals and give them a voice.Donate now→