The German Animal Welfare Association and its Lower Saxony State Animal Welfare Association criticise the fact that central animal welfare demands have been watered down with regard to the amendment of the Lower Saxony Hunting Act. This is shown by the key points paper recently published by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Agriculture with the central proposed amendments to the law and the press release from the SPD parliamentary group. The paper forms the basis for the draft law and the legislative process that will now follow.
"In the final version of the key issues paper, all points relevant to animal welfare were watered down. Even the shooting of wild cats remains authorised. The paper is a disappointment, especially as no convincing arguments were put forward by the state hunters' organisation to oppose the changes that were originally planned," commented James Brückner, Head of the Wildlife Department at the German Animal Welfare Association.
Dieter Ruhnke, Chairman of the Lower Saxony Animal Protection Association, adds: "With the revision of the law, Lower Saxony has the opportunity to establish a modern hunting law as a pioneer. We are therefore all the more critical of the regulations that have now apparently been included in the key issues paper, which are not in line with the coalition agreement. The State Hunters' Association has demanded that the SPD parliamentary group clearly and unequivocally distance itself from the supposedly purely ideologically motivated changes to the Hunting Act. Even after three dialogue events, the state hunters' association was not prepared to submit its own proposals, let alone compromise proposals, and instead opted for confrontation - with the aim of intimidating decision-makers in the same way as last year's farmers' protests. This appears to have worked, as can be seen from the press release issued by the SPD parliamentary group. We are now appealing to the members of the Lower Saxony state parliament to campaign for real improvements in the interests of animal welfare during the legislative process and not just communicate with the hunting community in a one-sided manner."
The first drafts of the key issues paper envisaged a ban on the shooting of dogs and cats. However, according to the published paper, cats should now be allowed to be shot after all - if they are at least 350 metres away from the nearest building. While a ban on training hunting dogs on live animals was originally planned, training in wild boar enclosures, in enclosures with foxes and on live ducks is now to remain permitted. Instead of a consistent ban on den hunting, the key points paper only provides for a ban on natural dens; artificial dens remain permitted. Although the ban on killing traps is to remain in place, an exception is to be made for stone martens in residential areas. Contrary to what was originally planned, nutria are not to be removed from the hunting law.
