Lower Austrian hunting law still allows year-round hunting of small predators
Vösendorf (OTS) – In Lower Austria’s hunting law, small predators such as foxes, raccoon dogs, polecats, stone martens, wild rabbits and weasels in particular can still be shot at any time of the year. The key figures are not only the killed animals, but also the young animals left behind, whose fate is sealed with the death of the mother: hunger, thirst and cold.
“No grace period for small carnivores is not only cruel, but also unconstitutional, since the Hunting Act authorizes hunters to kill huntable animals in a way that is fair to the ranger, but does not authorize young animals to die in the burrow,” says MMag. inside Madeleine Petrovic President of the Vienna Animal Welfare Association (Tierschutz Austria)
One of the reasons for the non-existence of the closed season – the period when hunting wild animals is prohibited by law – is that the predators are viewed as competition. But especially in the offspring, the young animals are the ones who suffer. “In 2022 alone, more than twenty fox babies whose parents no longer showed up and would have died of thirst, starvation or frozen to death without us came to the animal shelter in Vösendorf. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to have a closed season or maternity leave for all wild animals. We therefore demand that the killing of wild animals be prohibited at the time when they have young to care for, which would die in agony if the mother or parents were shot. The offspring must also be placed under a closed period until they are able to survive on their own,” Petrovic states.
Questions & contact:
Animal Welfare Austria
Sophie Rider
The press officer
deputy press secretary
+43 699 16604008
sophie.reiter@tierschutz-austria.at
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