Controversial decision

Shooting during the closed season

The compulsory shooting decision for wood pigeons is upsetting.

(Bild: FLORIAN KAINZ WAIDHOFEN)

The district authority of Schärding ordered the St. Marienkirchen hunting association to shoot 24 wood pigeons on its territory during their breeding season. Animal rights activists are now taking the matter to the provincial administrative court.

On March 22, the Sankt Marienkirchen hunting association submitted an application on its own behalf to the BH Schärding. In it, they suggested that they be allowed to hunt wood pigeons during the closed season in the area of their cooperative hunt this year too.

And indeed, on June 21, the district authority ordered the compulsory shooting of 24 wood pigeons during the breeding season. This exception to the closed season was justified by the expected damage to agricultural crops such as barley and rapeseed. As a precautionary measure, the BH ruled out a suspensive effect in the event of any appeals against the shooting decision.

The Schärding district authority issued the controversial decision.

(Bild: Scharinger Daniel)

Exceptions in the law
However, the Tierschutz Austria association now wants to take legal action against this. "We have lodged an appeal against this decision by the district authority with the regional administrative court," confirms Michaela Lehner, the organization's head lawyer. The aim is to have the compulsory culling order revoked and the appeal granted suspensive effect.

In Upper Austria, protected game species may not be hunted, caught or deliberately killed during the closed season, according to the current provincial hunting law (§ 42 para. 2). Exceptions may only be granted if there is no other satisfactory solution and the favorable conservation status of the game species concerned is maintained.

A pair of wood pigeons

(Bild: Pixabay)

"Easy to recognize in flight"
According to Animal Welfare Austria, the contested decision by the Schärding district authority is blatantly flawed. An official expert is quoted as saying: "From a hunting point of view, the shooting of non-sexually mature flock pigeons is unproblematic, as they are easy to recognize in flight (flock) and are not involved in the breeding business."

The reasoning of the decision is based on the fact that the shooting of flock pigeons that are not sexually mature is unproblematic, as they are easy to recognize in flight and are not involved in the breeding business. These statements are technically incorrect.

Bernhard Paces, Sachverständiger Biologe von BirdLife Österreich

Criticism from animal rights activists
However, this is contradicted by BirdLife biologist Bernhard Paces, who was asked by Tierschutz Austria about this and considers it impossible to visually distinguish between breeding wood pigeons and non-breeders in a flock.

His findings: "When hunting woodpigeon flocks during the breeding season, it cannot be assumed that they only consist of non-breeders simply because they contain more than two birds." His conclusion: Shooting wood pigeons during the closed season inevitably leads to the killing of breeding birds.

Tierschutz Austria also criticizes the fact that no alternative to shooting - such as taking out insurance to cover bird damage, as offered by hail insurance, for example - was considered in the BH decision.