The German Environmental Aid (DUH) and the Federation for Nature Conservation are suing against the facilitated shooting of otters in Bavaria. The measure “is a false solution for the Bavarian pond industry, but it is a welcome election campaign noise for Markus Söder,” said DUH federal managing director Sascha Müller-Kraenner and speaks of “massive” legal uncertainty. “The pond owners would be helped significantly more by the unbureaucratic promotion of fences or the establishment of diversion ponds.”
A new regulation has been in effect in the Free State since August 1st, which makes it easier to kill otters in Eastern Bavaria. Since then, otters can be taken in all districts of Lower Bavaria and Upper Palatinate with the exception of Neumarkt without individual special permits. “With this decision, we are supporting the companies in these regions that have been particularly characterized by pond farming for centuries. We had to act where pond farming is now more threatened than the otter,” said Agriculture Minister Michaela Kaniber (CSU).
From the perspective of environmentalists, the state government is violating national and EU law with the exceptional regulation and it must therefore be declared ineffective. Until then, the environmental associations are calling for the immediate suspension of the regulation in an urgent application submitted at the same time. Although the amended version only allows shooting in exceptional cases, these are inadequately defined. This means that hunting is not excluded in all protected areas, nor is it ensured that animals living in protected areas are not killed.
Although pond owners in Lower Bavaria and Upper Palatinate have long complained about high levels of damage caused by otters, none have yet been shot based on the new regulation. The reason is probably that the regulation contains many legal uncertainties and, even according to senior ministry officials, will not stand up in court. The pond owners are particularly bothered by the fact that they and the hunters bear full legal responsibility for the shooting of otters. In the previous legal disputes over otter protection in Bavaria, the environmental associations have always been right.