Disturbing the peace of the dead is a criminal offence. However, wild animals naturally do not know this and sometimes cause considerable damage on the burial grounds. Recent complaints about this have come from visitors to the forest cemetery, the largest of its kind in the city. There, wild boars are said to have recently “really plowed up” the soil around the burial sites. This is what an SZ reader from Cosimastraße reports.
The municipal cemetery administration, a department of the health department, confirms such occurrences. However, efforts are being made to maintain a “responsible balance between maintaining the funeral service, the cemetery as a place of mourning and commemoration, the integrity of the graves and the balanced treatment of the animal and plant world,” emphasizes a department spokesman.
The municipal cemeteries in Munich look after a total area of 420 hectares. Wild animals are part of the inventory in these green spaces, especially at night. However, they pose no danger to visitors, explains the health department. Foxes with their burrowing activity are responsible for damage to the burial grounds, while wild boars are more likely to deface forest and meadow floors. Martens, in turn, are a danger to vehicles and cable systems. Wild ducks, geese and seagulls polluted water and lawns in cemeteries with their droppings.
The problems would be exacerbated by the unreasonableness of people who feed the animals and thereby attract more uninvited guests. The cemetery administration therefore regularly puts up notices to draw attention to the feeding ban that applies in the Munich cemeteries. In cases of persistent violation of the ban, the authority places additional information.
Contrary to what is often assumed, the city’s cemeteries are constantly hunted “to avert damage and danger”. The district administration department issues the permits to trained hunters. The animal species that are released for hunting include wild boar, foxes, raccoons, badgers, wild rabbits, roe deer, hares and various birds.