Hesse: Hunters against the planned year-round closed season for brown hares

Bad Nauheim/Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) - Hesse's hunters are opposed to a possible year-round grace period for partridges and hares.

Hesse: Hunters against the planned year-round closed season for brown hares

Bad Nauheim/Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) - Hesse's hunters are opposed to a possible year-round grace period for partridges and hares. This de facto hunting ban emerges from the draft of the new hunting ordinance. The state government's plans had a demotivating effect on hunters, said a spokesman for the state hunting association in Bad Nauheim. A lot has been done for many years to ensure that the species are doing well. For example, only ten percent of the rabbits that were allowed were killed.

With a year-round grace period for this game, certain areas are no longer attractive enough to lease them, the spokesman said.

So far, brown hares can be hunted between October 1st and the end of December in areas with sufficient stocks. According to the association, almost 2180 of this species were shot in the 2021/22 hunting year. So far, the partridge could be shot in areas with a sufficiently large population from September 19th to the end of October. According to the list of routes, no animal was shot in the 2021/22 hunting year.

According to information from the Ministry of the Environment, the associations and unions have been able to examine the draft of the new hunting ordinance since the end of June. Before that, they had already had the opportunity to comment on the regulation that was still in force and to communicate any adjustment requests. "Due to the ongoing hearing on the new draft regulation, the associations once again have the opportunity to contribute their association interests," said a ministry spokeswoman. Experience has shown that technically good proposals for amendments would be made, which could then be incorporated into the second draft of the ordinance.

If everything goes according to plan, the second draft regulation should be ready after the summer holidays, the spokeswoman said. The Ministry does not comment on the question of the planned closed periods.