Legislation On Hunting With Dogs - Germany

Germany

Adolf Hitler banned foxhunting in Nazi Germany. Hitler's cabinet was told about the new animal protection laws at a meeting on July 3, 1934 - the same day that the Fuhrer reported on the ruthless killing of Stormtrooper "conspirators" in the "Night of the Long Knives", according to an official Nazi biography published four years later. Hitler was not, as is often thought, a vegetarian but had a soft spot for animals, particularly his last dog, Blondi, which was with him in the Berlin bunker when he committed suicide in April 1945.

The laws were introduced by Hermann Goering, Hitler's infamous Air Marshall and a passionate hunter who appointed himself Hunting Master of the Reich (Reichsjaegermeister) soon after the Nazis gained power in 1933. The ban provoked howls of anger from the aristocracy which for centuries had hunted foxes, wild boar, hares and deer on horseback. Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941), the grandson of Queen Victoria, was a keen huntsman who enjoyed hunting boar with a pack of hounds. The upper classes were powerless to stop the changes given the totalitarian nature of the regime. The laws were passed and remain in force to this day.

Before the Nazis came to power Germany's hunting laws varied from state to state. Goering decided that more order was needed and introduced sweeping legislative changes which were enforced throughout the Reich. Until Goering's Reich Hunting Law (Reichsjagdgesetz) of 1934, German hunters pursued deer, wild boar, hares and foxes on horseback. Goering adopted a moral code governing hunting called Sporting Justice (Waidgerechtigkeit) that had long been established in Germany. The code stipulates that it is unsporting to use animals such as dogs to kill game and vermin.

However, the most controversial aspect of the Reichsjagdgesetz was an attempt to win over Germany's hunting fraternity to the Nazi drive for territorial expansion or Lebensraum. Goering instigated laws that were designed to afford them a privileged position in the new Reich. The idea was to give every hunter his own personal shoot after the Third Reich's glorious victory over Europe.

Before the Hunting Act was introduced in the UK, a spokesman for the Countryside Alliance said: "Hitler banned fox hunting partly because he wanted to attack the aristocracy's way of life and further his own ambitions. It would appear that Tony Blair's reasons for banning foxhunting are not dissimilar - a curious mixture of class envy, spite and a curious understanding of animal welfare."