A business political settlement which pleases hunters
From the horns of the hunters, and the relative calm on the side of the nature organizations, it can be concluded that the first group in particular benefits from the less strict hunting rules that the PvdA and VVD have negotiated with State Secretary Dijksma of Nature.
The PvdA minister had included in her new natural law that business hunters must submit a shooting plan before they are allowed to shoot at the five animal species on the so-called ‘wild list‘. That proposal has been brought down by the coalition.
During a parliamentary debate it appeared that the VVD threatened to vote against the entire natural law if the paragraph on hunting remained so strict. The PvdA came up with an interim proposal. Hunters may continue to shoot rabbit, hare, mallard, wood pigeon and pheasant without any prior administration, but must report afterwards to a so-called Wildlife Management Unit.
Understanding the Numbers of big game
These provincial wildlife management units are already functioning when it comes to population management and damage control. Terrain owners, hunters, managers and farmers collectively collect data on numbers of large game, determine how much game an area can handle and then determine the necessary and therefore uncontroversial shot.
In the proposal of the PvdA and VVD, the task of the fauna management units is expanded and the composition broadened. Hunters will now have to report their proceeds from the ‘pleasure hunt’ to them, while the units will be expanded to include representatives from animal welfare organizations. They also get the right to vote.
Having an interest in hunting?
Here you can read more:
The Limited influence
This could be organizations which already have a seat in it when it comes to population management. But now ‘animal welfare‘ is also becoming a subject to be tested. The Animal Protection is a new club that can join, and it wants to. The influence of such an organization on the policy of the fauna management units is uncertain. But if one of the five or six partners, it will be limited.
VVD and PvdA say that with such a portfolio of ‘animal welfare‘ the supervision of pleasure hunting will be broadened and deepened. Nevertheless, the new plan seems in everything to be a political compromise, which offers hunters more space and puts ‘social organizations’ in a difficult position. Their backers are green citizens who sometimes link animal killing and game eating to the trend of sustainable food.
Animal welfare during the hunt
Most donors and members are mainly concerned about the animal welfare that they believe is at stake in hunting. They still accept that ‘their club’ has a say in shooting in the context of damage control, although the cooperation of the nature organizations in the gassing of hundreds of thousands of geese was already a lot more difficult. It is precisely that part of the constituency that will have great difficulty if their organization has a say in the conditions of pleasure yachts. In their view, hunting has nothing to do with protection.