The police have confiscated the weapon, hunting license and telephone of the hunter who was allegedly involved in the shooting death of a dog in Wapse on Friday evening. That evening, a woman and her son walked the dogs on a dirt path. One of the three dogs walked a bit ahead. Not much later, two gunshots rang out and the dog lay dead in a ditch.
“It must be really terrible to lose your dog in such a fatal hunting accident,” says director Laurens Hoedemaker of the Royal Dutch Hunters’ Association. “On behalf of the Hunters’ Association and the Dutch hunting community, I would like to express our condolences to the owner of the dog.”
In recent days, several bunches of flowers have been placed along the sandy path at the spot where the dog died. How the incident could have happened is also a question for the Royal Dutch Hunters’ Association. Hoedemaker explains that the hunters undergo strict checks and live according to a code of conduct. “It states, among other things: if you are not sure what you see, then you do not shoot. And yet something has gone terribly wrong here.”
The Hunters Association then sorted things out. According to Hoedemaker, foxes can be hunted in the evening and at night in Wapse. “That’s because the Netherlands is responsible for the survival of the godwit in Europe. And the fox is one of the godwit’s biggest enemies.”
The hunter in question, a neighbor, also had a permit for this. “Apparently this dog was mistaken for a fox, that went completely wrong.”
The shooter has had to surrender his phone, hunting weapon and license while the police investigation is still ongoing. “That is to see whether the bullet that killed the dog came from that weapon. We are awaiting the results of the investigation into how this could have happened,” Hoedemaker responds.
Whether the shooter will get his permit back depends on whether there was intent. “If someone deliberately shoots a dog, that is poaching,” Hoedemaker warns. “If there is a fatal mistake, that is very annoying, but in principle no reason to revoke a hunting license.”
