Court overturns year-round hunting of golden jackals in Tyrol

Austria’s Constitutional Court has ruled that year-round hunting of golden jackals in Tyrol is unlawful, ORF Tirol reported. The court annulled a provision in the second implementing regulation to the Tyrolean Hunting Act that allowed the animals to be shot throughout the year.

The ruling followed a request from Tyrol’s Administrative Court, which acted after an earlier complaint by Tierschutz Austria. The Constitutional Court said the regulatory record contained no documented surveys, either when the rule was introduced or later, showing that the golden jackal had a favourable conservation status based on ongoing, systematic monitoring.

The authority should have assessed the species’ conservation status when it made the previous amendment to the regulation, the court said. The latest amendment did not correct the shortcoming. The authority should also have documented the basis for its continued assumption that hunting would not jeopardise the species’ favourable conservation status.

Madeleine Petrovic, president of the Vienna Animal Welfare Association and Tierschutz Austria, welcomed the decision. She said a protected species should not be authorised for year-round hunting when its population status is unknown.

The golden jackal is listed under the European Union’s Habitats Directive, which requires that hunting must not jeopardise the maintenance or restoration of a favourable conservation status. Petrovic said Austria lacked adequate systematic monitoring and had reported the species’ conservation status as unknown in both the continental and Alpine regions in its latest report under the directive.

Petrovic said Tyrol’s government had acknowledged during the proceedings that no relevant population surveys had been carried out. Tierschutz Austria called for monitoring in line with the directive and said golden jackals help limit the spread of pathogens and disease by quickly consuming carrion. The organisation also said the species occupies a niche between the smaller red fox and the larger grey wolf.

In February, Tyrol’s parliament passed a Hunting Act amendment by a large majority, with the Greens opposed. The changes are intended to make it easier to authorise the killing of wolves and other predators.