The incident occurred in October last year in Bolesławice. Ms Jadwiga was returning from an afternoon walk with her family. Gabi, a purebred German Shepherd, was running through a field without a muzzle. As ill luck would have it, a hunt was taking place in a nearby forest. A frightened doe ran into the field. Guided by instinct, Gabi began chasing it.
After a while, the family heard two shots, followed by two more. The dog fell dead. One of the shooters later explained that the female dog had been treated as a stray hunting dog. “The Animal Protection Act says that a hunter has the right to shoot a dog when the animal shows signs of having gone wild,” the woman stressed in a conversation with the “Istotne Informacje” website and newspaper. “And Gabi was well cared for. It is true that she did not have a muzzle. But she was an exceptionally gentle dog. Besides, she was running in an open field. German Shepherds surely need the opportunity to run around.”
“As a private individual, I sympathize with these people,” one of the hunters admitted in November last year. “I really did not want to shoot the animal. We fired warning shots first. Unfortunately, the dog did not react to them.”
It is now known that the District Prosecutor’s Office in Bolesławiec found no signs of a crime in the incident. “The case has been discontinued,” says Adam Zieliński, the district prosecutor. Ms Jadwiga has filed a complaint against this decision. We will return to the subject.
(GA information)