Overview
- Multiple tractors mowed a four‑to‑five hectare meadow in the Auerswalde area of Lichtenau and residents later found eleven fawn carcasses in the field.
- A local resident, Nico Haberkorn, filed a criminal complaint and Chemnitz police have opened investigations on suspicion of breaches of the German Animal Welfare Act and the Federal Nature Conservation Act.
- The agribusiness said the deaths were not intentional and pledged to use drones and thermal cameras for future searches to better locate hidden young deer before mowing.
- Rescue groups including Chemnitzer Rehkitz‑Rettung say they repeatedly offered to search the field with thermal drones before the harvest but were not engaged by the farm.
- Young fawns freeze and hide rather than flee, making drone and thermal searches a proven prevention tool, and the probe and public outcry could increase pressure on farms to adopt those measures and on authorities to enforce prevention rules.