Overview
- Three local hunting associations in Aschendorf‑Hümmling, Meppen and Lingen will each receive €50,000 to purchase Trapper Neozoen tube traps with electronic catch sensors.
- Officials say the live‑trapping systems are welfare‑compliant and selective with no risk to protected species, though captured animals are subsequently killed.
- Lower Saxony recorded 53,748 nutrias taken in the 2024/25 hunting year, including 7,835 in Emsland, where year‑round control is permitted.
- Leipzig’s environment office warns public feeding is boosting urban populations and bank erosion, urging residents to stop even though there is no formal feeding ban.
- Animal‑rights group Peta criticizes lethal control and urges non‑fatal measures, while the state agriculture minister credits hunters with aiding nature protection and supports expanding control of invasive species.