According to the Supreme Administrative Court’s recent decision, the Finnish Wildlife Agency’s decisions to grant exceptional licenses (derogations) for hunting bears in autumn 2022 for the purposes of population management have been in opposition to the law. In public discussion, it has been presumed that in the future, at least bears could not be hunted at all for the purposes of population management.
Understandably, the Supreme Administrative Court’s decision has raised broad debate among hunters and it has also resulted in local game management associations allegedly intending to terminate cooperation agreements between the police and game management associations across Finland.
According to these agreements, game management associations maintain preparedness to take care of the tracking, putting down and appropriate recovery of deer (cervids), injured in traffic accidents, injured otherwise, or ordered to be removed on other grounds, on the basis of assignment issued by the police. Game management associations maintain preparedness to assist the police authorities also in case large predators or wild boars have to be tracked, put down or chased away. All hunters, dog handlers and hunting associations involved operate on a voluntary basis.
Base of skilled hunters ensures good cooperation
From the viewpoint of the police, potential abandoning of cooperation with the police due to dissatisfaction caused by the Supreme Administrative Court’s decision seems quite baffling. The police cannot influence or change the policy of administrative courts.
“Police departments have signed these SRVA agreements on the provision of executive assistance with big game animals with their regional Game Management Associations, not individual hunting associations or hunters. For decades, collaboration between the police and hunters has been excellent regarding collisions with deer and incidents involving maintenance of safety regarding large predators. The police find continuing collaboration essential in the future,” says Assistant Police Commissioner Vesa Pihajoki of the National Police Board.
Even if SRVA operations were to end in some areas, the police would not visit the site of for example deer collisions where the dead animal remains in the ditch or at the roadside. This is not a matter for the police with regard to the animal, because according to the Hunting Act, a cervid that has died in a traffic accident is the property of the local game management association at the site of the accident.
“Animals injured in traffic accidents would become a problem, because the police, being the animal welfare authority, would visit the site and try to locate, and if necessary, put down any injured animals, but the police do not have the dogs suitable for tracking of animals nor sufficient resources. The police are continuously forced to prioritize assignments and injured animals would most certainly remain out in the terrain,” says Pihajoki.
Other incidents involving large predators and other dangerous animals (for example, an injured wild boars) would also be problematic. For example, assignments involving chasing away or putting down large predators that cause danger, and injured wild boars, would be a major challenge for the police to manage without the help of skilled hunters as a resource.
