A militant group of hunters has set out to exterminate the ‘feathered vermin’
After enduring years of springtime attacks by crows on pedestrians walking city streets, Germans could be forgiven for wishing a nasty end to a few of the birds. But revelations about a militant group of “crowbusters” determined to exterminate the “feathered vermin” has sparked alarm even from fellow hunters.
Going by online names such as Demonicus and Harras, the anonymous group of crow killers uses semi-automatic weapons to decimate entire murders of crows with maximum efficiency, according to Der Spiegel. They think nothing of driving 1,500 km to a hunt. Last year at least 330 birds were shot in one hunt that was broadcast online. Another 300 died in Bavaria after local farmers helped lure the birds into the hunters’ kill zone by spreading manure on their fields. Still, the crowbusters’ single-minded fervour caused a hunting club in the Westerwalk mountains to ban the group from their region.
Regardless of concerns about the hunters’ zealousness, Germans just aren’t fond of crows, especially when they go on the offence during nesting season. In 2010, so many Berlin residents were assaulted that one bloodied area posted warning signs.