Wild Bison Crosses German Border for First Time in 250 Years, Then Gets Shot by Officials

A bison in Europe found its way across the German border, and was met with a bullet from panicked officials.

The Smithsonian Mag reports that bison haven’t been seen in the country for around 250 years, so when someone spotted the large mammal wandering around in the woods, people kind of panicked because they thought it was dangerous.

“City officials from [Lebus] basically freaked out and said, ‘there is a free-roaming bison, it is probably dangerous and I guess we need to shoot it,'” Moritz Klose, a policy director for the German branch of the World Wildlife Fund, told the New York Times.

This move has been met with legal repercussions from the World Wildlife Fund, which has since filed a lawsuit against German authorities for their decision making in this incident. “The shooting of a strictly protected animal without a potential hazard is a criminal offense,” WWF director Christoph Heinrich stated in German.

Coincidentally, it sounds like Germany is working to bring back Europe’s bison population:

OutdoorHub Reporters

The OutdoorHub Reporters are a team of talented journalists and outdoorsmen and women who work around the clock to follow and report on the biggest stories in the outdoors.