Hunter from the Klatovy region shot a protected otter, then finished it off, claiming he mistook it for a nutria

Police in the Klatovy region have opened a criminal case against a 53-year-old man on suspicion of illegally handling a protected wild animal. According to Klatovy police spokesman Michal Šoń, the incident took place in early February last year, when officers stopped the man's car during a routine roadside check and found a dead Eurasian otter inside.

The investigation established that a hunter named Radek F. had fired at the animal with a rifle near his pond close to the village of Čejkovy. The bullet struck a rock, and flying fragments wounded the otter. The man then struck the animal on the head, crushing its skull, loaded the body into his car and drove away.

A chase that caught police attention

While driving, the man's car suddenly began swerving for no apparent reason on a straight stretch of road, which caught the attention of a passing patrol. The cause turned out not to be alcohol: after spotting the police car in his mirror, the hunter panicked and tried, with one hand, to cover the dead animal lying on the floor by the passenger seat with a newspaper.

When police pulled the car over, they noticed bloodied paper on the floor. On closer inspection, they found an otter with a shattered head underneath it. A forensic pathology exam revealed metal fragments in the animal's body, and ballistic analysis confirmed they were pieces of a bullet fired from the defendant's rifle. The otter died from a combination of a gunshot wound to the chest and brain damage caused by a blunt-force blow.

The hunter's version of events

The man told police that while making his evening rounds of the pond, he spotted three animals through a thermal imaging scope and mistook them for nutria, which may be hunted without restriction. He fired at one of them, but upon approaching realized it was actually an otter. He said he panicked out of fear and decided to take the body home to dispose of it somehow.

Source: novinky.cz