Czechia

Summary

Czechia names the bow in its animal protection law. Since 1 July 1993 the Animal Protection Act has forbidden catching or killing a wild animal with bows, and the exceptions it allows for hunting do not cover that point. The Hunting Act adds a second rule: game may be shot only with a hunting weapon, which the act defines as a long firearm.

A government bill of 2024 would have allowed hunting with a bow under conditions. It had not passed its first reading when the parliamentary term ended in 2025.

The legal mechanism

• Animal Protection Act, § 14 (1) (e): it is forbidden to catch or kill a wild animal by means of bows and “samostříly”. A wild animal is any animal of a species whose population maintains itself in nature, even when it is kept in captivity (§ 3 (b)).
• The exceptions, § 14 (3): when the hunting authority orders or allows a reduction of game numbers, the bans on night sights, mirrors and artificial light may be lifted. The ban on bows is not among them.
• Penalties under that act: killing an animal by a method forbidden in § 14 (1) counts, by the act’s own definition, as cruelty causing death (§ 3 (r)); the offence carries a fine of up to CZK 1,000,000 (§ 27 (1) (b) and (12)), and may add a ban on keeping animals for up to five years (§ 27 (13)).
• Hunting Act, § 45 (1) (i): shooting game with any weapon other than a hunting one, meaning a long firearm, rifled, smooth-bore or combined, designed for hunting, is forbidden. The same paragraph requires every hunt to follow the principles of animal protection. A holder of a hunting licence who breaks § 45 commits an offence punishable by a fine of up to CZK 30,000 and a ban of up to two years, with the licence withdrawn (§ 63 (2) to (4)).
• History: the original act of 1992 did not name the bow. Act 162/1993 rewrote § 14 (1) and added the bows, in force from 1 July 1993; the wording of that point has not changed since.

The bill that did not pass

On 13 June 2024 the government filed print 732, an amendment of the Hunting Act. It would have added a section on the use of the bow, allowing game to be hunted with a bow after a bowhunting exam, with a minimum draw weight of 220 N, arrows marked with the hunter’s licence number and hunting heads, and a note of the bow on the hunting permit. It would also have amended § 14 (3) of the Animal Protection Act so that the ban on bows no longer applied to bows made for hunting. When the 2021–2025 term ended, the Chamber’s record showed the bill at the first reading stage.

In the current term, the two pending prints that amend the Hunting Act concern accounting and the building code, going by their titles.

Open questions

• § 14 (1) (e) names bows together with “samostříly”, which the act does not define. No text we read says whether the word covers the crossbow.
• Whether the government will file a bill on the bow again.

Before you go

This page describes the Czech texts as they stood on the date below. If you hear that bowhunting has been allowed in Czechia, ask for the amendment of § 14 of the Animal Protection Act and of the Hunting Act, and its number in the Sbírka zákonů. Until then, killing game with a bow in Czechia is an offence. The final check is yours.