Bowhunting in Switzerland: Clearly to Be Rejected

The hunt may have been necessary for human survival in prehistoric times, but today most recreational hunters stalk and kill animals purely for the pleasure of it, not out of necessity.

This unnecessary, violent form of entertainment tears animal families apart and leaves countless animals orphaned or severely injured when recreational hunters miss their targets, as they so often do. On animal welfare grounds, bowhunting is prohibited in Switzerland. Every hunting activity undertaken by recreational hunters represents a massive disturbance to the entire flora and fauna.

The militant association JagdSchweiz has now published a questionnaire, placed in front of a photograph of a solar park, concerning recreational hunting with bow and arrow in Switzerland.

With an eye on the expansion of renewable energies, solar parks are also being considered as potential hunting grounds where firearms are allegedly unsuitable. According to the assessment of recreational hunters, the risk potential of bowhunting is to be rated as considerably lower in certain hunting situations.

Recently, German federal states have rejected similar proposals from the recreational hunter milieu — for example in Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

The evaluation of around two dozen studies from the United States, where bowhunting is widely permitted, shows that this hunting method frequently leads to considerable animal suffering. Accordingly, 54% of animals are not killed immediately. Wounded animals often manage to flee, which can result in a death struggle lasting several days. 

The IG Wild beim Wild warns that the Swiss Animal Welfare Act (TSchG) stipulates that no one may inflict unjustified pain, suffering or harm on an animal. Accordingly, no animal may be subjected to significant, prolonged pain. Recreational hunters are already the most abysmal marksmen in Switzerland — and that is with a shotgun.

Fair chase, or recreational hunting, has nothing to do with animal welfare either. The concept of fair chase as practiced by recreational hunters is diametrically opposed to the Animal Welfare Act. Fair chase is about as far removed from animal welfare legislation as a cow is from riding a bicycle. Today's recreational hunting is, in essence, simply criminal. It is only that our legal system has not yet progressed to the point of reflecting this in criminal law.

In Switzerland, the principle of fair chase is mentioned in the law of German-speaking cantons, for example in Art. 14 of the Bernese Hunting Act:

Art. 14 Fair Chase. Hunters (female and male) shall exercise all due care to spare animals unnecessary suffering and disturbance and to preserve their dignity.

In a further study, scientists from the University of Oklahoma documented, during a bow hunt targeting 22 white-tailed deer, that 50% of the animals were merely wounded and were (initially) not retrievable. Even taking into account that wild boar exhibit different flight distances and behaviour than roe deer, the circumstances point to an unacceptably high wounding rate. An arrow shot does not forgive the slightest inaccuracy in aim and frequently results in pass-through wounds without any guaranteed lethal effect.

A British study on deer hunting found that 11% of deer killed by recreational hunters did not die until after two or more shots, and that some wounded deer suffered for more than 15 minutes before dying.

Critics also identify risks to humans: wounded animals that have not been fatally shot have greater opportunity to attack people. The intended targets of recreational hunters are not the only ones to suffer. Hunting accidents destroy property and injure and kill horses, cows, dogs, cats, hikers, and other recreational hunters. In Switzerland, there are fatalities and hundreds of injuries attributable to recreational hunting every year — and this figure covers only incidents involving humans.

Recreational hunting is fundamentally unsuited to naturally regulating wildlife populations. On the contrary, recreational hunters intervene massively in nature and undermine the effects of natural regulatory mechanisms. Contrary to what recreational hunters often claim in defence of their cruel pastime, hunting has nothing to do with conservation or population control. Rather, shooting opportunities are specifically engineered for recreational hunters in order to wildlife to kill.

In the chaos in which nature finds itself after decades of stewardship and management by Swiss recreational hunters, the proportion of endangered species is, according to the United Nations, greater in no other country in the world than in Switzerland.

Warum ist der Verband Jagd Schweiz ständig in der Kritik?

Particularly with regard to wild boar, scientific findings indicate that the destruction of social structures through recreational hunting ultimately leads to an increase in wild boar populations. One study shows that female wild boar in hunted populations reach sexual maturity earlier and that birth rates increase.

The cantonal administrations entrusted with managing nature reserves, forests, parks and other public areas are funded through recreational hunting and fishing, meaning that agency personnel often tend to promote these barbaric and bloody activities rather than regulating or monitoring them. These programmes lead to overpopulation and unbalanced ecosystems by favouring recreational hunting of certain wildlife. Predators such as wolves or foxes are unscientifically persecuted in order to increase prey species such as roe deer and red deer, whose populations are then supposed to justify recreational hunting for population control.

The IG Wild beim Wild appeals for the available scientific facts to be acknowledged, rather than subjecting a hunting method that has long been scientifically described as animal cruelty to renewed scrutiny.

Natural disaster: recreational hunters

In the chaos in which nature finds itself after decades of stewardship and management by hobby hunters, the proportion of endangered species is greater in no other country in the world than in Switzerland. For decades, these contract killers have been creating an ecological imbalance in the cultural landscape, with sometimes dramatic consequences (protective forests, disease, agricultural damage, and much more). Over a third of plant, wildlife and fungal species are considered endangered. Switzerland also ranks last in Europe when it comes to designating protected areas for biodiversity. It is precisely these circles of recreational hunters whose lobbying — conducted through politics, media and legislation — have been responsible for this for decades. They are the ones who notoriously block contemporary, ethical improvements in animal welfare and sabotage serious animal and species protection. Recreational hunters regularly resist more Schweiz ist europaweit beim Ausscheiden von Schutzflächen für die Biodiversität ebenfalls Schlusslicht. Es sind genau immer auch diese Kreise aus Hobby-Jägern mit ihrer Lobbyarbeit, die über die Politik, Medien und Gesetze seit Jahrzehnten dafür verantwortlich zu machen sind. Sie sind es, die zeitgemässe, ethische Tierschutzverbesserungen notorisch blockieren und den seriösen Tier- und Artenschutz sabotieren. Hobby-Jäger wehren sich regelmässig gegen mehr national parks in Switzerland, because they are not concerned with nature, biodiversity, species protection, or animal welfare but with indulging their perverse, bloody hobby.

Did you know …

• that in Switzerland innocent young wolves are being liquidated?
• that recreational hunters lie about the assessment of game meat quality and that according to the WHO, processed game meat is carcinogenic like cigarettes, asbestos, or arsenic?
• that according to studies, nowhere is the lead contamination of golden eagles and bearded vultures higher than in the Swiss Alps, due to the ammunition used by recreational hunters?
• that the fair chase ethics of recreational hunters directly contradict the Animal Welfare Act and are nothing but a mirage?
• that hunting is war, where animal competitors are simply liquidated?
• that there are countless illegal and unmarked hunting blinds in our countryside, some so rotten that they pose a danger to children and could cause people to fall to their deaths?
• that year after year countless people are killed or injured by hunters' weapons, some so severely that they end up in wheelchairs or have limbs amputated?
• that in Switzerland approximately 120,000 perfectly healthy roe deer, red deer, foxes, marmots, and chamois are killed each year, mostly without purpose?
• that because of recreational hunters it has become nearly impossible to live in harmony with wildlife or even to observe wild animals?
• that shotgun blasts cause hares to scream like small children and tear apart the entrails of “shot” roe deer and red deer so that they leave a trail of blood during their flight for hunters to follow?
• that the claim by recreational hunters that the cruel wildlife massacres are necessary to regulate animal populations has been scientifically refuted?
• that recreational hunters openly admit that hunting is about the “pleasure of killing” and “the joy of making a kill,” driven by a pathological obsession?
• that recreational hunters have no sixth sense and yet regularly claim they only shoot sick and weak animals, which is of course not true in practice?
• that recreational hunters travel abroad for trophy hunting, far removed from any species protection or hunting regulations, and that there are even Swiss recreational hunter travel agencies offering such depraved hunting excursions?
• that the vast majority are not licensed professional hunters but pursue hunting as a hobby, sport, and leisure activity, which is morally unjustifiable and in fact contradicts the Animal Welfare Act?
• that 99.07% of civilized people in Switzerland are not recreational hunters, meaning only 0.3% of recreational hunters take pleasure in these bloody activities?
• that these wildlife killers do not hunt on the basis of scientific justifications?
• that protected species do not actually belong under hunting law, because recreational hunters are overwhelmed by the demands of species protection and repeatedly shoot animals listed on the Red List — such as lynx, wolf, brown hare, grey partridge, quail, etc. — for sport?
• that recreational hunters deliberately decimate certain animal species in order to eliminate competition for their unnatural behavior (fox, lynx, wolf, birds of prey, etc.)?
• that wildlife dies before the recreational hunter can even fire a single shot, that preventing this is the goal, and that this is arguably the central idea behind wildlife stewardship, habitat management, and hunting planning?
• that with wild boar (and foxes), normally only the lead sow produces young, but due to her being shot, all female animals within the sounder reproduce, and that this is one of the reasons we have a wild boar surplus?
• that grazing animals — deer, roe deer, etc. — originally lived primarily as diurnal animals in fields and meadows, like goats, sheep, and cows, and not in forests?
• that the wolf is vitally important for the long-term health of wild ungulates, because it preys, for example, on sick or weak animals with incredible precision and is therefore far superior to recreational hunters?
• that foxes usually end up in the trash after senseless hunting?
• that foxes are hunted today primarily so that there are more hares, etc. for recreational hunters’ frying pans? That the fox, however, feeds on hares in fewer than 10% of cases and would never catch a healthy hare?
• that when it comes to animal welfare, one cannot confront recreational hunters with gentleness alone, street festivals, prayer chains, etc. (sometimes a tough problem requires a tough solution)?
• that recreational hunters, through the use of hunters’ jargon engage in a disrespectful mockery of living beings?
• that it is considered taboo to shoot large game at feeding stations or during the mating season, yet the recreational hunter has no scruples about doing exactly this to the competing predator, the fox?
• that in some cantons recreational hunters go hunting solely for the tender meat of a young animal?
• that recreational hunters shoot pregnant mother animals in front of their young, or target only young animals during the rearing period (Post-Special Hunt)?
• that recreational hunters poison the environment, nature, humans and animals with their ammunition?
• that bestiality, barbarity, cruelty, bloodshed and senseless suffering cannot be considered cultural heritage in a civilized society?
• that recreational hunters shoot approximately 10’000 roe deer fawns every year?
• that recreational hunters in harsh winters lure starving animals with food only to shoot them in a treacherous and cowardly manner?
• that recreational hunters send provoked dogs into burrows to eliminate foxes and badgers (den hunting)?
• that recreational hunters lure peaceful living creatures into cage traps, where they may suffer for days awaiting their killer, or subject animals to an agonizing death struggle lasting hours (trap hunting)?
• that recreational hunters cowardly ambush and kill or wound peaceful wild animals while they sleep or bask in the sun, using state-of-the-art precision weapons?
• that recreational hunters support awards, fur markets, prize ceremonies for trophy culture, trophy shows, fur trade, and so on?
• that recreational hunters place firearms into the hands of underage schoolchildren and practice killing with them?
• that recreational hunters often carry out their cruel acts in isolation, which encourages animal cruelty?
• that recreational hunters seriously wound many wild animals, leaving the victims to suffer for hours in enormous pain and fear until a tracking dog finds them and they are shot?
• that recreational hunters (apart from vivisection) inflict the most suffering and abuse on animals, including through the manner of killing?
• that the hunter's so-called love of animals and nature does not delight in the existence of the beloved object, but rather aims to possess the beloved creature body and soul, culminating in making it prey through the act of killing?
• that recreational hunters actively promote browsing damage through hunting pressure, particularly on predators such as fox, lynx and wolf?
• that recreational hunters open the door to antisocial, unethical and unchristian behaviour?
• that recreational hunters deprive the public of normal, natural wildlife observation and interaction?
• that there is no greater product of suffering, contaminated with ammunition residue, than game meat?
• that there is no uniform regulation across Switzerland regarding vision tests, shooting practice, and so on for recreational hunters?
• that there is no psychological character assessment for recreational hunters?
• that there is no prohibition on alcohol for recreational hunters when they are shooting at animals with their weapons?
• that recreational hunters infiltrate educational institutions to push their hunters' tales and their culture of violence on children?
• that a court in Bellinzona recently confirmed that hunting clubs promote virtually everything that is cruel, unnecessary and heartless?
• that the association «Jagd Schweiz» cultivates above all disrespect and a culture of violence — the exact opposite of what a civilised person in our society should aspire to.
• that in the canton of Grisons alone, over 1’1000 reports and fines are issued against recreational hunters every year?