«More than shooting»? The Valais High Hunt between Image Film and Red Deer Rut
Regional media like to portray recreational hunting as tradition and a nature experience. Wildlife often only serves as a backdrop.
In the «Tagesinfo» of 23 September 2026, the Valais regional broadcaster Canal9 profiles a «young hunter», as the broadcaster calls him.
According to the programme description, more than 2000 recreational hunters are out during the high hunt in Valais. The title of the piece: «Hunting: more than shooting».
This is not about the person portrayed. It is about the question of what image of recreational hunting a regional medium conveys, and which perspectives are given room within it.
What Also Belongs to the High Hunt
The Valais high hunt began on 21 September. Around 2100 recreational hunters are supposed to kill 1700 red deer this season, even though the kill quotas have been missed for the past three years.
The hunting season falls within the rut of the red deer, which lasts from mid-September to mid-October. During this phase, the animals are entirely focused on reproduction. In the canton of Schwyz, even recreational hunters reject hunting stags during the rut. The meat of rutting stags has a very intense, strong flavour of its own and is usually not recommended for normal consumption, the «Bote der Urschweiz» reported on 8 September 2026. The Schwyz recreational hunters therefore want to kill the stags before the rut. In Valais, by contrast, recreational hunting in the middle of the rut is the regular model. Our Live Ticker Valais Hunt 2026/27 documents the ongoing incidents.
Shooting quality is also part of the reality. In 2024, butchers in Upper Valais made it public that they would no longer process poorly shot game. The president of the Upper Valais butchers' association criticised frequent gut shots to SRF, after which the meat has to be discarded, and named too many recreational hunters for too little game as the cause. The Upper Valais hunters' association disagreed.
And sentencing practice is also part of the reality. A recreational hunter who shot a protected female wolf in Herbriggen, claiming he had mistaken her for a fox, got off with a fine of 300 francs and was allowed to keep his hunting licence: 300 francs for a female wolf.
Questions a portrait could ask
- How do the wild animals fare during the rut, when over 2,000 armed people are in the field at the same time?
- How many animals are wounded by shots and have to be tracked down in a follow-up search?
- Why is the kill quota rising, even though it has been missed three years in a row?
- What do wildlife biologists, hikers or animal welfare organisations say about the high hunt?
- Is the claim that recreational hunting fulfils an ecological mandate examined, or merely repeated?
A portrait does not need to depict every criticism. But when regional media portray recreational hunting year after year mainly as tradition and a nature experience, an image emerges in which the wild animals appear only as scenery.
How the high hunt unfolds and what it means for the animals is explained in our article High Hunt Switzerland: Process, Animal Welfare and a Critical Assessment.
Sources: Canal9, Tagesinfo, 23.09.2026; Bote der Urschweiz, 08.09.2026; SRF, 12.09.2024; Canton of Valais, SGS 922.110
All articles are written by IG Wild beim Wild as well as by external co-authors. Research, structuring and editorial processes may be supported by AI-assisted tools.
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