Canton of Schwyz: poisoned golden eagles, shot llamas, illegal wolf traps

In June 2026, a viral post about two poisoned golden eagles goes viral – and opens a window onto a decade of hunting-policy impunity in the canton of Schwyz.

Two golden eagles found dead – canton of Schwyz confirms poisoning

An image of two lifeless golden eagles on the forest floor is currently sparking thousandfold outrage on social media. The post was published by Steven Diethelm – game warden for the canton of Schwyz covering the districts of March and Höfe, as well as the operator of a bird-of-prey rehabilitation centre in Galgenen SZ. He claims the animals died in the canton of Schwyz from poisoned goat meat – the meat had been laid out deliberately for wolves, and the canton had covered up the case.

The fact that an official cantonal game warden publicly accuses his own employer of a cover-up lends the post a political weight that goes far beyond a typical viral moment of outrage.

Remo Bianchi, head of the Office for Forest and Nature of the canton of Schwyz, confirms the core of the post to nau.ch: «We can confirm an incident involving the poisoning of two golden eagles in 2016.» The eagles were found at the time in the area around Einsiedeln SZ. As for whether it was poisoned goat meat and whether the bait was laid out deliberately for wolves, the canton cannot confirm: «It was not possible to establish for which animal the poisoned bait had been laid out.»

A complaint against persons unknown was filed. The perpetrators were never identified. The canton of Schwyz has no media release of its own on the 2016 case – Bianchi's statements stem solely from the nau.ch interview of 5 June 2026.

Poison bait in Switzerland: banned, but hard to prosecute

The laying out of poison bait is explicitly prohibited and punishable in Switzerland under the Federal Act on Hunting and the Protection of Wild Mammals and Birds (JSG) as well as the Animal Welfare Act (TSchG). Poison bait does not only strike the intended target animal: birds of prey such as golden eagles, kites or bearded vultures regularly die as secondary victims – often through eating poisoned prey.

That criminal prosecution comes to nothing in such cases is no coincidence. As our Dossier on poaching and hunting crime in Switzerland shows, there is no systematic recording of poaching cases in Switzerland — neither at the federal level nor in the cantons. The number of unreported cases is correspondingly high.

Canton of Schwyz: Structural failure in wildlife protection

The current case is not an isolated one. The canton of Schwyz has been the focus of wildlife protection criticism for years:

In December 2024, six wire snares were discovered near Pfäffikon SZ, which two men had installed in a wooded area to catch wild animals. They were also carrying prohibited hunting equipment such as a slingshot and a high-performance bow and arrow. Both were reported to the authorities — yet, as our report Canton of Schwyz: Eldorado for hunting crime documents, consequences are systematically lacking in such cases. The sentencing is telling: a hobby hunter who killed a chamois on a closed day in Euthal SZ in September 2024 was issued a summary penalty order of a 200-franc fine and 340 francs in procedural costs — a total of 540 francs. The snare-trap offenders ran up 13,039 francs. The poisoned golden eagles of 2016 cost nobody anything. The canton, which itself laid out illegal wolf-carcass bait: likewise without consequence so far. This is what the punishment culture in the canton of Schwyz looks like — declining the more serious the offence and the more powerful those involved.

At the same time, the canton of Schwyz is expanding hobby hunting: from autumn 2026, hobby hunters will be allowed to kill wild boars for the first time, and a specially trained group of hobby hunting licence holders is in future also to regulate predators such as the wolf and the lynx — see our report on this Canton of Schwyz opens wild boar hunting for the first time.

And yet there is a lack of elementary accuracy: in September 2021, a hobby hunter on the high hunt in the Bisistal in the Muotathal SZ shot dead a llama — namely the lead mare, which the farmer kept as a herd protection animal against the wolf and roaming dogs. This animal is not a flight animal; it advances towards predators and interrupts their hunting instinct. The hobby hunter only came forward after the media reported on it — not immediately after the kill. Hunting administrator Manuel Wyss of the Office for Forest and Nature confirmed to Blick.ch that the case had been handed over to the public prosecutor. No documented verdict exists. Meanwhile, the canton of Schwyz is debating whether these same hobby hunters should be deployed for wolf kills.

Wildlife refuge zones, by contrast, repeatedly fail in the canton because of the hunting lobby, as we documented in No wildlife refuge zones in the canton of Schwyz.

Six days before the viral golden eagle post – on 29 May 2026 – Rinze Zgraggen, head of the Hunting and Wildlife Division at the cantonal Office for Forest and Nature, gave a written interview to the Schwyz Cantonal Licence Hunters' Association (SKPJV). In it, he spoke of «hunting ethics», «responsible and transparent conduct» and «respect for wild animals and their habitats». Poisoned golden eagles, snare traps, the shot llama, illegal wolf-carcass bait or the bounty debate: not a single word. Instead, Zgraggen explained that the amendments to the 2026/27 hunting operating regulations were made on the basis of «federal legal requirements, applications by the hunting commission or insights from practice and science» – yet he failed to provide any wildlife-biological justification for the extension to wild boars or for predator regulation. The interview appeared on the website of the Schwyz hobby hunters, not on that of the canton. It is the self-image of an authority that breaks its own law – and routinely sells this to the public as ethics.

Golden eagles as collateral damage of hobby hunting culture

The golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) is strictly protected in Switzerland. It is protected under the Bern Convention as well as the JSG. Although its population has recovered over recent decades thanks to protective measures, it remains fragile – particularly because poisonings and illegal kills pose a structural threat.

The Geneva model shows how things can be done differently: since the hunting ban of 1974, wildlife populations in the canton of Geneva have been regulated by professional game wardens – without hobby hunting, without poisoned bait, without structural conflicts of interest. The population of birds of prey in the canton of Geneva has recovered markedly since 1974.

Schwyz hobby hunters in Austria: driven hunt on pregnant animals

The 2016 poisoning case does not stand alone. Back in 2019, hobby hunters from the canton of Schwyz made international headlines: on 30 March 2019, a Swiss leaseholder organised a driven hunt with several dogs in the Grosses Walsertal (Fontanella I, Bludenz district, Vorarlberg) – disguised as a driven hunt, one day before his lease expired. Around ten participants from Switzerland and Vorarlberg took part. According to the Luzerner Zeitung and 20 Minuten, photos of vehicles parked on site prove that the Swiss participants were hobby hunters from the cantons of Schwyz and Lucerne – identifiable by their number plates.

During the driven hunt, eight head of game were killed – chamois, red deer and roe deer – including demonstrably pregnant animals. By the end of March, a female chamois is already in the final third of pregnancy; the foetus is capable of feeling and pain. The Vorarlberg hunters' association sharply condemned the incident: the regional hunting master Dr Christof Germann spoke of a breach of «every hunting ethic» and immediately initiated expulsion proceedings. Vorarlberg state councillor Christian Gantner also condemned the hunt.

Several Austrian and Swiss media outlets reported on it, including ORF Vorarlberg, the Kleine Zeitung, the Tiroler Tageszeitung, VOL.at and 20 Minuten. The Bludenz district authority examined possible breaches of hunting law. Whether criminal consequences followed is not documented.

The principal leaseholder – a man from Schwyz – had at that point already leased another hunting ground in Vorarlberg. The pattern is the same as in the 2016 poisoning case and the 2024 snare finds: hobby hunters from the canton of Schwyz appear disproportionately in cases that animal welfare organisations, authorities and even other hunting associations describe as ethically unacceptable or illegal – and the consequences remain minimal to non-existent. Our report on this: Swiss hobby hunters torment wild animals on a driven hunt in Austria.

The canton as perpetrator: illegal baiting for the wolf hunt

What individuals did in the cases of 2016, 2019 and 2024, the canton of Schwyz took over itself in 2025 – thereby violating its own law.

In October 2025, two board members of CHWOLF discovered the following in the core area of the Chöpfenberg wolf pack: an already heavily decomposed red deer and a freshly gralloched roe deer, both tied down and deliberately placed in front of a camera trap installed by the canton. Not far away stood a makeshift seat with a direct line of fire onto the carcasses. At another spot, dog food had been deposited within the field of view of a further camera trap.

The problem: feeding wild animals is, in principle, prohibited under § 59 of the cantonal Hunting and Wildlife Protection Act (JWG) of the canton of Schwyz. None of the statutory exemptions covers the baiting of wolves. Moreover, in its consent ruling of 28 August 2025, the FOEN expressly ordered that kills must not be carried out at rendezvous sites or at carcass baits, where no learning effect can be achieved.

CHWOLF immediately filed a criminal complaint with the responsible public prosecutor. Up to that point, the Chöpfenberg pack had been inconspicuous – five weeks after its confirmation in July 2025, the kill order for two thirds of the pups was in place. By November 2025, three of the five pups were dead. With this, the canton of Schwyz is not only breaking its own hunting act, but also disregarding the conditions imposed by the federal authority. Our report: Wolf hunting in the canton of Schwyz: prohibited baiting.

Bounty on wolves: Schwyz plans a step back into the 19th century

On 14 October 2025, the Cantonal Government converted Motion M 13/25 on the regulation of predators into a postulate – effectively the door-opener to officially involving private hobby hunters in the killing of wolves. And more than that: the idea of a kill bounty was expressly examined.

A state bounty scheme for wolves would be a return to the 19th century. Until 1902, Switzerland did indeed have kill bounties of 100 francs per wolf – at a time when the wolf had already been exterminated back in 1872. Today it is strictly protected under the JSG, the Bern Convention and CITES. A bounty for killing a protected species would clearly violate federal law – legal appeals would be almost certain to succeed. When wolves are shot, pack structures collapse – inexperienced young animals then increasingly fall back on sheep. Conflicts increase, not decrease. Our report: Bounty on wolves: the canton of Schwyz and the hunting lobby.

Over 1,000 comments – and a deep divide

The post on the Facebook page “Wolf Facts Schweiz” triggered over 2,000 reactions and was shared thousands of times within a short period. More than 1,000 comments show how charged the debate is. Nau.ch quotes by way of example: “Poisoning animals is the most cowardly thing you can do to a creature” and “And then they talk about the evil wolf.” A full analysis of the comment section’s content is not seriously possible without direct access – but the sheer reach of the post makes clear how deep the divide runs between the wildlife protection community and supporters of hobby hunting.

It is remarkable who set the ball rolling: Steven Diethelm is not simply an outraged citizen, but an official game warden of the canton of Schwyz. The fact that he uses the platform of a wildlife protection-leaning Facebook account to accuse his own canton of a cover-up is a political signal – whether intended or not.

“Cowardly crime” – and no perpetrator

The pattern in the canton of Schwyz is multi-layered and documented: in 2016, two golden eagles are poisoned – no perpetrators identified. In 2019, hobby hunters from Schwyz and Lucerne hunt pregnant animals in Austria – minimal consequences. In 2021, a hobby hunter in the Muotathal shoots the herd protection llama – no documented verdict. In 2024, snare traps are discovered near Pfäffikon SZ – a penalty order of 13,039 francs, no hunting ban. In 2025, the canton itself places illegal carcass bait in the wolf core area, violating its own hunting act and the FOEN conditions – and nonetheless shoots three of the five pups of the first Schwyz wolf pack. Six days before the viral post, the responsible department head publicly declares that hunting stands for “ethics” and “transparency”.

What remains: not the failure of individual hobby hunters, but a system – sustained by a cantonal authority that breaks its own law, and a hobby hunting culture that treats impunity as the normal state of affairs. The viral post about two poisoned golden eagles is the latest expression of a pattern that has accompanied the canton of Schwyz for years.