Criticism of the hunting fair at the Umwelt Arena Spreitenbach

It describes the event as a “hunting-violence event” and calls on the public to avoid the fair.

In the organisation’s view, hobby hunting is not a traditional cultural asset, but an outdated form of leisure activity that is incompatible with animal suffering and ethical responsibility.

While the hunting industry presents its activity as a contribution to “nature conservation” or “tradition”, IG Wild beim Wild reminds us that there is no reasonable ground for hunting numerous animal species at all, such as jays, carrion crows, brown hares, foxes, badgers or domestic cats. Rather, wild and domestic animals are killed each year “for fun”, under the guise of an alleged stewardship.

“True nature lovers do not need a rifle,” says the organisation. “Those who love nature protect it; they do not celebrate it at a fair as if it were a shooting-target park.”

Instead of hunting and trophy worship, IG Wild beim Wild proposes non-violent alternatives for living a bond with nature: birdwatching, herb hikes, nature photography, voluntary work in nature conservation, mountain forest projects or “Citizen Science” projects in which citizens provide valuable data for research. Such activities promote knowledge, mindfulness and respect for all living beings, without causing suffering.

The criticism, however, is directed not only at the hunting fair itself, but also at the Umwelt Arena Spreitenbach, which repeatedly provides a platform for events that run counter to animal welfare. These also include terrarium exchanges, where exotic animals are presented in cramped plastic boxes and sold to unprepared buyers. The IG calls on the municipality of Spreitenbach to refrain in future from making premises available for events that involve cruelty to animals or glorify hunting.

At such fairs and exhibitions, it is not the welfare of the animals that takes centre stage, but profit. Many reptiles suffer from stress and fear, cannot be kept in a species-appropriate manner in captivity and die prematurely. Moreover, handling exotic animals poses a health risk: according to studies, up to 90 percent of reptiles carry salmonella, which can also be transmitted to humans. Animal shelters and rescue centres are overcrowded with exotic animals because many keepers are overwhelmed.

In addition, IG Wild beim Wild points to numerous violations and abuses surrounding hobby hunting. Year after year, tens of thousands of healthy wild animals in Switzerland, including roe deer, foxes and chamois and their predators, are killed, often in agony. Misfired shots regularly lead to injuries or even fatalities among people. The ecological balance also suffers: due to decades of intervention by hobby hunters, the proportion of threatened species in Switzerland is alarmingly high.

The organisation criticises that hobby hunters cultivate a culture of violence that disguises itself as a connection to nature, but in truth fosters suffering, imbalance and regression. While countries or the canton of Geneva have long since established professional wildlife management without hobby hunters, other regions continue to tolerate practices that flagrantly contradict the animal welfare act.

It is tasteless to promote the killing of animals as an entertaining leisure sport, says Carl Sonnthal of IG Wild beim Wild. Under the guise of a connection to nature, hobby hunting causes immeasurable suffering. A civilised society must not regard such bloodshed as culture.

IG Wild beim Wild therefore calls for a rethink in the way wild animals are treated: away from the gun, towards education, compassion and respect. Spreitenbach can make an important contribution to the protection of animals and people by introducing a municipal ban so that such events, which are based on animal suffering, are no longer given a stage in future.

Natural disaster hobby hunters

In the chaos in which nature finds itself after decades of conservation and care by the hobby hunters, the proportion of endangered species nowhere in the world as great as in Switzerland. For decades, the contract killers have been creating an ecological imbalance in the cultivated landscape with sometimes dramatic consequences (protection forest, diseases, agricultural damage and much more). Over a third of plants, wild animals and fungal species are considered endangered. Switzerland is likewise at the bottom of the league across Europe when it comes to designating protected areas for biodiversity. It is precisely always these same circles of hobby hunters with their lobbying who, through politics, the media and laws, are to be held responsible for this over decades. It is they who notoriously block timely, ethical improvements in animal welfare and sabotage serious animal and species protection. Hobby hunters regularly oppose more national parks in Switzerland, because for them it is precisely not about nature, biodiversity and species protection or animal welfare, but about pursuing their perverse, bloody hobby.

Did you know …

• that in Switzerland innocent young wolves are liquidated?
• that hobby hunters lie when assessing the quality of game meat and that processed game meat, according to the WHO, is carcinogenic like cigarettes, asbestos or arsenic?
• that, according to a study, nowhere is the lead contamination of golden eagles and bearded vultures higher than in the Swiss Alps, because of the ammunition used by hobby hunters?
• that the so-called sportsmanship of hobby hunters diametrically contradicts the animal welfare act and is a mirage?
• that hunting is war, where one simply liquidates animal competitors?
• that there are countless illegal and unmarked high seats in our countryside, some of them so rotten that they pose a danger to children and people can be killed?
• that year after year countless people are killed or injured by hunters' weapons, in some cases so severely that they end up in a wheelchair or have limbs amputated?
• that in Switzerland around 120,000 perfectly healthy roe deer, red deer, foxes, marmots and chamois are killed each year, mostly pointlessly?
• that because of the hobby hunters it is today hardly possible any more to live in harmony with wild animals or to see wild animals?
• that shotgun loads make hares cry out like little children and tear apart the entrails of “shot” roe deer and red deer, so that they leave a trail for the follow-up search as they flee?
• that the claim made by hobby hunters that the cruel wild animal massacres are necessary to regulate animal populations has been scientifically refuted?
• that hobby hunters openly admit that hunting is about the “lust for killing” and “the joy of making a kill” of a pathological passion?
• that hobby hunters do not have a sixth sense and yet regularly claim that they shoot only sick and weak animals, which of course is not true in practice?
• that hobby hunters travel abroad for trophy hunting, far from any species and hunting protection regulations, and that there are even Swiss hobby hunter tour operators for such moronic hunting pleasures?
• that the overwhelming majority are not legitimate professional hunters, but practise hunting as a hobby, sport and leisure pleasure, which is not ethical and actually contradicts the animal welfare act?
• that 99.07 % of civilised people in Switzerland are not hobby hunters, meaning only 0.3 % of hobby hunters take pleasure in these bloody activities?
• that these wild animal killers do not hunt on the basis of scientific justifications?
• that protected species actually have no place under hunting law, because hobby hunters are overwhelmed by species conservation and repeatedly shoot animals on the Red List for fun, such as lynx, wolf, brown hare, grey partridge, quail, etc.?
• that hobby hunters deliberately decimate certain animal species in order to have no competition for their unnatural behaviour (fox, lynx, wolf, birds of prey, etc.)?
• that the game dies before the hobby hunter can even fire a single shot, that this is to be prevented, and that this is presumably the central idea of conservation and care as well as hunting planning?
• that among wild boars (and foxes) normally only the lead sow has young, but due to her being shot all female animals within the sounder reproduce, and that this is also why we have a glut of wild boars?
• that grazing animals – red deer, roe deer, etc. – originally lived mainly active by day on fields and meadows, like goats, sheep, cows, etc., and not in the forest?
• that the wolf is vital in the long term for keeping wild ungulates healthy, because, for example, with incredible precision it preys on sick or weak animals and is thereby far superior to hobby hunters?
• that foxes usually end up in the rubbish after the senseless hunt?
• that foxes today are hunted mainly so that there are more hares, etc. in the frying pan for hobby hunters? That the fox, however, feeds to over 90% not on hares and never catches a healthy hare?
• that one cannot act against hobby hunters in animal welfare with gentleness, street festivals, prayer chains, etc. alone (a rough wedge belongs on a rough block)?
• that hobby hunters, with their hunters' tall tales, carry out a disrespectful mockery of living creatures?
• that it is frowned upon to shoot high game at the feeding station or during the mating season, yet the hobby hunter has no scruples about doing this to the fox, a competitor for prey?
• that in some cantons hobby hunters go hunting only for the tender meat of a young animal?
• that hobby hunters shoot pregnant mother cows in front of their young, or only young animals during the rearing period (post-special hunt)?
• that hobby hunters poison the environment, nature, humans and animals with their ammunition?
• that bestiality, barbarism, cruelty, bloodshed and senseless suffering cannot be cultural heritage in a civilised society?
• that hobby hunters shoot around 10’000 roe deer fawns every year?
• that hobby hunters, in the harsh winter, lure starving animals with food only to be able to shoot them treacherously and cowardly?
• that hobby hunters set sharpened dogs onto burrows to eliminate foxes and badgers (earth hunting)?
• that hobby hunters lure peaceful creatures into box traps, in which they may have to suffer for days and wait for their killer, or often subject the animals to an hours-long death struggle (trap hunting)?
• that hobby hunters cowardly murder or injure peaceful wild animals while they sleep or sun themselves, from ambush with high-tech precision weapons?
• that hobby hunters support awards, fur markets, prize ceremonies for the trophy cult, trophy shows, the fur trade, etc.?
• that hobby hunters put firearms into the hands of underage schoolchildren and practise killing with them?
• that hobby hunters often carry out their agonising deeds in solitude, which encourages cruelty to animals?
• that hobby hunters only severely injure many wild animals, and the victims often suffer for hours in enormous agony and fear until a tracking dog finds them and they are shot?
• that hobby hunters (apart from vivisection) inflict the most agony and abuse on animals, also through the manner of killing?
• that the hunters' love of animals and nature does not delight in the existence of the beloved object, but rather aims to possess the beloved creature hide and hair, culminating in turning it into prey through the act of killing?
• that hobby hunters actually promote browsing damage through hunting pressure, particularly on predators such as fox, lynx and wolf?
• that hobby hunters open the door wide to antisocial, unethical and unchristian behaviour?
• that hobby hunters deprive the public of normal, natural observations of and interactions with animals?
• that there is no greater product of suffering, contaminated with ammunition, than game meat?
• that there is no nationwide uniform regulation in Switzerland regarding eyesight tests, shooting practice, etc. for hobby hunters?
• that there is no psychological character test for hobby hunters?
• that there is no ban on alcohol for hobby hunters when they shoot at animals with their weapons?
• that hobby hunters enter educational institutions to talk children into believing their hunters' tall tales and their violence?
• that a court in Bellinzona recently confirmed that hunting clubs promote practically everything that is cruel, unnecessary and heartless?
• that the association «Jagd Schweiz» primarily cultivates disrespect and a culture of violence – the exact opposite of what a cultivated person in our society should strive for.
• that in the canton of Grisons alone, over 1’000 charges and fines are imposed on hobby hunters every year?

We give credit to the canton of Geneva, with its professional wildlife management without hobby hunters but with men of integrity as game wardens. On Lake Geneva there are vineyards and other crops, just as in the rest of Switzerland. Yet evidently they have humane and more ethical approaches to dealing with wild animals there, along with intelligent measures to protect crops. In Geneva, no foxes, martens or badgers are regulated simply because it is hunting season. This is also reflected in the federal hunting statistics. Instead, practical deterrence measures and sensible education and assistance, as well as further training for the public, take place with the game wardens. Safety, animal welfare and ethics are the guiding principles.

Further information:

• Umwelt Arena Spreitenbach