David Clavadetscher: Executive Director of JagdSchweiz

Following the shocking UN report on species extinction in spring 2019, attention turns to Switzerland.

No country in the world has a higher proportion of endangered species than Switzerland. More than a third of plant, animal and fungal species are considered threatened. It is invariably these circles of hobby hunters like David Clavadetscher from the association JagdSchweiz and farming lobbyists with their shabby lobbying work who bear political and legislative responsibility for this.

In their natural state — that is, where hobby hunters have not disrupted life and biodiversity in nature — wildlife populations exist that adapt dynamically. Predators, harsh winters and so forth ensure that mass proliferation does not occur. To this day, hobby hunters are responsible for a catastrophic imbalance in nature. With the artificially inflated populations of ungulates they cultivate, they also endanger, for example, the protective forests in mountain regions.

These militant wildlife killers also regularly combat key players in healthy, natural ecosystems, and in the context of the revision of the hunting law are currently casually demanding, out of pure self-interest, the preventive culling of important predators. The lynx is less controversial than the wolf, yet it is the hobby hunters who are most infuriated by it. The fox, too, continues to be hunted with fanatical zeal, even though studies and case examples show this to be entirely unnecessary. The fox serves merely as a scapegoat to mask the poor character, lack of expertise and low ethical standards of the hobby hunters.

Nature and animal protection organizations that care about biodiversity are of the opinion that the legislative proposals which the Verband Jagd Schweiz co-shaped and supports, undermine the protection of endangered animal species. Furthermore, they place user interests above conservation interests. It is described as a «pure shooting law».

«From our perspective, this is an unacceptable law, and the changes made by the National Council have tended to make it even worse.»

Sara Wehrli, Pro Natura

«JagdSchweiz promotes sustainable hunting in Switzerland for the benefit of biodiversity,» reads the website of this association.

One cannot help but wonder: what is the association JagdSchweiz actually worth?

The answer is simple. The association promotes militant vested interests that are apparently entirely at odds with sustainable biodiversity or common sense. The hobby hunters' relentless propaganda clamor about wildlife stewardship stands in inverse proportion to their actions and results. The UN report confirms this as well.

Evidently, these hobby hunters are neither well trained nor do they possess sound moral integrity.

Particularly when it comes to hunting and hobby hunters, it is essential that the public scrutinizes matters very carefully. Nowhere else is there so much manipulation through falsehoods and fake news. Violence and lies are two sides of the same coin. For decades, hobby hunting has been nothing other than a permanently costly construction site, patchwork, and point of contention for politics, forestry and agriculture, public administrations, the judiciary, health insurers, insurance companies, animal welfare, environmental and nature conservation organizations, the police, the federal government, the media, and so on.

Any other association with such a level of criminal energy would long since have been targeted by the federal prosecutor's office!

Current criminal offenses committed by hobby hunters in Switzerland are listed here: Link

With hundreds of tonnes of ammunition waste, hobby hunters also contaminate soil, waterways, and the flesh of animals. A considerable proportion of carnivorous predators — primarily birds of prey — die as a result.

Many animal species once native to this region are still extinct or threatened with extinction (including elk, wisent, lynx, wolf, wildcat, capercaillie, black grouse, hazel grouse, great bustard, eagles, falcons, vultures, etc.), and this after a hundred years of hunters' stewardship.

"Fair chase" (Waidgerechtigkeit) has nothing to do with animal welfare either. The hunters' code of fair chase is diametrically opposed to the Animal Welfare Act. Waidgerechtigkeit is about as far removed from the Animal Welfare Act as a cow is from riding a bicycle.Today's hobby hunting is, at its core, simply criminal. It is only that our legal system has not yet advanced far enough to reflect this in criminal law.

Hunting pretends to be something it is not. Hobby hunting, as it is practiced today, is neither a centuries-old craft, nor a tradition, nor a culture.

Those who kill senselessly do not protect, and it serves civilized society nothing. Today's hunting, with all its animal cruelty, occurs predominantlyNOT! in the interest of society, nature, biodiversity, or the cultural landscape.

Hobby hunters introduce stress, panic, and chaos into the highly sensitive social fabric of wildlife and into the ecosystem through hunting. As if that were not enough, the wrong animals are repeatedly shot, causing serious harm to the social behavior, population, and genetics of wild animal species (wild boar, fox, golden jackal, and others).

«Hunting clubs cultivate, upon close analysis, primarily disrespect and a culture of violence – the exact opposite of what a civilized person in our society should aspire to. Practically everything that is cruel, unnecessary, and heartless is promoted by hunting associations».

IG Wild beim Wild

On the one hand, the director of JagdSchweiz, David Clavadetscher, proselytizes to the public in a cult-like manner with his skewed ideology and fairy tales. When the perverse excesses of his ilk at JagdSchweiz are then objectively and professionally exposed – including on the basis of scientific studies – one is coerced by that very association and buried in criminal complaints. Disruptive contemporaries are, to use the internalwords of the hobby hunters of this association: «silenced» and «made to disappear from the scene«.

The hobby hunter David Clavadetscher and his militant cronies file criminal complaints against IG Wild beim Wild like crying schoolgirls.

Yes to the Weapons Act

On 19 May 2019, the Swiss people voted on firearms legislation (adoption of the EU weapons directive for greater security).Naturally, the violence-promoting association JagdSchweiz issued a «No» recommendation.Once again, out of pure selfishness, the hobby hunters endangered the common good and prosperity of the Swiss population. They deliberately jeopardized, for example, the cross-border cooperation of customs and police authorities within the Schengen area in pursuing criminals. The tourism industry (Schengen visa) would also have suffered serious losses had the EU firearms directive been rejected. Fortunately, the proposal was voted down.

What the hobby killers from the hunting milieu fear most is: psychological and medical tests as a basic prerequisite for the possession of any type of firearm. According to the committee of opponents, this is to be established in the EU in the near future — something that IG Wild beim Wild has been demanding for years.

Swiss hobby hunters are repeatedly caught smuggling weapons into neighboring countries.

Almost regularly, Mafia bosses reveal during interrogations how easy it is to obtain weapons in Switzerland. «UOur country is a veritable supermarket for the Mafia,» says former Ticino prosecutor Paolo Bernasconi. For 50 years he has dealt as a jurist with the Mafia in Switzerland and in Italy. «As early as 1969, an arsenal was discovered within the Camorra in Naples containing weapons that all originated from Lugano«, says the Ticino native. 

It is evident that the ideology, conduct and attitude surrounding the managing director, David Clavadetscher, and the president of JagdSchweiz are thereby undermined.

Yes to the Hunting Act

On 27.9.2020, the Swiss population voted on the flawed hunting act. On board in the committee of supporters of the miserable hunting act are, alongside the animal-exploiting farmers' association, naturally also the militant association JagdSchweiz as well as the fundamentalist "Swiss Working Group for Mountain Regions (SAB)" which takes a clearly unconstitutional stance on the issue of large predators. The SAB wants to eradicate predators in Switzerland. This contradicts the Federal Constitution and federal law.

Natural disaster: hobby hunters

In the disorder in which nature finds itself after decades of management and stewardship by hobby hunters, the share of threatened species is nowhere in the world as high as in Switzerland. For decades, these contract killers have been creating an ecological imbalance in the cultivated landscape, with sometimes dramatic consequences (protective forests, diseases, agricultural damage, and much more). Over a third of plant, wildlife and fungal species are considered threatened. Switzerland also ranks last in Europe when it comes to designating protected areas for biodiversity. It is precisely these same circles of hobby hunters, through their lobbying efforts in politics, media, and legislation, who 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. Hobby hunters regularly resist more national parks in Switzerland, because their concern is not nature, biodiversity, species protection, or animal welfare — but rather the pursuit of their perverse, bloody hobby.

Did you know …

• that in Switzerland innocent young wolves are being liquidated?
• that hobby hunters lie about the assessment of venison quality and that processed wild meat, according to the WHO, is carcinogenic — just 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, due to the ammunition used by hobby hunters?
• that the fair chase ethics of hobby hunters are diametrically at odds with the Animal Welfare Act and amount to nothing more than a mirage?
• that hunting is war, where animal competitors are simply eliminated?
• that there are countless illegal and unmarked hunting blinds in our natural environment, some so rotten that they pose a danger to children and could cost people their lives?
• that year after year, countless people are killed or injured by hunters' weapons — some so severely that they are left in wheelchairs or have limbs amputated?
• that in Switzerland, approximately 120,000 perfectly healthy roe deer, red deer, foxes, marmots, and chamois are killed every year, mostly without purpose?
• that because of hobby hunters, it has become nearly impossible to live in harmony with wildlife or to see wild animals at all?
• that shotgun blasts cause hares to shriek like small children, and tear apart the entrails of “shot” roe deer and red deer so that they leave a trail of blood for hunters to follow?
• that the claims made by hobby hunters that the cruel wildlife massacres are necessary to regulate animal populations have been scientifically refuted?
• that hobby hunters openly admit that hunting is about the “lust for killing” and “the joy of making a kill” — a pathological passion?
• that hobby hunters do not possess a sixth sense and yet regularly claim to shoot only sick and weak animals, which in practice is simply not true?
• that hobby hunters travel abroad for trophy hunting, far from any species protection and hunting regulations, and that there are even Swiss hobby hunter travel operators offering such depraved hunting pursuits?
• that the vast majority are not legitimate professional hunters, but pursue hunting as a hobby, sport, and recreational pastime, which is not ethical and in fact contradicts the Animal Protection 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 wildlife killers do not hunt on the basis of scientific justifications?
• that protected species do not actually belong under hunting law, because hobby hunters are ill-equipped to handle species conservation and repeatedly shoot animals listed on the Red List — such as lynx, wolf, brown hare, grey partridge, quail, and others — for sport?
• that hobby hunters deliberately decimate certain animal species in order to eliminate competition for their unnatural behaviour — targeting foxes, lynx, wolves, birds of prey, and others?
• that wildlife dies before the hobby hunter can even fire a single shot, that preventing this is the very point, and that this is indeed the central idea behind wildlife stewardship, habitat management, and hunting planning?
• that in wild boar populations (and among foxes), normally only the lead sow reproduces — but that as a result of her being shot, all female animals within the group begin to reproduce, which is also one of the reasons we are experiencing a wild boar population surge?
• that grazing animals — deer, roe deer, and others — originally lived primarily as diurnal animals in fields and meadows, like goats, sheep, and cattle, and not in forests?
• that the wolf is vitally important for the long-term health of wild ungulate populations, because it preys on sick or weak animals with extraordinary precision, for example, thereby proving far superior to hobby hunters?
• that foxes, after being pointlessly hunted, most often end up in the rubbish?
• that foxes are primarily hunted today so that there are more hares, etc. for hobby hunters to put in the frying pan? That the fox, however, feeds on hares in less than 10% of cases and would never catch a healthy hare?
• that in animal protection, one cannot counter hobby hunters with gentleness alone, street festivals, prayer chains, etc. (you need to fight fire with fire)?
• that hobby hunters use hunters' tall tales to engage in a disrespectful mockery of living beings?
• that it is frowned upon to shoot big game at feeding stations or during mating season, yet hobby hunters have no scruples about doing exactly this to their prey competitor, the fox?
• that in some cantons, hobby hunters go hunting solely for the tender meat of a young animal?
• that hobby hunters shoot pregnant mother animals in front of their young, or target 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 considered cultural heritage in a civilised society?
• that hobby hunters shoot approximately 10’000 roe deer fawns every year?
• that hobby hunters in harsh winters lure starving animals with food only to shoot them in a treacherous and cowardly manner?
• that hobby hunters send trained dogs into burrows to eliminate foxes and badgers (earth hunting)?
• that hobby hunters lure peaceful living beings into box traps, where they may suffer for days awaiting their killer, or subject animals to an agonising death struggle lasting hours (trap hunting)?
• that hobby hunters cowardly ambush and shoot or injure peaceful wild animals while they sleep or bask in the sun, using state-of-the-art precision weapons?
• that hobby hunters support awards, fur markets, trophy cult prize ceremonies, trophy exhibitions, the fur trade, and so on?
• that hobby hunters place firearms in the hands of underage schoolchildren and practice killing with them?
• that hobby hunters often carry out their cruel acts in isolation, which encourages animal cruelty?
• that hobby hunters frequently seriously injure wild animals, leaving the victims to suffer for hours in extreme pain and fear until a tracking dog finds them and they are shot?
• that hobby hunters (aside from vivisection) inflict the most suffering and abuse on animals, including through the manner in which they kill?
• that the hunters' love of animals and nature does not take joy in the existence of the beloved object, but rather aims to possess the beloved creature body and soul, culminating in turning it into prey through the act of killing?
• that hobby hunters actively promote browsing damage through hunting pressure, particularly on predators such as fox, lynx and wolf?
• that hobby hunters open the doorto antisocial, unethical andunchristian behaviour?
• that hobby hunters deprive the public of normal, natural wildlife observation and interaction?
• that there is no greater product of cruelty, contaminated with ammunition residue, than venison?
• that there is no uniform regulation across Switzerland regarding vision tests, shooting practice, etc. for hobby hunters?
• that there is no psychological aptitude test for hobby hunters?
• that there is noalcohol banfor hobby hunters when they are shooting at animals with their weapons?
• that hobby hunters infiltrate educationalinstitutionsin order to impose their hunters' tales and their culture of violence on children?
• that acourt in Bellinzonarecently confirmed that hunting associations 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 civilised person in our society should aspire to.
• that in the canton of Grisons alone, more than 1’1,000 complaints and fines are issued against hobby hunters every year?

Interest Group Wild beim Wild

The IG Wild beim Wild is a non-profit interest group dedicated to the sustainable and non-violent improvement of the human-animal relationship, with a specialisation in the legal aspects of wildlife protection. One of our main concerns is to introduce a contemporary and professional wildlife management system in the cultural landscape, modelled on the Canton of Geneva — without hobby hunters, but with upright game wardens who truly deserve the title and act in accordance with a code of honour. The monopoly on the use of force belongs in the hands of the state. The IG supports scientific methods ofimmunocontraceptionfor wildlife.