Dominik Thiel: Wolf Hunting at Taxpayer Expense

In February 2024, Office Director Dominik Thiel traveled to Russia together with a game warden: five paid workdays, approved by Cantonal Councillor Beat Tinner.

The official justification: they wanted to study the lapp hunt, the drive-hunting method in which wolves are encircled using strips of hanging cloth and then shot. Since the wolf is protected in Western Europe, one supposedly had to travel to Russia for such “insights.”

The result of the “study”: four wolves killed in three days. Pro Natura, the Greens St. Gallen, Gruppe Wolf Schweiz, and IG Wild beim Wild were unanimous: this is not professional development, this is trophy hunting. And indeed, wolf hunting in Russia is internationally classified as trophy hunting, as confirmed by CITES import data for Switzerland, which recorded wolf trophies from Russia and Bulgaria in 2024 under purpose code “H” (Hunting trophy).

Squirrels, Wyoming, and Two Years of Stonewalling

What only came to light two years later through the SRF report is even more telling: as a “warm-up” in Russia, Thiel shot a gray squirrel out of a tree with a small-caliber rifle for amusement and had himself photographed grinning proudly. As wildbeimwild.com noted, this has “nothing to do with hunting, respect, science, ethics, or animal welfare.”

The six-day driven hunt in the Republic of Udmurtia cost around 1’750 francs per person, plus 1’100 francs per wolf killed, trophy preparation included.

Three months after the Russia trip, Thiel was planning another “training course,” this time to Wyoming, USA. Tinner struck the working days. Thiel booked them as vacation and went anyway. And the Canton of St. Gallen? It denied SRF access to the files for over two years, until a court ruling forced their release. Those with nothing to hide don't wage multi-stage legal battles against journalists.

An Office with a Track Record

The Russia affair is not a slip-up — it is another entry in a long dossier. Wildbeimwild.com has been documenting the questionable conduct of the office under Thiel for years:

• Unlawful wolf killings: A shooting permit for a wolf in the Canton of St. Gallen was classified as unlawful
• Wolf management without science: According to experts, the office does not operate on an evidence-based approach
• Deliberate de-individualization of wolves: Thiel rejects names for wolves — “that would stir up emotions” — and insists on sober numbers like M75
• Hunting education as legitimization for hobby hunters: The office is modernizing hunter education, under the leadership of a man who hunts wolves in Russia
• Silence on poaching: When asked about poaching in the canton, Thiel responded evasively

Conflict of interest as an institutional principle

Thiel is not only the head of the office — he is a hobby hunter. Anyone who simultaneously leads the hunting authority and actively shoots wolves cannot be a neutral administrator of public wildlife protection. The psychology behind it is simple: those who view animals as prey manage them as a resource, not as lives worth protecting.

Tinner defended the trip instead of sanctioning it. Four dead wolves as a quality feature of an official trip — that says everything about this authority's attitude toward Swiss wildlife protection.

Taxpayers fund hunting culture

Thiel did pay the travel costs himself, but the five working days came at the taxpayers' expense. Five paid official days for a trophy hunt in a country that, at the time of the trip, was illegally attacking Ukraine under international law and was subject to Western sanctions. That is not only an ethical problem, but a foreign policy one as well.

Although the cantonal council Tinner later described the trip as "no longer worthy of approval," there were no consequences. Thiel remains in office, still responsible for wolf policy in the canton of St. Gallen.

What this has to do with Switzerland

The CITES data shows: trophy hunting is not a fringe phenomenon. In 2024, Switzerland imported trophies from elephants, giraffes, mountain zebras, cheetahs, and wolves — all with proof of wild-take, all declared as hunting trophies. As long as authorities are led by active trophy hunters, structural independence is an illusion.

An office for nature, hunting, and fisheries led by a man who hunts wolves in Russia and shoots squirrels for fun is not a nature conservation office. It is a hunting authority with a nature conservation label.

Sources:

• SRF original report
• CITES Trade Database

More on this topic: wildbeimwild.com/dominik-thiel

Dossier on hunting administration in St. Gallen:

• Dominik Thiel: Wolf hunter at taxpayer expense — an office director as a security risk for wildlife protection
• The psychology of hunting in the canton of St. Gallen
• Hunting season until New Year's Eve: culling pressure instead of wildlife management
• License hunting as a solution to red deer conflicts?
• Hunting administration St. Gallen: wolf management without science and without credibility
• The authorization to shoot a wolf in the canton of St. Gallen was unlawful
• Public manipulation in the canton of St. Gallen
• Office for hunting and nonsense in St. Gallen modernizes hunting education
• St. Gallen wants to regulate wolf pack at Gamserrugg
• Controversy surrounding Switzerlandand the official at the wolf hunt in Russia
• “Experts” in St. Gallen end wolf regulation for this winter
• The rotten apple in the St. Gallen hunting administration
• Lying hunter became department head in the canton of St. Gallen
• St. Gallen: Stop the fox and badger massacre
• Are FOEN and the hunting administrations still operating responsibly?
• How hobby hunter Simon Meier leads people down the wrong trail