The Hunting License

The hunting license is known in Switzerland as a hunting patent, in Austria as a hunting card, in Germany and elsewhere as a hunting license. Officially, it authorizes the practice of recreational hunting. Colloquially, it has long been used in German as a metaphor for something entirely different: for mental incapacity. Someone who 'has the hunting license' is colloquially considered ready for psychiatric commitment. This double meaning is no coincidence. It reveals something about the relationship that society and language have developed toward hunting practice – and it stands at the center of a current, scientifically documented debate about hunting motivation, self-presentation and social perception.

What awaits you here

The idiom and its origin. Why 'having the hunting license' has long meant mental incapacity in German, what this reveals about society's image of recreational hunting and why even hunting presidents describe recreational hunting as a 'disease'.
What science says about hunting motivation. Which motives drive recreational hunting, why control, status and thrill-seeking play a relevant role alongside nature and tradition, and why hobby hunters show no greater connection to nature than non-hunters.
Trophy photos and society. What a representative study with over 1’000 respondents from Generation Z shows: 96 to 98 percent negative reactions to trophy photos, and why the German Hunting Association presented these results itself.
When language reveals attitude. Why the linguistic history around the hunting license consistently links exceptional status, norm violation and loss of control with recreational hunting and what this means sociopolitically.
What this means for the debate. Which four fields together provide a clear picture: institutionally promoted motives, socially rejected self-presentation, critical everyday language and research findings on hunting motivation.
What would need to change. Concrete political demands for transparency, regulation and social re-evaluation.
Arguments. Responses to the most common justifications of recreational hunting regarding the psychology and motivation debate.
Quick links. All relevant articles, studies and dossiers at a glance.

The saying and its origin

The saying 'having a hunting license' means according to Wikipedia: An incompetent person possesses, analogous to the hunter, an imaginary 'carte blanche' that allows them to do things with impunity that are forbidden to others. The hunter is allowed to kill within their territory what is forbidden to others. Those who 'have a hunting license' act outside social norms – and believe they can get away with it unpunished.

The saying is 'very unpleasant', as users note in forums – it has the aftertaste of stigmatizing mental illness. At the same time, it reveals what image of hunting has stuck in everyday language: not 'nature conservation' or 'wildlife management', but exceptional status, impulsivity and norm suspension. This is culturally revealing – not as a judgment about individual hunters, but as a mirror of societal perception.

Tarzisius Caviezel, long-serving hunting president in the canton of Graubünden, has himself taken up this perception with humor and described hunting as a 'disease' from which he could not be cured. His favorite quote: 'There is never as much lying as before elections, during war and after hunting.' The quote is attributed to Otto von Bismarck. That a hunting president cultivates it is not self-criticism – but it says something about the inner life of a hunting culture that sees itself as an exceptional world.

More on this: Psychology of hobby hunters: Motives between tradition, power and yearning for nature and Hobby hunters on the psychological seesaw

What science says about hunting motivation

Why do people hunt in a society where hunting is no longer a survival strategy? The dissertation by Günter Kühnle (University of Trier, 2004) describes hunting motivation as a culture-specific elementary drive that generates hunting motivation through mind-brain interaction. Because this 'hunting spirit' sits in the subconscious, hunters have limited ability to provide information about what drives them to pursue game. This is a thesis, not a diagnosis – but it explains why self-reports from hobby hunters about motives ('nature', 'tradition', 'regulation') do not necessarily reflect the complete psychological picture.

Studies on hunting motivation consistently show: motives such as control, status, thrill-seeking and social identity play a relevant role, alongside nature and tradition references. Further research suggests that hobby hunters do not show higher nature connectedness than non-hunters and are rather more critical towards animal and environmental protection issues. This refutes the self-image of the hunting lobby – and it is demonstrable without pathologizing individual hunters. It concerns structural patterns, not individual diagnoses.

More on this: Why we need to talk differently about the psychology of recreational hunting and Aggression: Better understanding hobby hunters

Trophy photos and society: What research shows

The social tension field of hunting psychology becomes nowhere more visible than in trophy photos: pictures in which hobby hunters pose next to killed animals, frequently with weapons, in dominant body posture.

A representative master's thesis by Christine Fischer (MBA Digital Business, FH Burgenland, 2024) scientifically investigated this question for the first time: 1050 respondents from Generation Z – raised with social media – were confronted with such images. The results are unambiguous:

Between 96.1 and 98.5 percent of all image evaluations were negative
Only 1.5 to 3.9 percent of reactions were positive
Terms like «contempt», «trophy-obsessed» and «empathyless» increased sharply after viewing the images

The author summarizes: «Kill photos on social media carry considerable conflict potential and can negatively influence the public image of hunting.» This finding is particularly relevant because it does not come from an animal welfare organization, but from hunting-adjacent communication research. It was presented in April 2025 by the German Hunting Association in an online lecture series.

What kill photos trigger socially is thus no longer a matter of opinion, but empirically proven. Dominance poses over killed animals, weapon in hand, trophy in the foreground: This is the visual language that defines hunting in public perception – and that every Generation Z user sees on TikTok and Instagram.

More on this: Kill Photos: Double Standards, Dignity and the Blind Spot of Recreational Hunting and Regulating Kill Photos: Protecting Animal Dignity Beyond Death (Model Motion)

When Language Shows Attitude: The «Small Hunting License»

In criminal slang, «the small hunting license» refers to someone who does without official authorization what others may only do with a license. Colloquially, this is a self-empowerment beyond social rules. The image captures something structural about recreational hunting: It is one of the few legal recreational activities where the killing of living beings is institutionally normalized and access is regulated not through necessity, but through license acquisition.

When language is so consistently associated with norm transgression – free rein, exceptional status, unpunished norm violation –, this is a finding that is politically interesting. Not as pathologization, but as a question: What social function does hunting assume when it is described even by its representatives as a «disease» and «field of lies»?

More on this: Hunting Myths: 12 Claims You Should Critically Examine and Media and Hunting Topics

What This Means for the Debate

The debate about hunting psychology is most effectively conducted not through individual pathologies, but through systemic questions:

Which motives are institutionally promoted? Hunting rights, trophy cultivation, shooting statistics as social currency mechanisms.
What images does the hunting lobby communicate? Kill photos as self-presentation tools on social media, which empirically demonstrably generate rejection.
What language has society developed? One that links hunting with exceptional status, loss of control and norm violation.
What does research say about motivation? That connection to nature is not a statistically dominant hunting motive.

These four fields together create a clear picture: not of an individual psychological defect, but of a cultural framework that favors certain motives, normalizes certain self-presentations and is increasingly critically evaluated by society.

More on this: Trophy Hunting: When Killing Becomes a Status Symbol and Hunters: Role, Power, Training and Criticism

What Would Need to Change

First: Regulation of kill photos in public media. 96 to 98 percent of Generation Z react negatively to kill photos. Dominance poses over killed animals on social media normalize recreational violence against animals and violate animal dignity. Cantons should regulate the public display of kill photos in digital media from an animal dignity perspective. A model motion is present.

Second: Ethics and reflection competency as mandatory components of the hunting examination. Swiss hunting education tests weapon handling and species knowledge, but no ethical reflection ability, no engagement with hunting motivation and no understanding of societal criticism. Cantons should introduce a binding training module on animal ethics, hunting motivation and social responsibility, which is examined by a hunting-independent body.

Third: Periodic psychological aptitude testing for hunting license holders. Hunting authorization is granted for life in Switzerland. There is no periodic review of psychological suitability, visual ability or shooting competency. Cantons should introduce mandatory aptitude testing every five years, analogous to other areas involving weapons in public spaces.

Fourth: Independent research on hunting motivation in Switzerland. Available research on hunting psychology originates predominantly from Germany, Austria and Scandinavia. Switzerland needs its own independent studies on hunting motivation, social perception and psychological patterns of recreational hunters, financed from public funds and not from the hunting milieu.

Fifth: Transparency about hunting motivation in public discourse. The hunting lobby communicates 'nature conservation', 'game management' and 'tradition' as primary hunting motives. Research shows that control, status and thrill-seeking are also relevant motives. Media and public bodies should consider these research findings in reporting on recreational hunting, instead of uncritically adopting the lobby's self-presentation.

More on this: Template texts for hunting-critical initiatives in cantonal parliaments and Hunters: Role, Power, Training and Criticism

Arguments

'The dossier pathologizes hobby hunters and portrays them as mentally ill.' This dossier does not portray anyone as mentally ill. It analyzes structural motives, social perception and research findings. The phrase 'den Jagdschein haben' does not originate from animal protection, but from German everyday language. That a hunting president himself describes recreational hunting as a 'disease' is a self-statement, not an external attribution. Those who confuse structural analysis with pathologization are evading the debate.

'Hunting is connection to nature and tradition. Period.' Research consistently shows that hobby hunters exhibit no higher connection to nature than non-hunters and tend to be more critical of animal and environmental protection issues. Control, status and thrill-seeking play a demonstrable role alongside nature and tradition. This is not an attack on individual hobby hunters. It is a finding that puts the hunting lobby's self-image into perspective.

'The trophy photos study is not representative or comes from an anti-hunting source.' The study by Christine Fischer (2024) is an MBA thesis from FH Burgenland with 1,050 Generation Z respondents, methodologically designed as representative. It originates from the hunting-related communication sector and was presented by the German Hunting Association in April 2025. The results are clear: 96 to 98 percent negative reactions to trophy photos. The source is the hunting lobby itself.

'Language proves nothing. Phrases are outdated.' Language stores societal experiences over decades. That 'den Jagdschein haben' is so consistently associated with exceptional status, norm violation and loss of control is a cultural finding that aligns with empirical research on the social perception of recreational hunting. Phrases only become outdated when the reality they describe changes.

'Hobby hunters hunt because they love animals and want to preserve nature.' Those who love an animal do not kill it for recreational purposes. Love that ends in killing is not love, but a reinterpretation. Nature conservation demonstrably works without recreational hunting: The Canton of Geneva has shown since 1974 that professional wildlife management without recreational hunting performs ecologically better than licensed hunting.

«This debate harms public understanding of wildlife management.» The opposite is true. Public understanding that distinguishes between professional wildlife management and recreational hunting is the prerequisite for an objective debate. Those who fear this distinction benefit from the confusion between the two.

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Our standards

The hunting license as a figure of speech is no coincidence. Language is sluggish – it stores societal experiences for decades before changing. That 'having a hunting license' is so consistently associated with exceptional status, breaking norms and loss of control in German is a collective finding. It doesn't say that all hobby hunters are of unsound mind. It says what image has stuck in societal perception.

The hunter photos study by Christine Fischer (2024) confirms this empirically for the emerging generation: 96 to 98 percent negative reactions, strong increase in terms like 'contempt' and 'lacking empathy' – and this in a study that comes from the hunting-adjacent communication sector, not from animal welfare. The hunting lobby therefore knows what it creates. It had it scientifically measured. And it presented the results to the German Hunting Association in 2025.

What remains: The self-presentation of recreational hunting – hunter photos, trophy poses, dominance gestures over killed animals – generates societal rejection. The language about hunting reflects unsound judgment and special privilege. Research on hunting motivation shows that connection to nature is statistically not the dominant motive. These three findings together are not a pathologization of individual persons – they are a sober assessment of what recreational hunting means in public perception.

A society that takes this mirror seriously draws a consequence: Not outrage, but restructuring.

More on recreational hunting: In our hunting dossier we compile fact-checks, analyses and background reports.