In France, 100 hunting accidents involving firearms were officially registered during the 2024/2025 season: 11 fatalities, 16 non-hunters injured (including three seriously injured), and 135 incidents of property damage, involving 58 houses, 27 vehicles, and 50 pets. In Italy, the University of Urbino reported 62 accidents and 14 fatalities for the same season, although these figures are based on media analyses and suggest a significant number of unreported cases. In Spain, at least 125 people died from hunting weapons between 2007 and 2022, and over 729 were injured. In Switzerland, a hunting accident occurs statistically every 29 hours; since 2000, over 75 people have been killed in the context of recreational hunting.
What these figures have in common is that they are not the result of systematic European monitoring, but rather fragments gleaned from national government reports, media analyses, NGO dossiers, and transparency requests. A central, publicly accessible register of hunting accidents in Europe does not exist. The hunting lobby has no interest in its creation. And most governments are not asking for one.
What recreational hunters portray as an "unavoidable residual risk" of a "responsible leisure activity" reveals itself upon closer inspection as a structural security problem: Tens of thousands of armed recreational hunters move through forests, fields, and mountainous regions every year, areas simultaneously used by walkers, hikers, mushroom pickers, farmers, residents, and pet owners. When people die in these situations, it is treated as an isolated incident. This report shows why it is not.
The AVC dossier from Italy , the OFB statistics from France, the transparency request data from Spain, the BFU analyses from Switzerland, and the PETA chronicle from German-speaking countries all prove that hunting victims are not an accident. They are the predictable result of an armed mass recreational activity without sufficient state control, without European coordination, and with a lobby that has successfully prevented the public from knowing the true extent of the problem for decades.
What awaits you here
- France: The only country with comprehensive state-run data collection – and what its figures reveal. How the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) systematically documents hunting accidents, why the figures for the 2024/2025 season are alarming, and what 135 property damage incidents per season say about the extent of the problem.
- Italy: The AVC dossier and an organization fighting the lobby. How the Associazione Vittime della Caccia (AVC) has been documenting hunting victims since 2007, what the 2025/2026 dossier reveals, and why the hunting lobby successfully recommended that the state revoke the organization's status as a recognized environmental protection organization.
- Spain: 125 dead in 15 years – and no nationwide register : How Spain obtained hunting accident data through a transparency request, what the Guardia Civil data shows, and why regions like Catalonia and the Basque Country don't even appear in the national statistics.
- Switzerland: 300 accidents per year – and a systematically undercounted number of unreported cases : What the BFU statistics and the UVG data say about hobby hunting, which groups of people are missing from the statistics and what 3.6 million francs in annual costs reveal about the true extent.
- Germany: No central statistics – PETA keeps the record : Why Germany still has no official overall record of hunting accidents, how PETA fills this gap and what the individual case reports have in common structurally.
- Bystanders as victims: walkers, pets, residents : Who outside of the hobby hunting community becomes a victim, what patterns the documentaries show and why public space is not a safe place as long as hobby hunting takes place there.
- The European dark figure: What the data do not show : Why all available figures are underestimates, what distortions arise from missing registers, different definitions and political pressure, and what an honest overview would mean.
- What would need to change : Concrete political demands: EU-wide accident register, national reporting obligation, public exclusion zones, liability reform.
- Argumentation : Answers to the most common justifications of hobby hunters and their associations.
- Quick links : All relevant articles, studies and dossiers at a glance.
France: The only country with full state census – and what its figures reveal
France is a special case in Europe: The French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) has been systematically recording hunting accidents for years and publishing annual reports – a practice that does not exist in most European countries. This transparency comes at a price: It makes visible what remains hidden in other countries.
For the 2024/2025 season, the OFB (Office for Hunting and Wildlife Management) reported 100 accidents involving firearms, resulting in 11 deaths – all recreational hunters – and 16 injuries to non-hunters, three of whom were seriously injured. In addition, there were 135 incidents of property damage, in which 58 houses, 27 vehicles, and 50 pets were shot at. This is not an isolated case of a bad season: In the 2024/2025 season, fatal accidents rose from 6 to 11 – almost double the number in the two previous years. The animal welfare organization ASPAS speaks of a "significant increase" and cautions that the long-term trend of decreasing accident figures does not justify the annual spikes.
What makes the OFB figures particularly revealing is that they show not only hunting accidents involving personal injury, but also the houses, vehicles, and pets shot at – a category that simply doesn't exist in other national statistics. When 58 homes and 27 vehicles are shot at in France alone in a single season, this is not a marginal phenomenon, but rather a measure of how much broader the potential danger of recreational hunting in public spaces is than accident statistics involving personal injury suggest.
More on this topic: A man dies in Harchies and Europe looks away ; Hunting in Switzerland: Fact check, hunting methods, criticism
Italy: The AVC dossier and an organization fighting the lobby
In Italy, there is no comprehensive official registry of hunting accidents. Instead, the Associazione Vittime della Caccia (AVC) systematically analyzes media reports, documents individual cases, and publishes an annual dossier since 2007. In parallel, the University of Urbino analyzes press releases nationwide. Both sources present the same picture for the 2024/2025 season: 62 accidents, 14 fatalities.
The AVC dossier for 2025/2026 goes even further. It documents 33 deaths of recreational hunters caused by their own actions – and 13 deaths of people who had absolutely no connection to hunting: hikers, neighbors, family members, and bystanders. The regions of Sardinia, Piedmont, and Tuscany top this grim statistic. The dossier states that the ratio between hunter victims and non-hunter victims is "not a marginal phenomenon, but a structural warning sign." Furthermore, it notes that fewer hunters, but a persistently high number of victims – the purported improvement in safety is not materializing in reality.
How is the hunting lobby reacting to this documentation? In 2023, the Italian Hunting Federation (Federazione Italiana della Caccia) welcomed the Italian Ministry of the Environment's decision to revoke the AVC's status as a recognized environmental protection organization. The official justification: The figures published by the AVC were "undoubtedly biased" and likely to trigger "social alarm." In other words, the hunting lobby successfully ensured that Italy's most important documentation of victims was discredited by the state. This is not an answer to a safety problem. This is a cover-up.
More on this topic: Hunting victims in Italy: The AVC dossier 2025/2026 and Hunting and animal welfare: What the practice does to wild animals
Spain: 125 deaths in 15 years – and no national register
There is no nationwide register of hunting accidents in Spain. The available data is the result of a transparency request from the investigative platform Maldita.es to the Guardia Civil: For the period from August 2007 to December 2020 – almost 14 years – the analysis revealed 63 deaths and 483 injuries, 215 of them serious. And this excludes data from Catalonia and the Basque Country, which have their own police forces and are not fully included in the Guardia Civil's national statistics.
A parliamentary inquiry in 2022 revealed updated figures: Between 2007 and March 2022, at least 125 people died and 729 were injured by hunting weapons in Spain. For 2025 alone, a media analysis documented 9 deaths and 27 injuries in at least 9 autonomous communities. The fatal hunting accident in Catalonia in November 2025 – a recreational hunter killed another during a group hunt on a private reserve – exemplifies a pattern: The province of Toledo tops the Spanish list of accidents, followed by areas in Castile-La Mancha, a region where hunting is deeply ingrained in everyday culture and consequently rarely questioned.
What the Spanish data clearly demonstrates is the geographical inequality in data availability: where police powers are decentralized, hunting accidents disappear from national statistics. This is not a technical problem, but a political one: if hunting accidents do not have to be recorded centrally, there is no political pressure to reduce them.
More on this: Fatal hunting accident in Spain: A shot that should shake Europe and A man dies in Harchies and Europe looks away
Switzerland: 300 accidents per year – and a systematically undercounted number of unreported cases
In Switzerland, data from the BFU (Swiss Council for Accident Prevention) and SUVA (Swiss National Accident Insurance Fund) at least partially corrects the picture. Between 2000 and 2019, over 75 people were killed in hunting accidents. Statistically, a hunting accident occurs every 29 hours; roughly every three and a half months, someone loses their life. For the years 2016 to 2020, the accident insurance data confirms: approximately 300 recognized accidents annually, about 1 fatality, 2 new disability pensions, and total annual costs of around 3.6 million Swiss francs.
However, these figures must be interpreted with a crucial caveat: the accident insurance statistics only include employed individuals with mandatory accident insurance. Pensioners, the self-employed, children, homemakers, and students are completely absent. Yet, retired recreational hunters represent a significant and growing proportion of those who are out in the field with their firearms in the autumn. What they experience, suffer, or cause does not appear in any official Swiss hunting accident statistics. There is no mandatory reporting requirement for hunting injuries and fatalities – regardless of insurance status – at either the federal or cantonal level. In Switzerland, therefore, the statistics on fatal hunting accidents reliably only reflect what the insurance system records and systematically ignore what happens outside of it.
The canton of Graubünden is particularly prone to hunting accidents, followed by accidents abroad and the cantons of Ticino, Aargau, Valais, St. Gallen, and Bern. All individuals who have died in hunting accidents since 2000 and whose cases are recorded by the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (BFU) were residents of Switzerland – hunting tourism from abroad is not included in these statistics. The true extent of the danger is therefore significantly higher than what the official figures suggest.
More on this topic: Switzerland: Statistics on fatal hunting accidents and initiative calls for "game wardens instead of hunters"
Germany: No central statistics – PETA keeps the record
To this day, Germany lacks official, nationwide statistics on hunting accidents. What does exist at the federal level are fragmentary data from health reports on firearm fatalities, which do not differentiate by context and do not allow for conclusions specifically regarding hunting accidents. The animal rights organization PETA is filling this gap with a chronicle of hunting accidents and violent acts involving hunting weapons in German-speaking countries – a continuously updated collection of individual cases that reveals what government agencies fail to systematically record
The chronicle documents a wide spectrum: pets shot dead, hikers wounded, hunting accidents involving hunters, mistaken identity of humans for wild animals, and cases of hunting dogs being shot. It also shows that hunting weapons are used in the context of disputes and mass shootings – an aspect that does not appear systematically in any hunting statistics analysis. A fact check by Correctiv regarding the claim that around 130 people have died as a result of hunters in Germany since 2015 could not verify this figure – not because it is false, but simply because the available data is insufficient to either prove or disprove it. That in itself is a finding.
The German example exemplifies a European pattern: where there is no reporting requirement, no data is generated. Where no data is generated, there is no political pressure. And where there is no political pressure, nothing changes. In Germany, as in other countries, the hunting lobby has successfully prevented hunting accidents from being recorded using the same systematic approach as, for example, traffic or workplace accidents. The result is a structural information deficit that primarily harms the victims.
More information: Hunting and animal cruelty and the category page Crime and Hunting
Bystanders as victims: passersby, pets, residents
Hunting accidents are often portrayed in the public eye as accidents within the hunting community: a recreational hunter accidentally hits another, a shot goes in the wrong direction, a fall occurs on steep terrain. This is wrong – not only as a description, but also as a political framework. A growing proportion of the victims have nothing to do with recreational hunting.
In France, during the 2024/2025 hunting season, 16 non-hunters were officially injured by gunfire, three of them seriously. Property damage figures for the same year show 58 homes and 27 vehicles shot at – the actual living spaces of people who were at home or on the street on Sunday afternoons and were unaware that a recreational hunter was shooting nearby. According to the AVC dossier, at least 13 people died in Italy during the 2025/2026 hunting season who had no connection whatsoever to hunting. In Spain, a media analysis indicates that the pattern is not geographically random but closely linked to the hunting intensity in the respective region.
In Switzerland and other German-speaking countries, PETA's chronicle repeatedly documents cases in which pets were shot, hikers were wounded, or people were endangered near hunting areas. During hunting season, public spaces—forests, fields, mountain meadows—are no longer neutral. They temporarily become armed exclusion zones, without systematic warning or protection for those using them. This is not a side effect of recreational hunting; it is a defining characteristic.
More on this: A man dies in Harchies and Europe looks away and dossier on hunting and animal welfare
The European dark figure: What the data doesn't show
All available figures on hunting fatalities in Europe are underestimates. This is not an assertion, but a methodological fact resulting from several factors. First, only France systematically and comprehensively records hunting accidents through a government agency. All other countries rely on media analyses, insurance data, transparency requests, or NGO documentation—sources that are structurally incomplete.
Secondly, the definitions vary. What counts as a "hunting accident" in France may be classified as a "firearms accident," "hunting activity," "leisure accident," or not recorded at all in Spain, Germany, or Switzerland. Falls and tumbles during the hunting season caused by time pressure, darkness, or terrain often do not appear as "hunting accidents" in Swiss accident insurance statistics, even though they are causally related. Thirdly, pensioners, children, the self-employed, and other groups not covered by mandatory insurance are almost entirely absent from national statistics. The over-60s are disproportionately large, particularly in recreational hunting.
What a complete European register would reveal can be gleaned from the available fragments: hundreds of deaths per decade, thousands of injuries, tens of thousands of incidents of property damage, a growing proportion of innocent bystanders as victims – and a lobby that successfully prevents these figures from being compiled and presented to the public in their entirety. The demand for an EU-wide register is therefore not bureaucratic, but democratic: those who do not measure risks cannot be held accountable for them.
Read more: Switzerland: Statistics on fatal hunting accidents and hunting myths: 12 claims you should critically examine
What would need to change
First: an EU-wide, standardized register for hunting accidents. The European Commission maintains detailed accident statistics for road traffic, the workplace, and consumer goods. No equivalent exists for hunting accidents. A mandatory, standardized reporting system at EU level – with uniform definitions, categorization schemes, and a public reporting obligation – is the fundamental prerequisite for making the structural extent of the problem visible.
Secondly: A national reporting requirement for all hunting accidents involving personal injury. In Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Italy, and other European countries, hunting accidents resulting in personal injury must be reported immediately and completely to a central authority – regardless of the insurance status of the persons involved. This reporting requirement must also apply to accidents outside the hunting season and to accidents involving hunting weapons in a recreational context.
Thirdly: Public signage of restricted areas during the hunting season. When driven hunts, battues, and high hunts take place, affected areas must be clearly and publicly marked for the duration of the hunt. The right to free use of public space does not end where a group of recreational hunters with weapons enters. Hiking trails, recreational areas, and public forests are not hunting reserves.
Fourth: Liability reform. Anyone who, as a recreational hunter or hunting organizer, injures or kills people through negligent conduct must be held fully liable under civil law – including for psychological damage, consequential costs, and damage to pets. Current legislation in many countries privileges recreational hunting over other armed leisure activities.
Fifth: Mandatory insurance and safety certifications. The acquisition of a hunting license must be linked throughout Europe to current safety certification – regular refresher courses, shooting tests, and psychological aptitude assessments. Anyone carrying a deadly weapon in public must prove their competence, and not just once during their initial hunting course.
Sixth: A ban on driven hunts and group hunts on Sundays and public holidays. In France and Italy, calls for a hunting ban on Sundays and public holidays have already been debated in parliament. The reason is simple: On these days, many people use public spaces for recreation – and the risk of encountering a recreational hunt is therefore greatest. A Sunday in the woods should not be a safety risk.
Argumentation
“Hunting accidents are rare – the statistics show a positive trend.” This supposedly positive trend is based on structurally incomplete data. Pensioners, the self-employed, and other groups not covered by mandatory insurance are missing from almost all national statistics. In France, the only country with truly comprehensive data collection, fatal accidents nearly doubled in the 2024/2025 season compared to the two previous years. Anyone who speaks of a positive trend is describing a segment of reality, not reality itself.
“Most victims are hunters themselves – it’s a risk they voluntarily take.” Firstly, this isn’t true for a growing proportion of victims: According to the AVC dossier, at least 13 people died in Italy in 2025/2026 who had no connection whatsoever with hunting. In France, 16 non-hunters were injured by gunfire. Secondly, even if hunters do take risks among themselves, they do so in public spaces – spaces that others also use without being asked.
"Modern training and safety regulations have drastically reduced the number of accidents." If that's true, why is there no complete, publicly accessible accident statistics in any European country other than France? The claim of declining numbers cannot be verified where no data is collected. And where data is available—for example, in France for 2024/2025—it contradicts the claim.
“Hunting accidents are not comparable to traffic accidents – they are too rare to be politically relevant.” In France, during the 2024/2025 season, 58 homes, 27 vehicles, and 50 pets were officially reported to have been shot at. These are incidents of property damage in populated areas – regardless of whether people were injured. If the same number of homes were shot at during another armed recreational activity, the issue would immediately become politically relevant. The difference lies not in the scale, but in the social acceptance.
“We ourselves are interested in safety – the hunting lobby is working intensively on this.” The Italian Hunting Federation (Federazione Italiana della Caccia) successfully petitioned the Italian Ministry of the Environment to revoke the protected status of the AVC – the country’s most important victim documentation. This isn’t about security. This is about suppressing information.
"Hunting is well regulated in Switzerland." However, Swiss accident insurance statistics systematically exclude large segments of the population – including retired recreational hunters – from accident reporting. There is no legal obligation to report hunting injuries and fatalities outside the insurance system. The actual number of hunting accidents and deaths is therefore significantly higher than the official figures – in a country that prides itself on animal welfare.
Quick links
Posts on Wild beim Wild:
Switzerland: Statistics on fatal hunting accidents;
Hunting victims in Italy: The AVC dossier 2025/2026;
A man dies in Harchies and Europe looks away;
Fatal hunting accident in Spain: A shot that should shake Europe;
Initiative demands "game wardens instead of hunters";
Switzerland hunts, but why anymore?;
Hunting and animal cruelty
; Hobby hunters and their enjoyment of animal cruelty
Related dossiers:
Hunting in Switzerland: Fact check, hunting methods, criticism.
Hunting myths: 12 claims you should critically examine.
Psychology of hunting.
Hunting and animal welfare: What the practice does to wild animals.
Hunting dogs: Use, suffering and animal welfare.
Wild animals, fear of death and lack of stunning.
Driven hunts in Switzerland.
Photos of hunters: Double standards, dignity and the blind spot of recreational hunting.
High-altitude hunting in Switzerland.
Alternatives to hunting: What really helps without killing animals.
External sources:
French Office of Biodiversity (OFB): Hunting Accident Statistics 2024-2025
ASPAS: Analysis of Hunting Accidents 2024/2025
Hunting Victims Association (AVC) / I-Care Italia
Maldita.es: Hunting Accidents in Spain 2007–2020 (Spain, Guardia Civil data)
Servimedia: 125 deaths and 729 injuries in Spain due to hunting 2007–2022
PETA: Chronicle of hunting accidents in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Correctiv: Fact check on 130 deaths caused by hunters in Germany
University of Urbino: Media analysis of hunting accidents in Italy
Study: Firearm-related Hunting Accidents in Croatia 2000–2009 (SEEFOR, 2025)
BFU/SUVA: Hunting accidents in Switzerland (PDF) Hunting Switzerland)
Our claim
Hunting casualties in Europe are not an unavoidable residual risk of a harmless leisure activity. They are the predictable result of mass armed activity without sufficient state control, without European coordination, and with a lobby that has for decades prevented the public from understanding the true scale of the problem. France demonstrates what is possible when a state fully records and publicly reports accidents. What France's figures reveal is alarming. Therefore, what a complete European record would reveal is foreseeable.
The first and most urgent consequence is political: an EU-wide, standardized register for hunting accidents, combined with national reporting obligations, public signage indicating restricted areas, and a liability reform that effectively protects innocent victims. The second consequence is societal: recreational hunting is an armed leisure activity in public spaces. It is not a privileged special area that evades state control simply because of tradition. Where people die and homes are shot at, transparency is not an option, but a minimum democratic requirement. This dossier will be continuously updated as new figures, court rulings, or political developments necessitate it.
More on the topic of hobby hunting: In our dossier on hunting, we compile fact checks, analyses and background reports.