The Ticino Wolf-Baiter in Parliament

The Ticino wolf-baiter in parliament spreads fear and hatred against the wolf. The hunting lobby instrumentalises politics for its own interests.

Editorial Wild beim Wild — 21 September 2022

The Ticino hunting association president and board member of JagdSchweiz repeatedly attracts negative attention with unqualified, unscientific and hypocritical claims.

The same recreational hunter who wanted to make the animal-cruel barbed hooks in fishing socially acceptable again. Fabio Regazzi (CVP) also fought against the Locarnese National Park and caused significant damage not only to the Ticino population. In addition to boosting the region's tourism image, the National Park directorate estimated that over the next 10 years, 250 to 300 million francs could have been generated through the creation of around 200 direct and indirect jobs. The recreational hunters preferred to continue waging a futile war against wildlife, to the detriment of the common good, even though wildlife wardens had been designated for wildlife management.

Wolves in Sweden and Switzerland

With confused statements about the situation of wolves in Switzerland and Sweden, Fabio Regazzi is currently attempting not only to pull the wool over the Federal Council's eyes, but is also politicising the issue within the right-wing camp in the National Council.

Jagdpräsident hetzt beim Bundesrat gegen den Wolf

In August 2022, ticinolibero.ch gave the wolf-baiter Fabio Regazzi a column for one of his polemical commentaries:

Nevertheless, the Swedish government intends to reduce the currently estimated wolf population from 460 to a maximum of 270 and a minimum of 170. If we were to apply these parameters analogously to our country, wolf populations would need to be between 17 and 27 — a figure that would already pose problems, but would at least be manageable. And what does Switzerland do? Here, the authorities continue to bury their heads in the sand and beat around the bush… If we want to save what remains of mountain agriculture (but also reduce the risk of attacks on the population, which are now becoming increasingly real!), the Federal Council, and in particular the department of Simonetta Sommaruga, must quickly adopt a strategy aimed at bringing the number of wolves present on our territory back within tolerable limits, as the Swedish government has done.
Fabio Regazzi, Member of the National Council

However, the Federal Council does not consider the situation serious enough to justify the application of emergency law (IG Wild beim Wild reported). In order to accelerate the culling of wolves, the Federal Council amended the hunting ordinance last year and is planning further reductions for the 2023 alpine season. In addition, parliament is preparing a new draft amendment to the hunting ordinance aimed at proactive wolf management. This draft will be debated in the Council of States on 29 September 2022.

Currently, 20 wolf packs with a total of around 150 wolves live in Switzerland. By the end of 2025, the population could increase to 50 packs. Around 350 wolves could then be living in Switzerland.

The official number of wolves in Sweden is currently given as 395, when the authorities decided to kill 27 to 33 wolves in 2022. In 2019 and 2020, hunting was suspended because the population had fallen below 300 wolves.

In 2016, the Supreme Administrative Court in Sweden ruled that 300 wolves must be the minimum for the conservation of the species.

What is both disturbing and alarming is the inbreeding and degeneration of Swedish wolves. The inbreeding coefficient is very high at 0.23, almost comparable to that of a sibling mating. Many male wolves have only one testicle (cryptorchidism), and autopsies of culled wolves reveal grim evidence of the cruelty of recreational hunters — many have old wounds and lead ammunition in their bodies.

Sweden is being monitored by the EU Commission, which most recently called on the country in 2015 to comply with EU law on wolf protection. NGOs are working to bring the Swedish licence hunting before the European Court of Justice.Acceptance of wolves could not be increased through legal hunting. At the same time, illegal hunting is one of the greatest threats to wolves in Sweden, a fact that Fabio Regazzi also completely conceals.

The fact is: 300 individuals as a target figure is already extremely low for a healthy population to ensure long-term viability. The decision to also legally hunt a population threatened by inbreeding and illegal hunting is incomprehensible. Furthermore, migrating wolves are also shot during hunting, which reduces the chances of greater genetic diversity emerging. In addition, Sweden issues targeted special permits each year for the shooting of wolves, so-called protective hunting. This is intended to prevent damage to reindeer and hunting dogs. Less frequently, the concern involves livestock.

Healthy population

The demand of the Centre Party member of the National Council meets with resistance from politicians. “In Switzerland we do not yet have an overpopulation of wolves”, says Kurt Egger, National Council member of the Greens. In Italy and Slovenia, for example, wolf populations are still much larger.

According to Egger, it would be wrong to deliberately reduce the population. “For genetic diversity, a certain population size is needed, otherwise inbreeding occurs among wolves.” The wolf poses no danger to people. “In Italy and Slovenia, people are not being attacked either.»

The Green National Council member does, however, support culling when it involves wolves from problematic packs. “One example of this is the Beverin pack, which is distinguished by its ability to overcome herd protection and prey on livestock.”

Is violence not all the same?

The campaign by Kinderschutz Schweiz therefore speaks to my heart: «Strong ideas – there is always an alternative to violence.»
Fabio Regazzi, CVP National Council member, member of the political commission of Kinderschutz Schweiz

For the IG Wild beim Wild, the childless recreational hunter Fabio Regazzi has a credibility of = 0! Apparently, violence is not all the same. Just because the victims of the brutal activities of recreational hunters are not 100% human in nature does not mean, for the IG Wild beim Wild, that acts – as propagated by Fabio Regazzi – are any less abhorrent. Furthermore, the actions of today's recreational hunters also diametrically contradict several articles of the Swiss Animal Protection Act, for example Art. 26 and Art. 4. Animals are equally in need of protection – as stated in the Bible – which the CVP National Councillor should actually know.

Moreover, there are far too many livestock in ever-shrinking wildlife areas. The wolf helps to sustainably regulate ungulate populations, something recreational hunters have failed to manage for decades. The cantonal hunting authorities therefore keep ordering more disgraceful acts (Recreational hunters in Ticino shoot nursing female deer). Fabio Regazzi also supports this empathy-free disgrace!

Deer and roe deer are not the enemies of the forest – drought, bark beetles and misguided forestry are.

Experts repeatedly stress that livestock protection must be optimised. If livestock owners – who send millions of their animals to slaughter every year – are unable to do so, they should find another occupation.

Fabio Regazzi on the Radar

Dossier: Wolf in Switzerland: Facts, Politics and the Limits of Hunting

More on the subject of recreational hunting: In our dossiers on the criticism of recreational hunting gather fact-checks, analyses and background reports. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.

The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.