Fact Check: Zurich Cantonal Government on the Hunting Initiative

The IG Wild beim Wild has subjected the Cantonal Government's report to the political parties dated 8 November 2017, drafted by the department of hobby hunter Markus Kägi, to a fact check.

Much is claimed — but what is actually true?

I) The Cantonal Government writes: The 850 lessees (of whom 230 are game wardens with the corresponding additional training) devote an average of 400 hours each per year to hunting, maintaining their districts, preventing wildlife damage and responding to accidents involving wild animals, while the approximately 500 hunting guests each devote 100 hours per year; the total hours of the militia hunters amounts to approximately 400,000 hours per year. 

• The hunting statistics for the year 2016 in the canton of Zurich list 735 lessees, of whom 34 are game wardens without a diploma, and not a single female game warden.
• Is there any evidence for the alleged 400,000 hours contributed by the 850 lessees and hunters in the canton of Zurich? According to a survey by the umbrella organisation JagdSchweiz the total nature conservation work performed by all 30,000 hunters in Switzerland amounts to 260,000 hours per year. The Hegeverband Graubünden puts the figure at 25,000 hours for its 6,000 hunters.
• Those who kill wildlife senselessly are not protecting nature, and civilised society gains nothing from it. This also explains the suspiciously high number of hours claimed by Zurich's hobby hunters.
• The hunting community bears co-responsibility for the many wildlife road accidents. During hunts — particularly during driven hunts — all animals are flushed out. In mortal fear, they flee and run for their lives — including across roads and into residential areas. Furthermore, by shooting lead animals that naturally counteract excessive population growth within herds and groups, hunting actually causes populations to increase (A).
• In 2015, in the canton of Zurich, 973 roe deer, 110 wild boars, 843 foxes, 282 badgers, 19 brown hares, and approximately 2,700 birds and small mammals were killed by motor vehicles and rail traffic. The number of unreported cases is likely considerably higher. The costs of these accidents are not accurately recorded.

Explanation:

Upon close analysis, hunters render no unpaid public service — and certainly not one that benefits wildlife. Wild animals do not welcome hobby hunters. When entire stretches of land can be leased for a pittance to pursue a hobby — one that mostly involves the senseless killing and/or tormenting of wild animals through den hunting, driven hunts, and battue hunts — one is compelled to use very different terms than “unpaid service.” Hunters would render no such “unpaid service” if they were not permitted to kill. This has absolutely nothing to do with the spirit of selfless public service. Furthermore, hunters can issue invoices for wildlife accident call-outs or generate income through the sale of unhealthy game meat, fur sales, trophy sales, and so forth.

The method of hunting also determines meat quality. Driven and battue hunts produce inferior and unhealthy meat, which may also be contaminated with ammunition residues. Wild animals live in constant fear because of hobby hunters. In particular, when they are actively hunted, they produce enormous quantities of toxic hormones, adrenaline, and the like, which combine in the flesh with other toxins and residues already present. Meat hygiene standards among hobby hunters do not meet normal requirements. Game meat frequently lies around for hours without refrigeration — proper handling in accordance with the usual statutory regulations is nowhere in evidence.

II) The cantonal government writes:  The wildlife populations native to the canton of Zurich should remain viable in the long term and be genetically sufficiently diverse. This is only possible if habitats that are adequate in both quantity and quality are preserved, enhanced where possible, restored, and interconnected. Both cantonal spatial planning (primarily through wildlife corridors in the cantonal structure plan) and the nature conservation and forestry policy of the canton of Zurich take this objective into account.

Explanation:

According to the FOEN, there are still no legally binding wildlife rest zones in the entire canton of Zurich (and this after 100 years of conservation work by hunters). The predator fox is hunted with fanaticism and can no longer fulfill its important function in the self-regulation of the ecosystem. One does not need to be a mathematician to realize that when predators are hunted as unecologically as in the canton of Zurich, an artificial imbalance in the animal world is systematically produced in favor of prey animals, to the detriment and cost of the cultivated landscape, particularly forest regeneration.

The hobby hunters have been creating an ecological imbalance in the cultivated landscape for decades, with sometimes dramatic consequences (protective forests, diseases). For genetic balance, animals would need to be able to migrate in order to mate with animals from other areas. Only in this way can healthy genetic diversity be achieved — not through intensive hunting. However, since the canton of Zurich's Directorate of Civil Engineering, under the leadership of Markus Kägi (hobby hunter), has for years built almost no wildlife corridors, the movement of wildlife is not only associated with great risks for wild animals. Of the 18 wildlife corridors of supra-regional importance, 16 in the canton of Zurich are still impaired or interrupted. These wildlife corridors would help reduce accidents involving wild animals, which would also benefit the protection of motorists.

Is lead-free ammunition foregone? Is alcohol during the hunt foregone? Is the use of heavy off-road vehicles on forest paths foregone? Are no cruel driven hunts conducted? The «huntsmanship» of hobby hunters has nothing — absolutely nothing — to do with nature and animal protection or professional wildlife management.

III) The cantonal government writes:Contrary to the view of the initiators, the militia hunting system cannot be said to present a serious safety problem.

Explanation:

In Switzerland, there are human injuries and fatalities every year caused by the risk group of hobby hunters. In the years 2011 – 2015, a total of 1,526 injuries from hunting accidents were recorded by accident insurers. In addition, there were at least a dozen fatalities — and this within the hunting community alone! The endangerment of third parties by hobby hunters cannot be determined from accident insurer data. No statistics exist for more detailed analyzes across various cantons either. The numerous hunting accidents also do nothing to reduce health insurance and insurance premiums for the general population. An increasing number of people in the canton of Zurich feel harassed or threatened by hunting.

According to the Veterinary Association for Animal Welfare (Tierärztliche Vereinigung für Tierschutz e.V.), up to 70 percent of wild animals do not die instantly — especially during driven hunts (E). The term “tracking search” (Nachsuche) for wounded animals exists for good reason. With shattered bones and protruding entrails, the animals flee, often suffering unbearable pain for days and dying an agonising death. Hobby hunters represent a serious risk and safety problem, particularly for wild animals.

The contamination caused by the countless tonnes of lead and other highly toxic heavy metals in the ammunition that hobby hunters leave behind in nature constitutes sheer eco-terrorism. Lead is an extremely toxic heavy metal and also a particularly cruel form of hunting. Wounded animals suffer not only from their injuries but also from slow poisoning by the ammunition. In doing so, hobby hunters also potentially poison fellow human beings, animals, soil, and groundwater.

IV) The cantonal government writes: Wildlife populations in the canton of Zurich cannot regulate themselves. In an intact ecosystem undisturbed by human influences, wildlife populations are capable of self-regulation — but this is not possible in the canton of Zurich. 

Explanation:

Under the law, "conservation" refers to the protection and care of wild animals, whereas "hunting" refers to the pursuit, trapping, and killing of game. The aim is to keep wildlife populations that are of interest to hunters stable at high levels, and to replace predators such as wolves and lynx that have been weakened in our region by hunters' hands. This is also why foxes are hunted with such fanaticism. Through small game hunting, hunters deliberately cause severe disruptions to the natural balance of species in order to hunt more successfully. Habitats are systematically manipulated and disturbed, to the detriment of all wildlife and society.

Even JagdSchweiz knows that wildlife populations would, in principle, regulate themselves — including in our cultivated landscape." — JagdSchweiz, 29.08.2011

A close analysis reveals that amateur hunters in the canton of Zurich can even spread diseases (2, 3). Accordingly, every fox hunt constitutes a clear violation of the Animal Protection Act, as there is no reasonable justification for it. No culling plan exists either. For more than 30 years, at least 18 wildlife biology studies have demonstrated that fox hunting neither regulates populations nor serves any purpose in disease control. On the contrary!

Under federal law, no canton in Switzerland is required to permit hunting. It is the right of each canton to decide whether hunting is allowed or not. If a canton decides against hunting — or even only partially against it — it is free to do so under the Federal Constitution. The canton of Geneva made this exemplary choice long ago. Many cantons already prohibit hunting locally through game reserves, wildlife sanctuaries, and similar designations. The city of Zurich and the municipalities of Kilchberg and Oberengstringen, among others, have declared their entire municipal territory a communal wildlife sanctuary. The city of Winterthur has designated its core zone as a wildlife sanctuary. Hunting is prohibited in cantonal and municipal wildlife sanctuaries. This prohibition includes entering the sanctuary with weapons, allowing dogs to hunt, and so on. The necessary regulation of wildlife populations and conservation measures — such as special culls of sick and injured animals or neozoa — are carried out by qualified wildlife wardens who are thoroughly familiar with the areas.

Not only from the federal hunting statistics can one clearly see that something is seriously amiss in the canton of Zurich with today's hunting misconduct. The small but hobby-hunting-free canton of Geneva has, for example, the highest hare populations in Switzerland – not the canton of Zurich. The canton of Geneva still has partridges. International ornithologists take pleasure in the hunting-free shores of Lake Geneva because they can observe rare bird species, etc. Roe deer and wild boar populations, on the other hand, are disproportionately high in the canton of Zurich.

V) The cantonal government writes: At the cantonal level, professional wildlife management encompasses the control process by which all tasks and problems in dealing with wildlife and their habitats are recorded, analyzed and resolved as far as possible. In doing so, both ecological objectives (biodiversity), aspects of animal welfare and animal health (e.g. control of animal diseases) and the interests of agricultural and forestry use must be taken into account. 

Commentary:

In areas of our cultivated landscape without amateur hunters, one can observe greater species diversity, lower densities of huntable wildlife species, lower levels of damage and fewer road accidents (C). On average, more than 20,000 wildlife accidents occur annually on Swiss roads and railways. The costs of these accidents are estimated at 40 to 50 million Swiss francs.

The wildlife populations of interest to hunters have for decades not been genuinely regulated, but rather decimated while their birth rates are stimulated. A consequence of the current methods is that, for example, the grazing animals — roe deer — become even more skittish and shift their daily activity entirely into the night. This leads to numerous traffic accidents. The populations of wild boar and roe deer in the canton of Zurich have virtually exploded and are out of control. This is not wildlife understanding or wildlife management.

The claim that amateur hunters promote biodiversity is almost brazen. At best, they may perhaps not damage it. For instance, brown hares are still being hunted. The brown hare is on the red list of endangered species. What this service of the hunting community is supposed to mean for the general public is equally beyond common sense. The highest density of brown hares was recorded in 2016 at 17.7/100 ha in the hunting-free canton of Geneva determined. There, where professional wildlife wardens manage wildlife. This is the first density above 17 hares/100 ha since 2006 in all of Switzerland.

Keyword animal health and disease control:

In Europe, the main distribution of the fox tapeworm is found, with hobby hunters and the pointless persecution of the fox (1), primarily in Switzerland (focus on the Zurich region and eastern Switzerland). Hobby hunters affect the health of the entire population in a negative way, because the disease cannot run its normal course and resistant populations could thereby form. Amateur hunters already contributed significantly to the rapid spread of rabies during rabies control efforts, as male foxes had to travel further to find a mate. The disease thus became an epidemic in the first place and was only eradicated in the early 1980s — not through merciless hunting of the fox, but through a vaccination campaign using chicken heads.

Every August, the black-legged ticks that transmit Lyme disease hatch. The number of people contracting Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses in Switzerland is rising. The Federal Office of Public Health estimates that approximately 6,000 to 12,000 people in Switzerland contract so-called Lyme borreliosis each year. For TBE, the figure is between 100 and 250. The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) therefore classifies tick-borne diseases as a significant public health concern for Switzerland. This year, 7,000 acute cases of Lyme disease were reported by the end of September. According to the FOPH, this figure is relatively low compared to previous years. During the same period, 214 cases of TBE were recorded, which is considered a high figure.

But this need not be the case. A new study (2) suggests that the absence of predators that hunt mice, in particular the fox, is the cause of the rising number of tick-borne diseases.

In the past, the Mange and distemper locally recurring and then dying out on its own. Especially in areas where mange has spread most severely, foxes appear to be developing increasing resistance to reinfection. However, since the hunting activities of hobby hunters undermine the natural survival advantage of mange-resistant foxes (a hunter cannot tell by looking at a fox whether it is mange-resistant), killing foxes is likely to be counterproductive in this regard as well. Incidentally, it has been observed with distemper that wildlife have already developed antibodies, making the risk marginal.

Robert Brunold, current president of the cantonal licensed hunters' association in Graubünden, states: «The small game hunt is not necessary».

VI) The cantonal government writes: Contrary to the view of the initiators, wildlife populations are also regulated through hunting in the canton of Geneva, in the wildlife sanctuaries of the canton of Zurich, and even in the National Park.

Explanation:

• Sanitary and therapeutic culls are not the same as regulatory hunting based on hunters' lore or a misguided understanding of nature.
• In the Swiss National Park in the Engadine, hunting has not taken place for 100 years, and the chamois population there has remained consistently around 1,350 animals since 1920. The fox is also not hunted. Contrary to predictions from hunting circles, none of its prey species have gone extinct. The transition from pasture for cows and sheep to deer grazing led to a completely new species composition of the vegetation and a doubling of biodiversity!

VII) The cantonal government writes: Professional wildlife management is already in place.

Explanation:

Incorrect. Hobby hunting is not scientific, wildlife-biologically sound, or professional wildlife management.

It would not occur to anyone to attribute a higher quality standard to an amateur football tournament than to the Champions League with professional footballers. It is abundantly clear that professional wildlife wardens bring an entirely different standard to replace amateur hunters. Wildlife, the public, nature, and the environment all benefit from this through reduced animal suffering.

For example, if it is necessary to intervene in the wild boar population in the canton of Geneva, professional wildlife wardens do so with 10 times less time expenditure than the hobby hunters in the canton of Zurich. As a result, the disturbances to wildlife and the population in Geneva are massively lower than those caused by hunters in the canton of Zurich. The hobby hunters in the canton of Zurich require between 60 – 80 hours, according to Theo Anderes, chairman of the Elgg hunting district Rappenstein. A wildlife warden in the canton of Geneva uses only 8 hours for a necessary sanitary cull. Furthermore, wildlife wardens are also the better marksmen. A wildlife warden in Geneva uses a maximum of two cartridges for a wild boar. A hobby hunter, however, uses up to 15 cartridges! Added to this is the fact that wildlife is often wounded by hobby hunters and dies in agony. During a driven hunt, up to 10 times more shots are fired than the final “hunting bag” would suggest.

Regardless of the Animal Protection Act, amateur hunters commit, behind closed doors and away from public scrutiny, appalling acts of animal cruelty and even criminal offences. If hunting today were not a hobby, would there still be hunting trips to every corner of the world?

With professional wildlife management, there would be no extremely cruel hunting methods such as driven hunts, push hunts, etc. Fox den hunting, which should already have been abolished on animal welfare grounds, will thankfully also be eliminated under the initiative «Wildlife Wardens instead of Hunters». This also does justice to the principle of animal welfare for both wildlife and hunting dogs.

No one may unjustifiably cause an animal pain, suffering or harm, put it in a state of fear, or otherwise disregard its dignity. The mistreatment, neglect or unnecessary overexertion of animals is prohibited. Animal Protection Act: Art. 4 Para. 2

VIII) The cantonal government writes: The territorial hunting system thus ensures that hunting measures can be taken in a timely manner and that rapid responses are possible in the event of traffic accidents and other incidents involving wildlife. The hunting associations are well established at the municipal level and maintain close contact with the local population, municipal authorities, and forestry and agricultural sectors.

Explanation:

This will be no different with professional wildlife rangers, simply better in quality and more meaningful. Professional wildlife management is based above all on the important pillars of safety, ethics and efficiency.

Alcohol on the hunt, amateur hunters past retirement age with dangerous firearms, contamination of the environment through lead ammunition, hunting methods that amount to animal cruelty, etc., have long been out of place, yet remain widespread under the territorial hunting system to this day.

IX) The cantonal government writes: The claim made by the initiators that wildlife has become shy as a result of the militia hunting system and has shifted its activities to the night is incorrect.

Explanation:

This too is a completely unscientific assertion. Anyone who has ever visited an unhunted national park — for example in the Engadine — knows that animals have no innate fear of humans. Neither prey animals nor predators. It therefore matters greatly whether it is a hobby hunter or a jogger who disturbs the wildlife. The sustained hunting pressure makes animals shy and pushes roe deer and red deer — species that originally lived in grassland habitats — deep into the forests, which encourages so-called “browsing damage” on commercially used forestry areas (A). Intensive hunting drastically reduces the life expectancy of wild animals. This results in earlier sexual maturity, which causes birth rates to rise (B). Not only do birth rates increase, but intensive hunting also undermines nature’s natural selection process of maintaining particularly healthy wildlife populations and always passing on the best traits, because amateur hunters intervene prematurely in natural processes.

Wild animals can distinguish between ordinary people and hobby hunters. Accordingly, in unhunted areas they do not flee when they encounter, for example, motorists, mountain bikers, hikers, etc. Wildlife has completely overturned its normal behavior as a result of hunting. A roe deer, for example, is neither a nocturnal nor a crepuscular animal. The «hardship» caused by recreational activists is a problem for very little wildlife, as long as no shots are fired at them. It is also a fact that the shyness wild animals display in rural areas is diminished in urban areas. This is primarily because hunting does not take place in cities.

X) The cantonal government writes:The initiative incurs high costs. The implementation of the initiative would result in high costs. Depending on the method of calculation, costs of between 20 million and 30 million francs would have to be expected.

Explanation: 

The opposite is likely the case. If one is going to make back-of-the-envelope calculations, one should not forget the revenue side. Hobby hunters and the district hunting system have been nothing other than a permanently cost-intensive construction site, patchwork, and source of conflict for politics, forestry, agriculture, administrations, the judiciary, health insurers, insurance companies, animal protection organizations, environmental and nature conservation organizations, the police, the federal government, the media, etc. for decades. This effort and these costs would largely disappear with just a few wildlife wardens. Furthermore, the Zurich hunting administration has been operating at a loss for years, and the renovation of hunting shooting ranges is expected to cost tens of millions of francs.

What more than 400 hobby hunters in the Canton of Geneva previously failed to accomplish particularly successfully is today handled by 11 wildlife wardens who together share 3 full-time positions, performing many other tasks in an exemplary and cost-effective manner. From the Canton of Geneva it is also known that not only was the supervision, monitoring, etc. of the 400 hobby hunters an enormous financial burden. The 11 wildlife wardens today cost taxpayers the equivalent of a cup of coffee per year in salary costs. The burden on the taxpayer is therefore no higher than before the hunting ban of 1974.

With 20 – 30 million francs, one could probably replace hobby hunters with professional wildlife wardens across the entire eastern Switzerland region. In the Canton of Vaud (3'212 km²), which is almost twice as large in area, there are over 50% fewer hunters than in the Canton of Zurich (1'729 km²). Yet the small Canton of Zurich, despite its high number of hobby hunters, has on average no fewer cases of wildlife damage than the larger Canton of Vaud. Hobby hunters in the Canton of Zurich are overwhelmed. With hobby hunters, the canton's compensation for wildlife damage cases rises practically every year (in 2014/15 even by 125%), consequently burdening the taxpayer.

Since hunting is allegedly not a hobby for trigger-happy individuals, hobby hunters can continue to carry out non-lethal conservation work in the future.

If there were fewer problem hunters harboring notions of exploiting nature, more peace-loving people could once again dedicate themselves to the idea of nature conservation – people who care for flora and fauna with respect, decency and fairness.

XI) The cantonal government writes: Predators such as lynxes or wolves have little influence on population numbers. Contrary to the view of the initiators, the purpose of hunting is not to stimulate the reproduction of individual species, but to reconcile the biological needs of wildlife with the demands of humans in the intensively used cultural landscape. An effect that increases the fertility of wildlife only arises in the case of excessive hunting, which would contradict the strategic objectives of hunting mentioned at the outset. 

Explanation:

Studies in various countries and at various points in time have documented the influence of the red fox not only on the roe deer population: For the Bernese Midlands, it is estimated that a fox can prey on an average of eleven fawns during the months of May to July (D). In the canton of Zurich, however, 2,000 – 3,000 healthy foxes are shot for fun by hobby hunters every year, which is certainly not in the interest of animal welfare, wildlife biology, society, science, ecology, environmental protection, ethics, etc., but does constitute excessive hunting.

The wolf primarily preys on sick and weak animals. “They can do this better than hunters,” says Georg Brosi, head of the Office for Hunting and Fishing in Graubünden. They are better wildlife regulators than hunting. From an ecological perspective, predators should be viewed positively.

Since the settlement of the lynx, the roe deer population has declined markedly in various regions of Switzerland. This too is scientifically documented. For example in the Toggenburg, Uri, Bernese Oberland or Solothurn. The roe deer and the chamois are typical prey of the lynx, so the development is not surprising. Forest health and the cultural landscape fare much better where there are lynxes rather than hobby hunters.

XII) The cantonal government writes: This cooperation already functions excellently today; an institutionalized expert commission is not required for this purpose. In the case of local or regional conflicts over land use, forest-wildlife concepts are developed with the involvement of all affected stakeholders….

Explanation: This section is also a contradiction and actually only reinforces the correct approach of the initiators in the initiative text towards professional wildlife management:

The measures to be applied are determined by an independent expert commission. This consists in equal parts of game wardens, wildlife biologists, veterinarians and representatives of animal and species protection organizations. The commission members are appointed every 4 years by the cantonal council.

Hobby hunters always react reluctantly to common-sense initiatives. Animal and species conservationists have led to greater wildlife protection in hunting practices — the abolition of leg-hold traps, the prohibition of bird hunting with limed sticks, etc. Common sense was and remains the driving force behind restricting hunting seasons and reducing the number of huntable species. To prevent the extinction of animal species, animal welfare advocates have imposed on hunters the moral obligation to care for and manage wildlife. The ethics of hunters (if such a thing even exists) have traditionally always lagged behind the spirit of the times.

XIII) Even in the run-up to the popular referendum on the hunting ban for hobby hunters in the Canton of Geneva in 1974, the same circles of amateur hunters, farmers and fellow travelers tried to paint a dire picture. More than 40 years later, it can rightly be said that none of their fearmongering came true.

Why do the circles involved in the Canton of Zurich not visit the Canton of Geneva — which is free of hobby hunters — just once and take a firsthand look (remedial lessons) at professional wildlife management, fragmentation, costs, regulation, interaction with municipalities and the public, wildlife damage prevention, wildlife biology, etc., instead of arguing with scaremongering, tea-leaf reading and false claims?

In the Canton of Zurich too, the game wardens will be able to intervene regulatorily after the adoption of the initiative «Game Wardens instead of Hunters» — and they will. Experience shows that everything will simply turn for the better for wildlife, the environment, nature and society.

Conclusion: „Whoever torments animals is without soul, and lacks God’s good spirit; however noble they may appear, one should never trust them. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Sources:

(A) Reichholf, J. H. The Truth About Hunting – Evolutionary biologist Prof. Josef Helmut Reichholf refutes hunters’ lies.

(B) Servanty S., Gaillard J., Toigo C., Brandt S.& Baubet E. (2009) Pulsed resources and climate‐induced variation in the reproductive traits of wild boar under high hunting pressure. Journal of animal ecology 78.6 1278-1290.

(C) Wildlife biologist Karl-Heinz Loske https://youtu.be/6FDkHpg-j0U

(D) Fred Kurt: The Roe Deer in the Cultural Landscape. Ecology, Social Behavior, Hunting and Management. Kosmos Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, p. 83

(E) Statement on driven hunts by the Veterinary Association for Animal Welfare e.V.

Studies:

1. The Red Fox (short summaries of scientific literature)
2. Hunting spreads diseases
3. Hunters spread diseases
4. Hunting does not regulate