Fatal Hunting Accident in Spain

The shot was fired after the hobby hunt. After the equipment had long since been packed away, after supposedly no one should have been in danger any longer.

In hunters’ parlance, one might say: “If it still bangs after the hunt, it was a good day.”

It is this mixture of routine, overconfidence, and weapon romanticism that kills hundreds of people across Europe year after year — and the hunting lobby plays the same tune it endlessly hums in Switzerland as well: “A tragic isolated incident.” If the hunting lobby were to add up all its “isolated incidents,” it would have enough material for a complete Netflix series.

Private Hunting Reserves: The Playgrounds of the Untouchable

The accident occurred in a private hunting reserve — one of those places that look like golf courses, only with loaded weapons and considerably less class.

These places operate on the motto: “We hunt and do as we please, and anyone who objects can simply stay away.” Oversight? Internal only. Which means practically none at all. Transparency? At best, regarding how many trophies are nailed to the wall. Safety standards? As long as nobody drops dead, everything is fine. Until someone drops dead.

But even that is merely a “tragic mishap” — so tragic that a day later one carries on “sportingly” blasting away… ahem… “managing the wildlife.”

Whether in Spain, France, or Switzerland: the reflexes are identical.

1. Denial (“This practically never happens.”)
2. Downplaying (“A minor moment of carelessness.”)
3. Deflection (“Other hobbies are dangerous too.”)
4. Victim reversal (“We hobby hunters have to listen to unfair criticism once again.”)

One might almost think the global hunting scene shares a single PR brain running on Windows 95.

In Switzerland, hobby hunting is often marketed as highly professional, highly cultivated, and highly responsible — a kind of Alpine special case that allegedly has nothing to do with those uncontrolled, macho hunting realities abroad.

The reality:

• In Switzerland too, hobby hunters roam publicly used landscapes carrying deadly weapons.
• Here too, shots are fired in wrong directions, through hedges, across hiking trails.
• Here too, people consider themselves the best wildlife managers, even though no one has yet been able to explain why violent individuals with hunting fever should deliver better management than professional ecologists.
• And here too, there is the reflexive litany: “Everything is fine, we have the situation under control.”
• Every year, in the canton of Graubünden alone, over 1’000 of these hobby hunters are reported or fined for violating the law.
• Every 29 hours, a hunting accident occurs in Switzerland, and every year there are fatalities.

It is precisely this Swiss hunting self-glorification that reveals how deep the problem runs: here, people genuinely believe they are in the Champions League of hunting safety, when in reality they are barely competing in the 4th division.

The hunting scene is cut from the same cloth everywhere:

• Convinced that only they understand nature.
• Convinced of their own moral superiority.
• Convinced of being “indispensable.”
• Convinced that criticism only comes from “city people.”
• Convinced that weapons are only dangerous when others carry them.

It is remarkable how much self-confidence one can develop when standing in the forest with a weapon and no one contradicts you.

What would actually need to happen

If hobby hunting is not abolished entirely, then at minimum:

• Independent safety and weapons inspections — not the internal self-monitoring fairy-tale sessions.
• Zero tolerance for alcohol – yes, including the “end-of-day sip.”
• Mandatory psychological and medical checks, because a hunting licence is not a free pass for losing touch with reality.
• Ban on private reserves without external oversight — across Europe.
• Transparent accident statistics, not polished annual reports.
• Mandatory technical inspections for weapons, just like for cars. Annual, binding.

Naturally, hardly any of this will be implemented. The hunting lobby is too well connected politically for that — including in Switzerland, where they like to portray themselves as nature-loving “tradition bearers” while behind closed doors opposing every form of modernisation.

Once again, a man was killed because recreational hunting has believed for decades that it is above criticism, oversight, and modernisation.

As long as hobby hunters treat their weapons like toys, as long as politicians treat them like sacred cows, and as long as society allows itself to be lulled by hunting self-promotion, the shooting will continue. And the hunting lobby — including the Swiss one — will say again: “Tragic isolated incident.” If the “isolated incidents” weren’t so deadly, one could almost laugh.

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