Graubünden: One in Ten Deer Only Wounded
Missed shots resulting in injury to the animal are most common during deer hunting in Graubünden. This is shown by the 2016 statistics: out of 5,440 deer killed, 564 deer were left with gunshot wounds.
One in ten deer in Graubünden is only wounded rather than killed.
Graubünden hobby hunters killed a total of 56’403 red deer, roe deer, chamois and wild boar over the five years from 2012 to 2016. In 3’836 cases, however, these animals were merely wounded by the shooters, reports the Rundschau on SRF.
This information comes from statistical data on the so-called blood-tracking dog system, which Michael Eichhoff from the Office of Hunting and Fisheries of the Canton of Graubünden made public.
When a hobby hunter shoots and wounds a roe deer, red deer, chamois or wild boar and the animal manages to flee, the hunter is legally required in the Canton of Graubünden to call in a blood-tracking dog with its handler for the follow-up hunt. This does not apply, however, in the case of fox, badger and the like. The aim is to spare injured animals from prolonged suffering. Blood-tracking dogs are specially trained to follow the blood trail of a wounded animal. In hunters’ parlance, «Schweiss» (literally “sweat”) refers to the blood shed by a shot animal. The primitive hunters’ jargon developed over the course of past centuries as a way of preventing hobby hunters from being overwhelmed by emotion at the sight of an animal’s suffering.
1,600 Animals Escaped with Gunshot Wounds
Over the past five years, blood-tracking dogs helped locate approximately 2,200 of the 3,836 animals wounded during hunts in Graubünden — either found dead or brought down after a pursuit. These fatalities represent only the tip of the iceberg. By no means are all dead wild animals ever found. The statistics bear this out. The remaining approximately 1,600 animals escaped with their gunshot wounds, either surviving or perishing undetected.
One in Ten Deer Only Wounded
There is no nationwide Swiss statistic on searches for wounded game. Graubünden is one of the few cantons that keeps records on tracking searches. According to the Swiss Animal Protection STS, other cantons include Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Fribourg, Glarus, Nidwalden, Ticino, Uri, and Vaud.
As part of an STS investigation «Grazing shots and tracking searches in Swiss hunting», all cantonal hunting authorities were surveyed on the topic of missed shots and tracking searches. Despite reference to the Freedom of Information Act, the hunting authorities of nine cantons failed to provide the STS with a response. The survey results show that some cantons neither have a mandatory reporting requirement for tracking searches nor have any knowledge of their success rates. It is therefore unknown how many animals are actually shot and wounded during hobby hunting, and how many could be put out of their suffering through a tracking search. This once again makes the animal welfare problem of hobby hunting plainly evident.
Based on tracking signs such as blood or bone fragments, dog handlers had determined during the follow-up hunt that these animals had been shot and wounded. In 344 cases, the injured deer was subsequently brought down with the help of a dog. The remaining 220 tracking searches were unsuccessful.
From the canton of Geneva, which has been freed from hobby hunters, it is known that game wardens are far better marksmen.
The brutal and tourism-damaging mass hunt in the canton of Graubünden has come under increasing criticism in recent years. Two popular initiatives are still pending before the courts due to the «old boys’ network mentality» of those responsible for hunting.
