Criminal Complaint Against the Hunting Authority in Graubünden

Hobby hunter shoots a tourist’s female dog

Time and again, hobby hunters across all cantons of Switzerland drive away tourists.

This happened recently when a hobby hunter (79), operating under the authority of the Office for Hunting and Nonsense in Graubünden, shot the leashed Weimaraner female dog Blu belonging to a tourist from Ticino — firing from inside his own home. The senile hobby hunter believed he had seen afox The shocked and traumatised woman left the very next morning. She is not the only tourist, and will not be the last, who has had enough of such acts of barbarity.

Pass hunting and trap hunting in winter

In Switzerland, the so-called pass hunting and trap hunting season takes place in various cantons well into winter (until the end of February).

In these underhanded forms of hunting, foxes, badgers, martens and others are lured during the winter period of hardship with food (cat and dog food, hunting waste, offal, etc.), habituated and deceived, only to be killed senselessly and for sport. Wild animals often leave a clearly visible trail, known as a “pass.” This is also the origin of the term “pass hunting,” in which hobby hunters lie in wait for the animal along its regular route.

In keeping with their nature, hobby hunters hide in a cowardly and treacherous manner in order to target variouswild animals to shoot at prepared bait stations (Luderplatz) (“when the predator comes”). Shots are fired from bedrooms, alpine meadow huts, and mountain pass shelters equipped with a small camouflaged window. It makes no difference whether the target is a healthy male fox or possibly even the mother of cubs lying in the den. Technical aids such as wildlife cameras are used, sending the hobby hunter a signal when an animal is at the bait station. The shooting then begins with a grin.

Foxes are hunted continuously from 15 June until 1 March. The hobby hunters’ motto “Only a dead fox is a good fox” is contemptuous of animals. Foxes are not aggressive and do not attack humans. Foxes are beautiful animals. Hunting ethics are truly nowhere to be found here.

The hobby hunters are once again distinguishing themselves as despoilers of nature and tormentors of animals.

Fox hunting violates the Animal Protection Act

The senseless killing of animals as a leisure activity has no place in the 21st century and must be prosecuted as a criminal offence.

According to the Animal Protection Act (Art. 26 TSchG), a “reasonable justification” must exist for the killing of an animal. However, hobby hunting of foxes and badgers is mostly nothing more than the gratification of a bloody hobby. There is no legally mandated culling plan for these wild animals. The animals serve as living targets for hobby hunters, as there is neither a wildlife-biological nor a public health justification for the mass hunting of healthy predators.

Accordingly, every fox hunt constitutes a clear violation of the Animal Protection Act, due to the absence of reasonable justification. For more than 30 years, at least 18 wildlife-biological studies have demonstrated: fox hunting does not regulate populations and is equally ineffective as a means of disease control. Quite the contrary!

The Verein Wildtierschutz Schweiz has now filed another criminal complaint against those responsible at the Office for Hunting and Nonsense in Graubünden in connection with the incident in Sedrun involving the tourist from Ticino.

Dossiers: Fox in Switzerland: Most hunted predator without a lobby | Fox hunting without facts: How JagdSchweiz invents problems