Graubünden: The Dark Truth of Recreational Hunting
In the second half of January, a poached deer was found in Grüsch. The individual responsible for the kill is accused of having illegally shot several additional wild animals.
Dozens of wild animals killed since 2019
The wildlife wardens came across the dead deer in a woodland area in Grüsch and immediately called in the Cantonal Police Graubünden for further investigations.
On the same morning, a 43-year-old Swiss suspect was identified. During questioning, he confessed to having killed this deer as well as several dozen other large and small game animals since autumn 2019.
The exact extent of the offences is being investigated jointly by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Graubünden and the wildlife wardens.
The Hunting Authority as a Travel Agency
It is now known that in Graubünden and elsewhere, the primary concern is — much like a travel agency — the organisation of attractive hobby hunts, which are planned by the Office for Hunting and Nonsense in Graubünden. Recreational hunters are increasingly being degraded by the authority into bestial predators and are becoming more susceptible to every kind of nonsense.
Recreational hunting is always a thoroughly cruel and unscientific activity, practised without caution or respect, and time and again endangering the safety of all those involved. The catalogue of reports and fines in Graubünden against recreational hunters speaks for itself.
2023 – ff : Publications
2022: The number of administrative fines issued and reports filed was within the usual range.
2021: The number of administrative fines issued and reports filed was within the usual range.
2020: 1241 Reports and fines
2019: 1104 Reports and fines
2018: 1114 Reports and fines
2017: 1384 Reports and fines
2016: 1201 Reports and fines
2015: 1298 Reports and fines
2014: 1102 Reports and fines
2013: 1122 Reports and fines
2012: 1089 reports and fines
Wildlife management based on the Geneva model
The alarming reports of hunting accidents and criminal offenses involving recreational hunters' firearms demonstrate: It is long overdue to abolish recreational hunting! Deadly firearms must not be placed in the hands of lawless recreational hunters who can use them entirely without oversight!
One of our main concerns at IG Wild beim Wild is to introduce a contemporary and professional wildlife management system in the cultural landscape, modeled on the Canton of Geneva — without recreational hunters, but with upright game wardens who genuinely deserve the title and act according to a code of honor. The state monopoly on the use of force must remain in the hands of the government.
Further reading:
- Wild game meat: Natural, healthy — or dangerous?
- Wild game from recreational hunters? — Carrion on your plate!
- Studies indicate health risks associated with the consumption of wild game meat
- Diet: The civilized palate
- Wild game from hunters is carrion
- Wild game cannot be organic
- Meat from wild animals is not organic game
- Dementia: How harmful is venison?
- Venison makes you ill
- Lead residues in wild game products
- Wild game: Risks, lead contamination, and hunting myths
- Caution: Warning about wild game from recreational hunters
- Hunters lie even when selling meat
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier Poaching and hunting crime in Switzerland we document cases, legal questions and recurring patterns. The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.
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.
