Jagd Schweiz sues hunting critics

The association Jagd Schweiz is connected, among other things, to the economic world.

Members of this association have relationships with representatives of power in general. Furthermore, they make use of violence or other means suitable for intimidation in order to exert influence on politics, the media, public administration, the judiciary, or the economy.

This is currently being done once again by supporters of the militant association «Jagd Schweiz» (Tarzisius Caviezel, Thomas Hüssy, Peter Zenklusen, Jean-Claude Givel, Franco Scodeller, Hanspeter Egli, Fabio Regazzi, Enrico Capra, Adrian Zumstein), organized by FDP National Councillor Thierry Burkart.

On Sunday, 11 September 2016 at 11:27, the parliamentary correspondent for the Basler Zeitung, a hobby hunter by the name of Dominik Feusi, writes an email from his hunting blind using the Basler Zeitung’s infrastructure to Hanspeter Egli of the militant association «Jagd Schweiz».

In the letter, Dominik Feusi demands that a hunting critic from IG Wild beim Wild be completely silenced, made to disappear from the scene – in any case muzzled.

As is well known, the fish rots from the head down

President Hanspeter Egli takes the bait immediately and sends an email that very same evening to all board members of the clan (shown at the top of the screenshot from the militant association «Jagd Schweiz»).

Two months later, on 16 November 2016, the militant association «Jagd Schweiz» formally instructs a lawyer from Lugano in writing at its quiet headquarters in Zofingen to take action against Wild beim Wild. The lawyer from Lugano was contacted by Thierry Burkart. The two know each other from the TCS. Thierry Burkart lives the philosophy of the gun fanatics and participates in hunts several times a year. He finds satisfaction in life, among other things, as a beater during the pursuit of wild animals and in witnessing lethal animal cruelty.

The lawyer from Lugano then sends a civil lawsuit to the District Court in Locarno on December 20, 2016. In it, he demands in an ex parte interim order that 3 articles on the Wild beim Wild website and a Facebook post be deleted:

1. The position papers «Initiative Wildhüter statt Jäger» and «Wild beim Wild accuses the Verband Jagd Schweiz of various criminal offenses and files a criminal complaint»
2. Flyer on the abolition of hobby hunting
3. Furthermore, the republication of these articles and flyers is to be prohibited.

The lawyer's letter mentions that a criminal complaint has also been filed.

On 28.12.2016, Wild beim Wild receives mail from the district judge in Locarno. In his ex parte interim order dated 23.12.2016, he demands that Wild beim Wild immediately carry out the following:

1.) Delete five sentences from a position paper:

a) According to media reports, in many places mafia-like structures, corruption, animal cruelty, cronyism, poaching, and criminal activity go hand in hand with the uncouth culture of hunters.

b) Everywhere that psychopathic hunters are not permitted in nature, there is a flourishing and richer biodiversity.

c) Hunters are always also terrorists and wild animals are refugees.

d) In Switzerland there is no association whose members are demonstrably involved year after year in four-digit numbers of legal violations such as breaches of hunting law, poaching, arms smuggling, environmental offenses, animal welfare violations, traffic offenses, corruption, and many other criminal activities, as is the case with Verband Jagd Schweiz. The Sicilian Mafia is a Sunday school by comparison. Jagd Schweiz has simply written nature conservation on its banner as a fig leaf.

2.) The article «Wild beim Wild accuses the Verband Jagd Schweiz of various criminal offenses and files a criminal complaint»

3.) Delete the flyer (abolition of hobby hunting) on Facebook as well as the associated post.

In addition, there was a summons to the parties for a hearing on February 13, 2017 before the District Court in Locarno, in order to discuss the facts of the matter in detail.

The demands of the district judge were provisionally complied with — under protest! By 2:00 p.m. on the same day, the objected-to texts and the flyer were duly deactivated at the requested locations.

For the uninitiated reader who is unfamiliar with the dishonest machinations of the self-styled predators of the association «Jagd Schweiz» and the wildlife-biological connections, the documentation published by IG Wild beim Wild may indeed initially cause confusion. This is especially true among the many militant hunters.

Upon careful analysis, however, the lawsuit and interim injunction filed by the association «Jagd Schweiz» is just as absurd as an Islamic association attempting to prohibit Swiss media from documenting the terrorist activities of its own members — activities that equally discredit that association.

The pseudo-hunters of the dubious association «Jagd Schweiz» continually provoke through their criminal acts, making it entirely legitimate to write critically — yet truthfully — about the association «Jagd Schweiz». The mere fact that the victims of hunters’ terrorist activities are not 100% human does not mean, from an animal welfare perspective, that the acts of these pseudo-hunters are any less abhorrent or senseless. Furthermore, the acts of these pseudo-hunters always stand in direct contradiction to Swiss animal welfare laws e.g. Art. 26 and Art. 4.

No one may unjustifiably cause an animal pain, suffering, or harm, subject it to fear, or otherwise disregard its dignity. The mistreatment, neglect, or unnecessary overexertion of animals is prohibited.

Wild animals have no voice and cannot participate in supposedly democratic decisions. The allegedly legal mandate for hunters to torment wild animals is one that hunters have granted themselves through lies, deception, and shameless lobbying. We at Wild beim Wild give wild animals a voice, backed by scientific and wildlife-biological findings. Wild animals also have feelings and emotions. They can suffer, grieve, and experience joy. Like us humans, they live in family units and social structures — which today’s hunters largely shoot apart for fun – acts of disgrace that not even animals commit.

In August 2011, this association wrote:

«JagdSchweiz acknowledges that wildlife populations would, in principle — even in our cultivated landscape — regulate themselves naturally.»

This is additionally a clear indication (alongside the many hunting-free areas) that, as with criminal organizations, the militant association «Jagd Schweiz» is ultimately only about manipulation, terror, bloodshed, exploitation, uncivil conduct, victims, threats, violence, criminality, money, injuries, power, and so on.

In the canton of Grisons alone, for example, the Office for Hunting and Fishing of Grisons recorded a four-digit number of complaints and fines against the pseudo-hunters of the umbrella organization «Jagd Schweiz» in recent years — and the trend is rising.

But that is not all. Media outlets in French-speaking Switzerland, Ticino, and German-speaking Switzerland are publishing a large number of reports on a wide variety of criminal activities carried out by the pseudo-hunters of the militant association «Jagd Schweiz».

Anyone who reads newspapers knows that the media also uses terms such as meat mafia, weapons mafia, banking mafia, oil mafia, doping mafia, construction mafia, chemical mafia, and so on. This form of expression and these analogies are part of journalistic freedom and freedom of speech in a democracy.

Another hallmark of criminal organizations is that they always believe the other side must be fought, eliminated, and discredited so that they can continue their uncivil practices as usual.

In Switzerland, the pseudo-hunters of the notorious association «Jagd Schweiz» cause more injuries and fatalities every year than Islamic terrorists, the military, sects, biker gangs, and so on. This publicly dangerous association «Jagd Schweiz» poses a considerable threat to public safety and order. Every year there are also over 150,000 wildlife victims in Switzerland — most of them senselessly slaughtered for sport. Hunters even pay for such disgraceful acts. The commandment “Thou shalt not kill” applies to animals as victims too, in a country shaped by Christian values.

As part of its non-profit work, IG Wild beim Wild also engages in violence prevention. We offer help to women and children who live in a hunter's household and suffer from violence and manipulation by hunters.

Hunting weapons and abuse in social life

Hunting weapons also contribute to abuse in our social lives. Time and again there are firearm suicides, threats, and deadly tragedies (around 220 per year in Switzerland). Every two weeks, a woman in Switzerland is killed by her partner or ex-partner. In most cases, however (unlike in Germany or Austria), the media does not mention or investigate the fact that the perpetrators were also hunters. It is not uncommon for sport shooters to also be hunters and perpetrators. There are studies showing that 90 percent of violent crimes against people began with animal cruelty, such as hunting. They first practiced on animals.

Criticism of hunting is also protection for people. Year after year, countless people are killed and injured by hunters and hunting weapons, some so severely that they end up in wheelchairs or require limb amputations.

In Switzerland, where only statistics on accidents among hunters exist (meaning private individuals affected by hunters are not recorded!), there were fourteen fatal hunting accidents and around 200 non-fatal accidents involving hunting weapons out of a total of 1,157 accidents between 2010 and 2013, according to the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention. Hunters only count the “bag” of animals killed, but not the human victims of their bloody hobby.

Hunters always refuse psychological assessments when stricter regulations on the handling of weapons are called for, as was most recently the case within the EU in the context of counter-terrorism efforts. Hunting associations there have also aggressively opposed the new directive. EU officials likewise reported receiving threats of violence.

In some cantons, foresters are afraid to openly express their positive views on, for example, predators, because they fear being massively targeted by hunters and subjected to their militant reprisals.

The militant association «Jagd Schweiz» and other dubious hunters’ associations were established primarily to take action against predators (fox, lynx, wolf, and others) – their competition for prey – and they continue to do so to this day.

Not only scientific and wildlife biology facts are simply swept under the rug by the offensive association «Jagd Schweiz». That is not normal.

According to psychologists, psychoanalysts, criminologists, neurologists, and traditional hunters from indigenous peoples, individuals who torture and shoot living beings for fun — and do not hunt for food — are people with disorders who should be in therapeutic treatment and certainly should not be in possession of firearms. Acts of violence against animals also alter the brain, the psyche, and one's character.

When someone is confronted with facts and can only defend themselves through legal force, one can assume they have something to do with the matter — as the saying goes, it is the hit dog that howls.

Should any of our articles, despite conscientious research, contain false statements of fact, we are grateful for any corrections and take them very seriously.

Update 30.1.2017

Today, Monday, 30.1.2017, mail arrived once again from the belligerent association «Jagd Schweiz», or rather from the same lawyer. Similar demands — only this time the district judge did not engage with them.

Wild beim Wild has been dealing with the senseless violence of the hunters from the association «Jagd Schweiz» practically day after day for years. For this reason, we also permit ourselves a professional assessment of the hunting community based on personal experience, reports, research, letters, videos, studies, etc., and use — in our view, justifiably — terms such as psychopathy, mafia, green plague, poaching, criminality, corruption, terror, arms dealing, threats, war against wildlife, animal cruelty, etc. in connection with the hunters from the association «Jagd Schweiz».

The association «Jagd Schweiz» cultivates above all a culture of disrespect and violence — precisely the opposite of what a person in our society should aspire to.

The texts and graphics of Wild beim Wild are factually correct and are consistent with journalistic and artistic freedom, freedom of expression, and freedom of science.

The association «Jagd Schweiz» has not been disparaged or defamed, but rather placed in the correct analogical context through investigative journalism and art. Furthermore, groups of persons or members of a specific professional group (such as hunters) are not protected against defamation, libel, and so forth.

Freedom of expression generally encompasses the rights to form an opinion, to express it, and to disseminate it. Alongside this, freedom of information is also guaranteed. At the international level, these fundamental rights are also protected by Art. 10 of the ECHR, Art. 15 para. 3 of UN Covenant I, and Art. 19 para. 2 of UN Covenant II.

For years, members of the association «Jagd Schweiz» — which can only be described as militant — have been taking action against authors of what they consider negative reporting, photos, comments, research, and scientific studies, not only in the media but also through legal force, among other means.

Analogy as a rhetorical term in journalistic work refers to a stylistic device in which similar structures or situations are placed in relation to one another. An analogy exists between two things when they are similar in one characteristic, even if they may differ in others. This stylistic device is frequently used to draw on already familiar information from a comparable context — or a consensus already reached in a comparable context — in order to illustrate a different context or to reinforce an argument in another context.

Wild beim Wild is making the necessary preparations to file appropriate criminal charges against all board members of the militant association «Jagd Schweiz», among others.

Update 13.2.2017

A first meeting of the parties took place at the district court in Locarno. The lawyer representing the inflammatory association Jagd Schweiz wants conditions as found in a banana republic. Unfortunately, we are unable to fulfil that wish.

The next hearing is now scheduled for the end of March.

Update 23.2.2017

Board members of the militant association Jagd Schweiz also advocate for animal cruelty alongside hunting. Fabio Regazzi, who wants to make barbed hooks in fishing socially acceptable again, has now received a first rejection.

ESPEC (the Senate Committee on Environment, Spatial Planning and Energy) has rejected the motion by Fabio Regazzi (CVP/TI) to introduce the use of barbed hooks in running waters, on the grounds that it constitutes animal cruelty.

The Regazzi motion (14.4045) calls for an amendment to Art. 5b para. 4 of the Ordinance to the Federal Act on Fishing (VBGF), which would give cantons the option to allow professional fishers as well as anglers who hold a proof of competence pursuant to Art. 5a VBGF to use barbed hooks not only in lakes and reservoirs, but also in rivers and streams, as TIR reports.

The right-leaning and farming-dominated National Council had adopted the motion by Fabio Regazzi on 12 September 2016, contrary to the recommendation of the Federal Council. At its meeting of 19 January 2017, however, the committee (UREK-S) recommended rejection of the motion by 10 votes to 0, with one abstention.

The use of barbed hooks violates, among other things, Art. 4 para. 2 of the Swiss Animal Welfare Act (TSchG), according to which no one may inflict unjustified, unnecessary pain, suffering, harm, or fear on an animal — a cornerstone of Swiss animal welfare law.

On 15 March 2017, the Council of States also clearly said NO to the motion by Fabio Regazzi.

Animal cruelty is simply not a tradition.

Update 28 March 2017

The civil lawsuit has been suspended.

Erfolg: Verband Jagd Schweiz verliert