Recreational hunter banned from hunting over tax debts
Vaud is the only canton in French-speaking Switzerland with such a provision. At least twenty recreational hunters are affected by this rule every year — a figure the canton has not confirmed. However, no similar rule exists for hobby fishermen.
If you have tax debts, you are not allowed to slaughter wild boar.
Emmanuel Ansermet (42) learned this the hard way. This recreational hunter, who lives in Rovray, not far from Yverdon-les-Bains, was refused a hunting licence by the Jura-Nord-Vaud prefecture on 2 October. For the second year in a row.
The reason: he has tax debts. Article 31 of the Vaud Wildlife Act states that the holder of a hunting licence «must not be a debtor of a debt under public law,»writes 24 heures.
“The law is unfair,” said this ecologist, who has had a passion for hunting since his youth. “I am poor. I had an illness in 2012 and my income dropped. I would love to be able to pay back these tax debts, but I have set different priorities.”
A Vaud peculiarity
Charles-Henri de Luze, president of the Vaud Hunting Association, finds this absurd: “We should repeal this law! I see no connection between recreational hunting and any debts or tax arrears.” He raises a further point: “The number of recreational hunters is steadily declining — there are currently fewer than 700. Three decades ago there were still over a thousand.”
Member of parliament Alexandre Berthoud is not shocked: “Recreational hunting on state land is a privilege that must be earned. To enjoy this privilege, one must be in good standing with the state.” More on the hunting law and on recreational hunting.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier Poaching and hunting crime in Switzerland we document cases, legal questions and recurring patterns. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
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.
