Hobby hunter shoots stag – animal suffers for a long time
A hobby hunter from the central part of the canton of Schwyz shot a red deer stag.
The animal may have suffered for days.
The shooter has now been convicted of animal cruelty.
The long-standing hobby hunter had „at the very least accepted that the red deer stag he had shot would suffer for an extended period of time’, writes the Schwyz public prosecutor’s office in a legally binding penalty order.
Last September, the hobby hunter was out in a hunting area during the big game season. He spotted a male red deer stag, picked up his hunting rifle and pulled the trigger without having taken proper aim at the animal.
The stag was hit but managed to flee. The shooter lost sight of the animal. It would have been the hobby hunter’s responsibility to alert the cantonal police headquarters or contact the game warden directly.
A search could then have been launched immediately. The wildlife authority could, for example, have used a tracking dog team to pick up the trail. Instead, the hobby hunter went home.
Six days later, the dead stag was found in a neighbouring hunting area. The shooter received a conviction for wilful animal cruelty. He was sentenced to a suspended fine of 3’8600 francs. He is required to pay outright a penalty including procedural costs of 1’760 francs.
Evidently, these hobby hunters are neither well trained nor do they possess sound moral integrity.
Particularly when it comes to hunting and hobby hunters, it is essential that the public keeps a very close eye on proceedings. Nowhere else is there so much manipulation through falsehoods and fake news.Violence and lies are two sides of the same coin. For decades, hobby hunting has been nothing other than a permanently costly construction site, a patchwork of problems and a bone of contention for politics, forestry and agriculture, public administrations, the judiciary, health insurers, insurance companies, animal welfare, environmental and nature conservation organisations, the police, the federal government, the media, and so on.
Any other organisation with so much criminal energy would long since have been placed under scrutiny by the federal prosecutor’s office!
Current criminal offenses by hobby hunters in Switzerland are listed here: Link
