Recreational hunting praised – wolf ignored

The Office for Hunting and Nonsense Graubünden published a press release on 3 July that is causing debate. In it, hunters are celebrated for the decline in red deer and roe deer populations – after more than 30 years in which wildlife regulation only partially succeeded.

Editorial Wild beim Wild — 8 September 2025

The Office for Hunting and Nonsense Graubünden is celebrating itself and the hunting community: after decades of modest success, red deer and roe deer populations are finally declining.

640 fewer red deer, and roe deer numbers also retreating – a “merit of the hunters hunters”, according to the press release of 3 July by hobby hunter Adrian Arquint. What goes unmentioned: without the wolf and the lynx, the figures would likely look very different.

A decline in roe deer numbers has also been observed. The role of the wolf, which has demonstrably reduced red deer offspring in the affected areas and preys on calves, receives no mention whatsoever.

It has been scientifically undisputed for years that not only the wolf acts as a natural regulator. It reduces red deer offspring, kills calves and forces wildlife to alter their movement patterns – with positive effects on forests and biodiversity. This is precisely what the Office itself writes in its brochure Jagdbetriebsvorschriften 2025. Yet in the official press release, the wolf does not appear. Omitting it from public communications is not only professionally questionable but also purely politically motivated, Wildtierschutz Schweiz criticises.

Kommunikationsversagen beim Amt für Jagd und Fischerei Graubünden

This is no coincidence. The wolf is polarising, and rather than presenting it as part of the solution, it is publicly downplayed. Hunting is thus cast as the sole hero of a story that is in reality far more complex.

Contradictions in the Office's own documents

Particularly striking: while the brochure Jagdbetriebsvorschriften 2025 of the Office describes the impact of wolf packs in detail, the wolf plays no role in the official press release. Instead,hunting is portrayed as the sole guarantor of successful population management.

A look at the hunting statistics paints a different picture: Between 1999 and 2019, deer populations continuously increased despite regular and special hunts. Only with the return of the wolf and parallel improvements in herd protection measures have declining numbers become apparent.

Violence and lies are two sides of the same coin. And in Graubünden, this is systematic. Hunting is not wildlife management — genocide is not humanitarian aid either.

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Demand for Transparency

For Wildtierschutz Schweiz it is clear: An honest forest-wildlife policy can no longer remain silent about the wolf. “The wolf contributes significantly to population regulation and forest protection. Anyone who ignores the wolf is engaging in deception,” states a position paper.

The organisation demands fact-based communication from the authority that fully reflects reality — even when that reality is politically inconvenient.

The fact that a public authority of all bodies downplays the wolf in public, while internally acknowledging its impact, is not only professionally questionable but also undermines public trust in official communications.

Recreational hunting may make a contribution, but the decisive actor behind recent developments is the wolf. To remain silent about it is not only unfair, but simply unprofessional. Anyone who informs the public in such a one-sided manner is engaging in politics, not public education.

Under federal law, no canton in Switzerland is required to permit hunting. It is the right of cantons to decide whether hunting is permitted or not. If a canton decides against hunting — or even only partially against it — it is free to do so under the Federal Constitution. The Canton of Geneva has long since chosen this exemplary path, according to a spokesperson for IG Wild beim Wild.

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