How does one become an opponent of hunting?

C.S. stayed in Tersnaus in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland, in 2008.

One morning in October, I heard prolonged and persistent dog barking coming from the nearby forest. With my dog Mobi, I set off to check whether anyone needed help.

We hiked up the mountain to the right of the village and came down to where the sounds were coming from. There we discovered two dogs, alone and roaming freely in the forest near a gravel pit.

The younger dog then voluntarily accompanied us on the way home, since there was no person in sight anywhere and I had not found any immediate emergency situation. The whole thing was strange, and I thought I would ask in the village whose dogs they were. Up until that moment, I did not know that these were hunting dogs.

About 500 metres further down, around a bend, we then spotted a hobby hunter sitting furtively in the forest. He immediately asked me whether I had seen his other dog, whereupon I explained to him where it was. A brief, friendly conversation then ensued about this and that. He told me about himself and his dogs, and also said some strange things — such as: if I were to see a lynx, he would have a nice bedside rug; he had already shot 8 hares here (which are on the Red List of species), and so on. At the end I said: You see, that is why I don't actually find hobby hunters very likeable. At that point, the mood turned.

Until then I had not been familiar with recreational hunting, but I instinctively sensed that something was not right here, and I was also aware that lynxes are protected in Switzerland. For me, the presence of this hobby hunter in the forest pointed towards poaching.

As I was leaving, I wanted to take a photo, whereupon the “nature lover” immediately verbally attacked me and stood up to seize the camera. I had to run away because he started chasing me. He was not very fit and quickly ran out of breath. Little hunting dog Fino also followed along running, utterly bewildered by the whole situation.

After that, hobby hunter 1 made a phone call — as I could see looking back — to his friend hobby hunter 2, who was lying in wait further down the forest path. I encountered him shortly afterwards at a bend in the path and also took a photo of him for identification purposes for the police. A reflex action on my part, because I wasn’t going to put up with this — something was seriously wrong here, it flashed through my mind. By cutting the bend in the path tightly, I was able to run past him.

He immediately came at me with his rifle and I had to get myself to safety across cattle pastures.

Hobby hunter 2 got quite close. At one point he was not sure whether he should shoot. I was at gunpoint. He then turned his weapon around and raised the stock to strike.

Meanwhile, hobby hunter 1 came down from above via a shortcut through the forest to hobby hunter 2, and both of them watched as Mobi and I fled from the violence in Tersnaus.

The refined gentlemen of the noble sporting tradition then fired a shot and called after us: «We’ll get you yet … stupid Zurich snout …» and so on.

I had never felt so much adrenaline and fear of death in my entire life. When I heard the shot, I first looked at myself, and my next thought was: they’ve shot my dog behind me. Still running, I stopped momentarily but could see that Mobi was still following with his ears folded down. The cows on the meadow also became restless.

Shortly afterwards I was back in Tersnaus. We were staying in the village center next to mountain bike champion Nino Schurter. His mother was just on her way to work in Vals and was about to get into her car when I arrived. I told her what had happened, and she said she had also heard the shot.

Back in my apartment, I called the responsible police station in Ilanz and was given an appointment that same afternoon. I told the officer taking my statement what had happened and handed over the photos. At the end, he warned me against filing a complaint, as the hobby hunters would otherwise file a counter-complaint on the grounds that I had photographed them without permission. Many police officers in Graubünden are also hobby hunters. He did promise me, however, that he would track down the “colleagues” and give them a piece of his mind.

A few days earlier, on 18 October 2008, there had already been an unpleasant incident at the village fountain in Tersnaus, when a vehicle with the licence plate GR 35308 pulled up. Rowdy, intoxicated hobby hunters caused a disturbance while helping themselves to water. The registered owner of the vehicle was a Mr. Buchli-Mehli Franz Heinrich, Polenweg 1, 7405 Rothenbrunnen. I passed this information on to the police as well.

A week later, I called the officer to ask about the latest developments in his work. “The hobby hunters have not yet been identified,” was the response I received. I called again a week after that, and two weeks later I showed up unannounced at the police station in Ilanz. At the door, I was told that the officer in charge had been transferred to Chur and that there was nothing more they could do.

From that day on, I became an opponent of hunting and turned my back on Graubünden, the tourism canton.

A hunting rifle serves only for recreational hunting: If a person is threatened with a hunting rifle, a court has ruled that this constitutes misuse of the weapon. The revocation of the hunting licence and firearms permit is therefore not to be objected to.

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Related dossiers and articles:

• Dossier: Hunting and Weapons
• Dossier: Hunting Dogs – the Forgotten Victims of Recreational Hunting
• Dossier: Hunting Laws and Oversight
• All articles: Crime & Hunting
• Hobby Hunter Radar: Report a Suspected Case
• Template text: Recreational Hunting and Crime
• Template text: Alcohol and Drug Use during Recreational Hunting