Hobby hunter Simon Meier: fake news about the wild boar enclosure

In the context of an animal welfare project, a discussion arose on 8 October 2017 in the Facebook group of the affected municipality about the planned wild boar enclosure in the canton of Zurich.

On 9 October 2017, a hobby hunter and fake-news specialist named Simon Meier from the association Wildtier Schweiz spoke up with the following words:

Do come by sometime, enjoy a stroll here or visit one of the many restaurants. I think the residents of Elgg see the point of hunting. Especially of efficient wild boar hunting……Even the Swiss animal welfare association is in favour of hunting dogs being trained on wild boars for animal welfare reasons.

That the hobby hunter Simon Meier does not himself come from Elgg and has probably never been there, the unsuspecting readers do not yet know at this point. The last sentence, however, can hardly be topped in audacity and falseness and once again confirms our critical scrutiny of the hunting community as a whole. Already at the start of the discussion, Simon Meier manages to place 2 lies in a few sentences.

The Swiss animal welfare association (STS) recently published a position paper on what to make of the training and use of hunting dogs in Switzerland . Namely absolutely nothing (apart from the follow-up search).

On 10 October, the following becomes known about the wild boar enclosure in the canton of Zurich:

Contrary to the claim in the Landbote of 6 October 2017 by Urs Philipp, head of the cantonal fisheries and hunting administration in the canton of Zurich, («It was agreed with local animal welfare organisations and a stock veterinarian had already been found«), the Zurich animal welfare association in truth does not support the wild boar enclosure either! So there can be no talk of any agreement!

Zurich Animal Welfare rejects the facility because 1. it means stress and risk of injury for wild boars and dogs, and 2. because animal welfare fundamentally considers the approach of such facilities to be wrong: Animal welfare is convinced that driven hunts, due to the many missed shots, cause significantly more animal suffering than targeted kills through wait hunting, 3. such facilities are available in nearby foreign countries.

Immediately, the fake-news specialist Simon Meier speaks up again and tries to deceive the readership with foreign statutes and so on.

It is intriguing that a scientific study was conducted in Germany on precisely this topic (doctoral thesis by Dr. med. vet. Ralf Erler) in which the stress hormone level (cortisol) in the saliva of wild boars was tested in a wide variety of situations, with the result: When the study conditions are observed in accordance with the Common Position on the animal-welfare-compliant behavioural adaptation of hunting dogs in the wild boar enclosure, §1 and §3 of the Animal Welfare Act as well as §19/13 of the Federal Hunting Act remain unaffected. According to the available findings, the use of wild boars in wild boar enclosures for the behavioural adaptation of working hunting dogs does not produce distress and is therefore not relevant to animal welfare.

Research into this «scientific study» brought the following to light:

Prof. Dr. Hans Wunderlich, mentioned several times in the work, who co-supervises the enclosure in Zehdenick, is a hunter, a hunting dog breeder, and until very recently was merely the! animal welfare officer of the working hunting dog association. He is a strict advocate of training hunting dogs on living animals (duck, fox, etc.) and was later, partly because of this work, even dishonourably expelled from the hunting association.

Dr. Ralf Erler, the author of the dissertation on hunting dog training in the wild boar enclosure, is a veterinarian in the practice of Prof. Dr. Hans Wunderlich. A rogue who thinks ill of it. In this respect, it is no surprise that the dissertation came out in favour of the wild boar enclosures and that this training method was certified an animal-welfare-wise superficial «harmlessness».

The Institute for Wildlife Research at the Tiho Hannover was and is co-managed by hobby hunters. Prof. Dr. Klaus Pohlmeyer, who headed the institute until May 2008, was at the same time the former chairman of the Lower Saxony hunters' association.

The «scientific investigation» was thus made by hobby hunters for hobby hunters and is far from being classified as an independent and professional study.

On 11 October 2017, new postings appeared from the hobby hunter Simon Meier with the following sentences:

I am convinced that the majority of game wardens who hunt in areas where there are wild boars have already been in wild boar enclosures with their dog.

And:

And I know various game wardens who are not active in the canton of Zurich. I also know Geneva game wardens. And believe me. They too take part in drive hunts. Either partly in their own areas or they are invited by friends elsewhere.

Gottlieb Dandliker, the head of the game wardens in Geneva, says on this:

“Regulation is carried out exclusively by game wardens; no amateur hunters are involved. For these “Gardes de l’environnement”, safety, ethics and animal welfare play a major role: “We cannot afford a single accident.” Animal welfare means above all avoiding wounded animals. “That happens en masse in the surrounding area, in the Vaud, in France. Driven hunts are conducted there, the animals are wounded, they are found or not found – or only a week later,” reports the fauna inspector. “Stress situations like those in driven hunts – where the animals know: that was a truly terrible affair – do not occur in our regulation.” Lead sows are not shot – for ethical reasons. Because if the suckling mother is missing, the young die. The lead sows and the large boars are also not shot. “Through this we hope for stability in the sounder and in the behaviour of the animals,” explains Dandliker. “We regularly have groups of wild boar orphans here from French hunting, who have lost their mother and come into the villages.» Such leaderless piglets can of course cause great damage. And it is known that wild boars reproduce uncontrollably after the lead sow is shot.

Simon Meier replies:

Of the Geneva game wardens, I do not claim that they organise drive hunts in their own area. But for example in the canton of St. Gallen, where there are hunting parties and regional game wardens, they regularly take part in the drive hunts organised by hunting parties in their area. I know a game warden who, in addition to his profession, is also a voluntary territory lessee and hunting supervisor. Every year I am invited to a drive hunt where a Bern game warden hunts along each year.

The problem with hobby hunter Simon Meier is that, time and again, he tries to reach his goal through manipulation, with untruths and dangerous half-knowledge. In the canton of Geneva, the system with the game wardens has been working for over 40 years to everyone's satisfaction, without all the fabricated lies presented by the former managing director of Wildtier Schweiz.

And anyone who thinks problems can only be solved with brute force has serious educational and psychological deficits. Fox hunting and so on, for example, makes no sense according to experts and case examples – it is even counterproductive. Scientific studies prove this in abundance.

Dossier on the St. Gallen hunting administration:

• Dominik Thiel: wolf hunter at the taxpayers' expense – a department head as a security risk for wildlife protection
• The psychology of hunting in the canton of St. Gallen
• Hunting season until New Year's Eve: kill pressure instead of wildlife management
• Licence hunting as a solution to red deer conflicts?
• St. Gallen hunting administration: wolf management without science and without credibility
• The authorisation to kill a wolf in the canton of St. Gallen was unlawful
• Dumbing down the public in the canton of St. Gallen
• The Office for Hunting and Nonsense in St. Gallen modernises hunter training
• St. Gallen wants to regulate the wolf pack at the Gamserrugg
• Controversy over Swissofficials at the wolf hunt in Russia
• «Experts» in St. Gallen end wolf regulation for this winter
• The rotten apple in the St. Gallen hunting administration
• A lying hunter became department head in the canton of St. Gallen
• St. Gallen: stop the fox and badger massacre
• Are the FOEN and the hunting administrations still working seriously?
• How hobby hunter Simon Meier lures people onto the wrong trail