Hunt in Winterthur ends with penalties for two recreational hunters
In Switzerland (and in most European countries too) the rule is: anyone who shoots at wild animals must make sure whether the animal has been hit.
On Halloween night 2024, a botched wild boar hunt took place in Stadel, a district of Oberwinterthur.
Two recreational hunters – one in his mid-40s, the other in his late 20s – spotted a sounder of wild boars, crept up on them and fired simultaneously at two of the wild animals. Neither of the shots was fatal, but at least one wild boar was wounded and bleeding. At the time, the younger man was undergoing hunting training with the older one. Moreover, the idea for the wild boar hunt came from the older man. Accordingly, the public prosecutor assigned him the main responsibility.
Instead of searching for the animal with a tracking dog as required by law, the men broke off the hunt. According to the public prosecutor, a follow-up search could have significantly shortened the suffering of the wounded animal.
The younger hobby hunter also stood out for further offences: between spring and autumn 2024 he killed 21 animals in the Zurich Weinland region – including roe deer, badgers, foxes and another wild boar – without a valid hunting licence, writes the Tagesanzeiger.
The penalties in detail:
- Younger recreational hunter: a fine of 900 francs (suspended), plus an 800-franc penalty and 1,200 francs in procedural costs.
- Older recreational hunter: as the trainer and initiator of the wild boar hunt, he received a fine of 1,500 francs (suspended), a 900-franc penalty and 1,200 francs in procedural costs.
And there really are still people who believe that recreational hunters undergo good training. It is a militant sect, no more and no less. Unlike with police officers or armed security personnel, psychological aptitude tests are not mandatory for recreational hunters. Violations are often only punished when someone files a complaint or someone happens to be caught. Within the hunting community, breaches of the rules are tacitly tolerated when they happen «among themselves». Laws are seen more as a guideline than an obligation. IG Wild beim Wild demands stricter sanctions for violations, including a lifelong revocation of the hunting licence in serious cases.
Most violations are only discovered when witnesses or chance are involved. Sanctions are often mild and limited in time. There is no mandatory, continuous aptitude check – once passed, hardly ever reviewed for years. After that, there is barely any compulsory further training or re-examination. And the major cantonal differences make the system full of holes.
The public prosecutor therefore held the two recreational hunters to account for negligent offences against the Animal Welfare Act and negligent contravention of the cantonal hunting act.
The penal order of the Winterthur-Unterland public prosecutor is legally binding.
RECREATIONAL HUNTER RADAR
On the trail of hidden animal welfare offences, poaching and/or crime? Report suspected cases to us! Help with the great Recreational Hunter Radar.
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.
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