Hunt Watch: Focus on People Who Kill Animals

Activists observe driven hunts

The movement, which enjoys growing support and broad public backing, has made it their mission to no longer leave recreational hunters alone with the animals in the forest.

From now on, activists are present at driven hunts and other forms of recreational hunting in small or large numbers, carefully observing and documenting everything recreational hunters do to our wildlife and domestic animals in the forest and field.

Hunt Watch was founded in northwestern Switzerland by animal rights activist Olivier Bieli. The campaign initially focused on hunting grounds in the region. Meanwhile, there are additional branches in Switzerland and hunts abroad, namely in France and Germany, are also accompanied by Hunt Watch.

Excerpts of the photo and video material created during recreational hunts are published. The goal is to show the public how recreational hunters treat nature and its inhabitants, how ruthless and brutal recreational hunting really is, and what sometimes massive dangers wildlife, dogs and people are exposed to during driven hunts.

Peaceful and de-escalating

Hunt Watch activists behave peacefully at all times and de-escalate when confronted by recreational hunters. Furthermore, Hunt Watch categorically rejects all forms of blockades, property damage, hate speech and other criminal acts.

During hunt accompaniments, activists always stay on publicly accessible paths, do not move into the line of fire, and do not disturb recreational hunting in any way. Nevertheless, driven hunts have already been cancelled several times in our presence. Recreational hunters sometimes react with uncertainty, anger and even aggression to our important animal rights work and attempt to massively torpedo it whenever and wherever possible. They use extremely questionable and even illegal methods. The psychological backgrounds of these reactions are extensively documented on wildbeimwild.com.

Intimidation attempts by recreational hunters

Several times, a recreational hunter, disguised as an author, spread false representations and brazen lies about our organization in a newspaper to deliberately damage our reputation. Activists were also falsely accused of prohibited actions during driven hunts.

Completely senseless criminal complaints filed with the police all ended with non-prosecution orders from the responsible prosecutor's offices. Hunt Watch leader Olivier Bieli, who has been working as a police officer with the Basel-Stadt cantonal police for almost 20 years in his professional life, also repeatedly comes into focus.

During a driven hunt, several tires of his animal protection vehicle were deliberately punctured. A recreational hunter also contacted the departmental head of the cantonal police, the highest political authority of the agency, with a hate letter, massively defaming Bieli and even brazenly demanding his dismissal. The intimidation tactic failed and triggered criminal proceedings against the recreational hunter herself.

With questionable criminal complaints, property damage, threats, interference with employers and spreading lies, recreational hunters try to keep us away from them. However, this not only tickles our unbridled curiosity and drive to strive for a world without violence, but also increasingly generates public and media focus on their own machinations in dealing with nature and its sentient beings.

The times when recreational hunters could do whatever they wanted in the forest are definitely over since the founding of Hunt Watch.

Contact Hunt Watch

Further content

FAQ: Psychology of Recreational Hunters · Dossier: Introduction to Hunting Criticism · Template texts for hunting-critical initiatives · All dossiers