Hunting Act: Consultation on wolf kills during the whelping season and in hunting ban areas runs until 16 October
The Federal Council wants to allow wolf kills during the whelping season and in federal hunting ban areas. Its own explanatory report concedes what this means for young animals and protected areas.
On 24 June 2026, the Federal Council opened the consultation on a further revision of the Hunting Act.
In doing so, it is implementing two motions adopted by Parliament in 2025: 25.3715 Friedli ("Allowing kills of wolves in hunting ban areas") and 25.3549 Broulis ("Problem wolf living in a pack. It must be possible to act!").
Two new provisions are envisaged. Art. 12 para. 2ter is intended to allow the cantons to take action against wolves from packs between 1 February and 31 May as well. Art. 11 para. 5bis is intended to newly permit such interventions in the federal hunting ban areas too. The Federal Council ties these interventions to repeated attacks despite herd protection or to a threat to humans. Until now, pack wolves were protected from kills during the breeding season and in the federal hunting ban areas.
Together with proactive regulation from September to January and reactive regulation from June to August, the killing of problem wolves is thus intended to become possible "all year round", according to the Federal Council.
What the explanatory report says
The Press release from DETEC emphasises "individual" problem wolves. However, what matters are the text of the law and the explanatory report.
Kills despite young animals in the pack. The report acknowledges that February to May "classically falls within the closed season even for huntable species" and that there is "a certain risk" of "leaving orphaned young behind". Nevertheless, kills are to be permitted "even if it is established or possible that this pack has young". This would remove for wolf packs a protection that Art. 7 para. 5 of the hunting act expressly requires for huntable species such as roe deer or chamois: the protection of mother animals and their young. The report does call for the protection of young animals to be "given particular consideration". However, the statutory text says nothing about this.
Pack regulation also in game reserves. The draft does not only cover individual wolves. Art. 11 para. 5bis expressly refers also to the proactive regulation under Art. 7a and to the reactive regulation of packs. The report itself confirms that the provision "applies both to individual kills […] and to the regulation of packs". Its assurance that the new rule brings "no easing of population regulation" only applies to the whelping period. It does not hold true for hunting sanctuary areas: there, population regulation is being extended precisely to where it was previously excluded.
Lower intervention threshold during the reproduction period. Until now, the canton could only intervene in a wolf pack between February and May in the case of a "serious and imminent danger to humans", and even then only without the approval of the FOEN (Art. 9c of the Hunting Ordinance). The draft lowers this threshold to a mere "danger to humans" without further defining when such a danger exists. What was once an exception for acute emergencies would become a far broader basis for intervention during the whelping period.
Recreational hunters, too, could shoot during the whelping period. The draft provides that cantons may not only "order" measures against wolf packs but also "permit" them; in hunting sanctuary areas, only "permitting" is mentioned at all. Under Art. 12 para. 2 of the hunting act, in addition to supervisory bodies, persons entitled to hunt may also be commissioned to carry out such measures. Kills within packs with pups and in federal protected areas could thus be transferred to recreational hunters.
No case figures for February to May.The explanatory report justifies the revision with an «inability to act» between February and May. However, it presents no figures on how much damage is caused by pack wolves in these months, how extensive it is, and in how many cases properly implemented herd protection was demonstrably overcome. Without this information, it cannot be verified whether an intervention during the whelping period is necessary at all.
Wolf in the game reserve «fundamentally desired». The report describes the wildlife sanctuaries as “priority areas for fauna”. The presence of the wolf there is “fundamentally desired”, because by hunting hoofed game it counteracts excessive damage to forest regeneration. At the same time, it should be permitted to be shot there if it attacks protected herds at least twice, causing considerable damage overall.
Livestock in the protected area. According to the report, around 29,000 sheep are kept in 30 of the 43 federal wildlife sanctuaries, roughly 15 per cent of all sheep kept in mountain areas, plus around 18,000 cattle and cows. The proposal focuses on killing. From the perspective of the IG Wild beim Wild, it should instead start with grazing in the protected areas.
Bern Convention: exception requirements not examined. The Federal Council justifies compatibility with the Bern Convention by referring to its Art. 7, which names “closed seasons” as a protective measure. Under Art. 9 of the Convention, exceptions to the protective provisions require that “no other satisfactory solution” exists. Art. 9 is not discussed in the report. Moreover, for the opening of the wildlife sanctuaries, the report contains no independent examination at all of compatibility with the Convention.
Risk to pack structure during rearing
The Wolfs-Hirten, a Grisons wolf protection organisation, point out a biological connection in their seven-page statement. If parent animals or experienced pack members are missing during rearing, cubs grow up without a stable social structure and encounter the alps the following year as yearlings. The organisation fears that kills during the whelping period could thereby encourage later conflicts. Whether killing pack wolves during this phase reduces damage or causes new damage in the medium term is not examined in the explanatory report.
Attacks in spring also frequently occur on home and pre-alpine pastures shortly before the herds move up to the alps, where herd protection is often only provisional. From the perspective of the Wolfs-Hirten and the IG Wild beim Wild, closing these protection gaps should take priority over intervening in packs during the whelping period.
The 2020 popular vote
On 27 September 2020, the electorate rejected a revision of the hunting act with 51.9 per cent voting no. Particularly contentious at the time was the expansion of kills of protected species, above all the wolf. Since then, several of these elements have been gradually reintroduced, both at the level of the act and of the ordinance: preventive regulation, pack kills, and now the whelping period and protected areas. Each partial revision appears limited on its own, but taken together they significantly shift the level of protection afforded to the wolf.
All the more important, then, that not only farmers' and recreational hunting associations have their say in the consultation. Our analysis shows just how closely direct payments and wolf policy are linked in the Federal Palace Farmers in parliament: high direct payments, a hard line against the wolf. More background in the Wolf dossier and in our analysis from June: Open Hunting Ban Zones, Shoot Wolves Year-Round? Why This Policy Cannot Hold.
How you can submit a statement
Not only cantons, parties and associations may take part in a consultation, but all persons and organisations. Every submission is recorded in the results report.
- Documents: The draft legislation and explanatory report are available in the Press release from DETEC. The submission address is stated in the covering letter on the Fedlex consultation page.
- Deadline: 16 October 2026.
- Content: A brief submission is sufficient. It is important to take a clear position on both articles (Art. 11 para. 5bis and Art. 12 para. 2ter), ideally requesting their deletion, with a short justification.
- Organisations: The Wolfs-Hirten offer to co-support their statement with the logos of other organisations, and upon request will provide a submission text on both articles by 1 October (info@wolfshirten.ch).
The IG Wild beim Wild is submitting its own statement and requesting the deletion of both provisions.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: 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.
All articles are written by IG Wild beim Wild as well as by external co-authors. Research, structuring and editorial processes may be supported by AI-assisted tools.
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