JagdSchweiz is looking for children: “Children in Nature” is recruitment in disguise

The umbrella association JagdSchweiz is building up a pool of hobby hunters who are to appear at forest days, project weeks and in school lessons.

What is sold as nature education is the next stage of a recruitment strategy that we have been documenting for years.

At the end of July 2026, JagdSchweiz (ChasseSuisse, CacciaSvizzera, CatschaSvizra) launched a new project on Facebook: “Children in Nature”. The association is looking for “committed huntresses and hunters from all regions of Switzerland” to pass on their knowledge to children. The post itself names the venues: forest day, project week, school lessons, holiday pass. On offer are a training course lasting half a day to a whole day, “high-quality illustrative material” as well as ready-made ideas for games, activities and teaching materials. There is “no need to reinvent the wheel”.

The packaging is familiar. Roe deer up close, the shed antlers of the red deer, the tracks of fox and badger. All harmless, all child-friendly. But right in the middle of this list stands the actual message: “What tasks do huntresses and hunters actually take on?” It is precisely at this point that nature education tips over into image-building. It is not about showing children wild animals. It is about presenting hobby hunting to them as a self-evident, positive part of nature, conveyed by that very interest group which benefits directly from new recruits and from public acceptance.

Why an interest group is not a neutral teacher

The decisive point is the conflict of interest. Hobby hunters have no pedagogical vocation, and yet they proselytise right down to primary schools. Anyone who explains to children «what tasks hobby hunters take on» is not appearing as a neutral nature educator, but as an advocate for their own cause. The umbrella association needs new recruits, and it needs a society that regards killing wild animals for pleasure as normal. A child who learns on a forest day that the hobby hunter is a keeper and carer will scarcely ever become a critical adult who questions this narrative.

No hobby hunters are needed for the factual teaching about native wild animals. For that there are wildlife biologists, game wardens, foresters and conservation organisations that have no killing interest in their subject matter. That of all bodies it is the association that claims the interpretive authority over the forest in the classrooms is no coincidence, but by design.

Empathy is made negotiable

According to experienced child psychologists, hunting conveys dangerous values to children. Children are led to believe that it is right to ignore the feelings, needs and rights of other living beings as soon as tradition, hobby or a supposed «management mandate» comes into play. Anyone who shies away from the dead roe deer or becomes sad is quickly regarded as oversensitive. The child learns to suppress this compassion instead of taking it seriously.

This is precisely what the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child warns against. With «General Comment 26», adopted on 23 August 2023, the highest international body for the rights of minors states that children must be protected from every form of physical and psychological violence, expressly including from being exposed to violence against animals. Studies show that children are negatively affected in their capacity for empathy by witnessing violence against animals and, over time, come to regard this violence as normal. Switzerland is obliged under human rights law to protect children from this. A state-tolerated programme that brings hobby hunters into the schools runs directly counter to this obligation.

The reaction from the public is unequivocal

The Facebook post triggered a clear response. The vast majority of comments sharply reject the project. One user gets to the heart of the matter: children are being deprived of the chance to develop their own view and, once suitably mature, to decide for or against hunting themselves. The message to children is: «Empathy is negotiable.» Others speak of indoctrination, of recruiting a next generation of animal killers, of a contradiction to protecting the wolf and predators. The tenor is unmistakable: leave the children alone.

This rejection is no coincidence. It reflects a societal unease that the association tries to drown out with ever new image campaigns.

This is part of a bigger pattern

«Children in nature» is not a slip-up, but the logical continuation of a strategy. For quite some time, hunting-friendly circles have been running an image campaign in kindergartens and schools with the aim of introducing animal-loving children to the hobby. The manipulation is done playfully and is promoted as a nature conservation project. We have documented these patterns extensively in our campaign «No to teaching by hobby hunters in schools».

Where passive instruction turns into active participation, image cultivation becomes a genuine child protection problem. Our petition «Punish minors on the hobby hunt» therefore calls for penalties for hobby hunters who let children take part in hunting activities. Both thrusts interlock: first the playful familiarisation in the classroom, then participation in the field.

Anyone wanting to delve deeper will find the psychological background in our dossier Psychology of Hunting.

Our assessment is backed by the courts

That we name the association JagdSchweiz so clearly is not rhetorical bravado, but is covered by the courts. The association tried to silence our reporting with a criminal complaint. The Criminal Court of the canton of Ticino acquitted wildbeimwild.com on 17 July 2020 in Bellinzona. After taking evidence, Judge Siro Quadri concluded that our statements about the association were not lies and therefore not defamatory. The verdict is legally binding. JagdSchweiz was also unsuccessful before the civil court in Locarno.

Among the statements which the court classified as permissible, fact-based criticism rather than defamation are, among others, the following assessments by IG Wild beim Wild:

• Board member and National Councillor (CVP) Fabio Regazzi of the militant problem association «JagdSchweiz» repeatedly campaigned for practices we regard as animal cruelty. Recently he even sought to make barbed hooks in angling socially acceptable again, but failed clearly with this endeavour.
• Because of these hobby hunters, wild animals suffer in Switzerland.
• In our view, the association «JagdSchweiz» and other questionable hunting associations arose primarily in order to be able to act above all against predators such as fox, lynx, wolf and the like, that is to say against their prey competitors. They continue to do so to this day. This is probably one of the main reasons why hobby hunters face criticism from all directions.
• In our assessment, the association JagdSchweiz cultivates first and foremost disrespect and a culture of violence, precisely the opposite of what a cultivated person in our society should strive for. Individual hobby hunters even threaten a civil war should, among other things, fox hunting be stopped.
• Members of the association JagdSchweiz maintain relationships with representatives of power in general. Moreover, according to our observation, functionaries and supporters repeatedly resort to violent imagery or other means suited to intimidation, such as fear-mongering, propaganda of lies and hunters' tall tales, in order to influence politics, the media, public administration, the judiciary or the economy.
• From the perspective of IG Wild beim Wild, practically everything that is cruel, unnecessary and heartless is promoted by the association JagdSchweiz.
• Those responsible spare no effort in influencing democratic processes as well as freedom of the press and of opinion in their favour.

The acquittal establishes that harsh, fact-based criticism of an association like JagdSchweiz is legally permissible as long as it is based on comprehensible facts and public interest. Anyone who takes part in political and social debates cannot brush aside legitimate criticism with complaints. Precisely for this reason we may state: an association with this profile is not a suitable body to explain nature to children. How JagdSchweiz operates we continually assess in our campaigns.

What now needs to be done

Schools, teachers and municipalities should critically examine and reject offers from JagdSchweiz and its regional sections. Nature education belongs in the hands of specialists with no interest in killing. Parents have the right to know who stands before their children on a forest day or during a project week, and what interests lie behind it.