Hunting season until New Year's Eve: Shooting pressure instead of management

The report also describes how individual hunting districts were ordered by registered letter to organize additional driven hunts , sometimes with hobby hunters from outside the district.

What at first glance appears to be administrative inequality is in reality a symptom of a larger problem. Recreational hunting is out of control in many places because it increasingly feels like a system of targets, pressure, and administrative oversight. Where quotas and kill success dominate, the individual animal becomes a planned item, and suffering a secondary concern.

The core of the dispute: targets, weather, pressure

The article describes how the Office for Nature, Hunting and Fishing has been demanding a higher red deer cull for years, citing damage to crops and pressure on forest regeneration, especially in the southern part of the canton. It also states that the weather has made it difficult to meet the cull targets. Therefore, the hunting season in Red Deer Management Area 1 has been extended until the end of the year. In Red Deer Management Area 2, however, the extension applies only to a few hunting areas, even though the cull numbers there are also said to be below target.

Even this language is telling. Weather is not a problem, but a protective factor. Cold, snow, poor visibility, and more difficult stalking reduce hunting success. From an animal welfare perspective, this should be a signal for restraint, not a reason for even more hunting pressure.

Hunts carried out on orders: When violence is organized

Particularly explosive is the passage stating that selected hunting districts were ordered by decree on December 5, 2025, to conduct additional driven hunts and to employ recreational hunters from outside the district. The author speaks of a diktat and pits the autonomy of the hunting districts against the cantonal office.

From an animal welfare perspective, however, a more fundamental question arises: Why is hunting, as a recreational activity, treated like a state-controlled production process? Driven hunts cause enormous stress for wild animals, long escapes, separation of groups, and an increased risk of misfires and arduous tracking. Those who continually extend hunting seasons into winter and simultaneously organize additional hunting pressure are knowingly accepting that suffering will multiply.

Who actually determines the "necessity"?

The reader's comment asks whether the pressure of red deer on the forest is truly so great if important hunting areas are denied an extension of the hunting season. This question is legitimate, but it doesn't go far enough. The crucial question is: Why is the shotgun so often the method used?

Wildlife damage has many causes. Climate stress, monotonous forest structures, fragmented habitats, recreational pressure, roads, and tourist infrastructure play a key role. Red deer are nevertheless regularly made the convenient scapegoat, and hunting the supposedly simple lever to pull. Anyone who continues this system inevitably ends up with ever-longer hunting seasons, ever-increasing numbers of animals killed, and ever-new "measures." This is not sustainable wildlife policy, but rather an escalation of hunting pressure.

The blind spot: When hunting pressure and predator policy align

This reveals a structural contradiction that is regularly ignored in hunting policy. It is striking that those groups demanding longer hunting seasons, higher cull quotas, and increased hunting pressure are often among the most vocal opponents of predators such as wolves, foxes, and lynxes. The underlying logic is simple and rarely openly stated: where predators are absent or politically weakened, more game remains as a huntable target.

This is not holistic wildlife management, but a conflict of interest. Management would mean securing habitats, respecting wildlife's natural rest, and resolving conflicts preventively. Instead, the political focus is repeatedly narrowed to shooting, culling, and extending hunting seasons. The victims are not only individual wild animals , but also the credibility of apolitical system that emphasizes animal welfare while simultaneously creating ever more opportunities for shooting.

Hobby hunting: Privilege instead of common good

Behind the debate lies a power struggle. In large parts of Switzerland, hunting is a private, prestigious leisure activity, but it's marketed as necessary population control. If the common good were truly the guiding principle, criteria such as animal welfare, wildlife sanctuary, habitat quality, and scientific transparency would have to be paramount. Instead, a system of leases, hunting grounds, quotas, and political networks dominates. And if the weather doesn't cooperate, the season is extended.

At wildbeimwild.com, we clearly identify this dynamic. In recreational hunting, thinking too often revolves around tables and target figures, while recreational hunters and authorities debate levels of fulfillment. The wildlife pays the price. This is precisely what hunting in Switzerland is: a system that, when in doubt, expands the logic of hunting instead of limiting it.

What would be necessary now

If politicians and authorities truly wanted to protect wildlife, they wouldn't argue about extending hunting seasons, but would set clear guidelines:

• Binding animal welfare standards for hunting methods, including clear limits for driven hunts
• Transparent data on wildlife damage, culling, and uncertainties
• Habitat management measures instead of a shooting reflex, such as forest conversion and quiet zones
• Independent monitoring of hunting practices, tracking and misfires

However, as long as the maxim "goal missed, season extended" prevails, hunting will remain a hobby with government backing. Wild animals will remain the silent losers.

Source: Toggenburg24 , reader contribution by Peter Weigelt, 28.12.2025/29.12.2025.

St. Gallen Hunting Administration Dossier:

• Dominik Thiel: Wolf hunters at state expense – a department head as a security risk for wildlife protection
• Psychology of hunting in the canton of St. Gallen
• Hunting season until New Year's Eve: Shooting pressure instead of wildlife management
• Patented hunting as a solution to red deer conflicts?
• St. Gallen Hunting Authority: Wolf management without science and without credibility
• The permit to shoot a wolf in the canton of St. Gallen was unlawful.
• Dumbing down of the people in the canton of St. Gallen
• The Office for Hunting and Nonsense in St. Gallen is modernizing hunting training
• St. Gallen wants to regulate the wolf pack on the Gamserrugg mountain.
• Controversy surrounding Swiss officials involved in wolf hunting in Russia
• “Experts” in St. Gallen end wolf management for this winter
• The bad apple in the St. Gallen hunting administration
• Lie hunter became department head in the canton of St. Gallen.
• St. Gallen: Stop the fox and badger massacre
• Are the Federal Office for the Environment (BAFU) and the hunting authorities still working responsibly?
• How amateur hunter Simon Meier leads people astray