Solothurn: 26 New Hunting Licenses and Growing Criticism

20 men and 6 women received their hunting proficiency certificate from Cantonal Councillor Brigit Wyss at Waldegg Castle.

More and more city dwellers are leaving their offices to venture into the great outdoors — not only for recreation, but also in the name of nature conservation. If more meaningful offerings for slowing down were provided, they would not need to end up sinking into the world of hobby hunting and losing themselves in it.

An ordinary person should not have to obtain a firearms licence first in order to enhance biotopes or to care for and tend to wildlife with dignity, respect and integrity. Hobby hunters rescue roe deer fawns in spring, only to take aim at them come autumn.

The cheerful back-slapping among hobby hunters looks like this today, for example in the case of foxes: even though every normal wildlife biologist knows (and countless studies and case examples point to the fact) that the senseless fox hunting is nothing but a convenient myth — hunters' tall tales, in other words.

In place of the fox, one could substitute any wild animal of one's choosing, after the so-called care and management at the hands of these perpetrators of violence.

Hobby hunters spread unspeakable suffering, terror and misery among both people and wildlife. Virtually everything that is cruel, unnecessary and heartless is promoted by hunting associations, as a court in Bellinzona recently confirmed. Wildlifewildlife suffers because of hobby hunters. It is not uncommon for hobby hunters to also turn their weapons on people.

According to studies, hobby hunters even promote and spread diseases.

• Hunters spread diseases
• Hobby hunting promotes diseases

Hobby hunters struggle when they have to explain themselves in an enlightened society. They are insufficiently, or not at all, educated. And so most hunting license holders waddle through nature with the following attitudes:

• Vermin must be killed
• Wild animals are fruit just waiting to be harvested
• Ecology means: poisoning the soil, groundwater, and wildlife with ammunition
• making as much noise as possible in the forest
• Fur is fashion
• Meat consumption is healthy and innate to humans
• Hunting and animal cruelty are animal protection
• Alcohol and other drugs are part of the fun with the rifle
• Hunters' tall tales are science
• Hunting is deep meditation
• Killing is a commandment of Moses
• Hobby hunters are the advocates for wildlife
• etc.

Hobby hunters are harmed by civil servants

At the point where violence is discharged, damage is caused just as much as at the point at which it is directed. And this in a very concrete sense at the neuronal level. Scientists have discovered this through research. Neuropsychologists also confirm: the amygdala, a core region of the brain, is noticeably underdeveloped or impaired in perpetrators of violence. When this central part of the brain is defective, the sense of disgust, among other things, is switched off.

Those who obtain a hunting license therefore always receive two things: a license to kill and a license to become stupid.

„"Waidgerecht" has nothing to do with animal protection either. The notion of fair chase among hobby hunters is diametrically opposed to the Animal Protection Act. "Waidgerecht" is about as far removed from the Animal Protection Act as a cow is from riding a bicycle. Today's hobby hunting is, at its core, simply criminal. It is just that our legal system has not yet progressed far enough to account for this in criminal law.

We therefore commend Canton Geneva with its professional wildlife management without hobby hunters, but with principled game wardens. On Lake Geneva there are vineyards and other cultivated areas, as there are in the rest of Switzerland. Evidently, however, they have humane and ethical approaches to dealing with wildlife and intelligent measures to protect crops. Game wardens do not organize driven hunts there, nor do they require hunting dogs for that purpose. In Geneva, foxes, martens, badgers, birds, etc. are not culled simply because it is hunting season. This is also reflected in the federal hunting statistics. Practical deterrence measures, meaningful public education, support services, and continuing training are carried out together with wildlife wardens. Safety, expertise, animal welfare, and ethics are the guiding principles.

Time and again, claims are made within hobby hunter circles that, upon close analysis, originate from hunting literature and similarly unscientific sources. This is due primarily to the frequently inadequate training in hunter's licence courses, which are largely conducted by individuals — some of them fanatics — with cult-like ideologies and who require no formal proof of qualification. After their training, hobby hunters move exclusively within the echo chamber of the hunting press, which continually repeats their distorted and often outright false representations.

Within hunting clubs, members then mutually reinforce one another's worldview. In this way, an insular and militant group has emerged that is barely receptive to new information. What makes this particularly alarming is that the local press and politicians still believe that expertise lies beneath the hunter's hat, and so they eagerly consult the local hobby hunter on all matters relating to nature. In this way, hobby hunters also contaminate the public discourse.

It is of fundamental importance — particularly when it comes to hunting and hobby hunters — that the public scrutinises matters very closely. Nowhere else is so much manipulation carried out through falsehoods and fake news. Violence and lies are two sides of the same coin. For decades, hobby hunting has been nothing other than a permanently costly construction site, a patchwork, and a source of conflict for politics, forestry and agriculture, public administrations, the judiciary, health insurers, insurance companies, animal welfare, environmental and nature conservation organisations, the police, federal authorities, the media, and so on.

Hobby hunters: a natural disaster

Amidst the disorder in which nature finds itself after decades of management and stewardship by hobbyhunters, theproportionof threatened species is greater than in any other country in the world — and that country is Switzerland. These hired killers have been creating an ecological imbalance in the cultivated landscape for decades, with partly dramatic consequences (protective forests, disease, agricultural damage, and much more). Over a third of plant,wildlifeand fungal species are considered threatened. Switzerland also ranks last in Europe when it comes to designating protected areas for biodiversity. It is precisely these circles of hobby hunters with their lobbying work who, through politics, media, and legislation, have been responsible for this for decades. They are the ones who notoriously block contemporary, ethical improvements in animal welfare and sabotage serious animal and species protection. Hobby hunters regularly oppose more national parks in Switzerland, because their concern is not nature, biodiversity, species protection, or animal welfare, but rather the pursuit of their perverse, bloody hobby.

Did you know …

• that in Switzerland innocent young wolves are being liquidated?
• that hobby hunters lie when it comes to assessing game meat quality, and that according to the WHO, processed game meat is carcinogenic — like cigarettes, asbestos, or arsenic?
• that according to a study, nowhere is the lead contamination of golden eagles and bearded vultures higher than in the Swiss Alps, due to ammunition used by hobby hunters?
• that the fair chase ethics of hobby hunters are diametrically opposed to animal protection law and are nothing but a mirage?
• that hunting is war, where animal competitors are simply eliminated?
• that there are countless illegal and unmarked hunting blinds in our countryside, some so rotten that they pose a danger to children and can cost people their lives?
• that year after year, countless people are killed or injured by hunters’ weapons, some so severely that they end up in wheelchairs or have limbs amputated?
• that in Switzerland, approximately 120,000 perfectly healthy roe deer, red deer, foxes, marmots, and chamois are killed each year, mostly needlessly?
• that because of hobby hunters, it has become nearly impossible today to live in harmony with wildlife or even to see wild animals?
• that shotgun blasts cause hares to scream like small children, and tear apart the entrails of “shot” roe deer and red deer so that they leave a trail of blood during their flight for hunters to track?
• that the hobby hunters’ claim that the cruel wildlife massacres are necessary to regulate animal populations has been scientifically refuted?
• that hobby hunters openly admit that hunting is about the “pleasure of killing” and “the joy of making a kill” — a pathological obsession?
• that hobby hunters have no sixth sense and yet regularly claim they only shoot sick and weak animals, which of course does not hold true in practice?
• that hobby hunters travel abroad for trophy hunting, far removed from any species protection and hunting regulations, and that there are even Swiss hobby hunter travel agencies catering to such mindless hunting pursuits?
• that the vast majority are not legitimate professional hunters, but pursue hunting as a hobby, sport and leisure activity, which is immoral and in fact contradicts the Animal Protection Act?
• that 99.07% of civilised people in Switzerland are not hobby hunters, meaning only 0.3% of hobby hunters take pleasure in these bloody activities?
• that these wildlife killers do not hunt on the basis of scientific justifications?
• that protected species do not actually belong under hunting law, because hobby hunters are overwhelmed by species conservation and repeatedly shoot animals listed on the Red List — such as lynx, wolf, hare, grey partridge, quail, etc. — for sport?
• that hobby hunters deliberately decimate certain animal species in order to eliminate competition for their unnatural behaviour (fox, lynx, wolf, birds of prey, etc.)?
• that wildlife dies before the hobby hunter can even fire a single shot, that this is precisely what must be prevented, and that this is arguably the central concept behind wildlife stewardship and hunting management plans?
• that in wild boar populations (and fox populations), normally only the lead sow produces young, but due to her being shot, all female animals within the sounder reproduce, and that this is one of the reasons we have a wild boar population explosion?
• that grazing animals — deer, roe deer, etc. — originally lived primarily as diurnal animals on fields and meadows, like goats, sheep and cows, and not in the forest?
• that the wolf is vitally important for the long-term health of wild ungulates, because it hunts sick or weak animals with, for example, incredible precision, and is thereby vastly superior to hobby hunters?
• that foxes, after being senselessly hunted, usually end up in the rubbish?
• that foxes today are hunted primarily so that there are more hares, etc. available for hobby hunters’ frying pans? Yet the fox feeds on hares in fewer than 10% of cases and would never catch a healthy hare?
• that in animal protection advocacy, one cannot deal with hobby hunters through gentleness alone — street festivals, prayer chains, etc. — since a tough problem demands a tough response?
• that hobby hunters use hunter's yarn to engage in disrespectful mockery of living beings?
• that it is frowned upon to shoot big game at feeding stations or during mating season, yet hobby hunters have no qualms about doing exactly this to their competitor the fox?
• that in some cantons hobby hunters go hunting solely for the tender meat of a young animal?
• that hobby hunters shoot pregnant mother animals in front of their young, or target only young animals during the rearing period (post-special hunt)?
• that hobby hunters poison the environment, nature, humans and animals with their ammunition?
• that bestiality, barbarism, cruelty, bloodshed and senseless suffering cannot be considered cultural heritage in a civilised society?
• that hobby hunters shoot approximately 10’000 roe deer fawns every year?
• that hobby hunters in harsh winters lure starving animals with bait only to shoot them in a treacherous and cowardly manner?
• that hobby hunters send aggravated dogs into burrows to eliminate foxes and badgers (earth hunting)?
• that hobby hunters lure peaceful living beings into box traps, where they may suffer for days awaiting their killer, or often subject animals to an agonising death struggle lasting hours (trap hunting)?
• that hobby hunters cowardly ambush and shoot or injure peaceful wild animals while they sleep or bask in the sun, using state-of-the-art precision weapons?
• that hobby hunters support awards, fur markets, prize ceremonies for trophy culture, trophy shows, the fur trade, and so on?
• that hobby hunters place firearms in the hands of underage schoolchildren and practise killing with them?
• that hobby hunters often carry out their cruel acts in isolation, which encourages animal cruelty?
• that hobby hunters seriously injure many wild animals, and the victims often suffer for hours in enormous pain and fear until a tracking dog finds them and they are shot?
• that hobby hunters (aside from vivisection) inflict the most suffering and abuse on animals, including through the manner in which they kill?
• that the hunter's supposed love of animals and nature takes no pleasure in the existence of the beloved object, but rather aims to possess the beloved creature body and soul, culminating in making it prey through the act of killing?
• that hobby hunters actively promote browsing damage through hunting pressure, particularly on predators such as fox, lynx and wolf?
• that hobby hunters are responsible for antisocial, unethical and unchristian behavior?
• that hobby hunters withhold normal, natural animal observations and interactions from the public?
• that there is no greater torture product, contaminated with ammunition residues, than game meat?
• that there is no uniform national regulation regarding vision tests, shooting proficiency, etc. for hobby hunters?
• that there is no psychological aptitude test for hobby hunters?
• that there is no alcohol ban for hobby hunters when they shoot at animals with their weapons?
• that hobby hunters intrude into educational institutions in order to impose their hunters' tales and their culture of violence on children?
• that a court in Bellinzona recently confirmed that hunting associations promote virtually everything that is cruel, unnecessary, and heartless?
• that the association «Jagd Schweiz» cultivates above all disrespect and a culture of violence – the exact opposite of what a civilized person in our society should aspire to.
• that in the canton of Grisons alone, more than 1’1000 reports and fines are issued against hobby hunters every year?

In the view of IG Wild beim Wild, hobby hunters require annual medical-psychological fitness assessments modeled on the Dutch system, as well as a binding upper age limit. The largest age group among hobby hunters today is 65+. Within this group, age-related limitations such as declining visual acuity, slowed reaction times, reduced concentration, and cognitive deficits increase statistically and markedly. At the same time, accident analyses show that the number of serious hunting accidents involving injuries and fatalities rises significantly from middle age onward.

The regular reports of hunting accidents, fatal errors, and the misuse of hunting weapons highlight a structural problem. The private ownership and use of lethal firearms for recreational purposes largely eludes continuous oversight. From the perspective of IG Wild beim Wild, this is no longer justifiable. A practice based on voluntary killing that simultaneously generates considerable risks for both humans and animals forfeits its social legitimacy.

Recreational Hunting is also rooted in speciesism. Speciesism describes the systematic devaluation of non-human animals solely on the basis of their species membership. It is comparable to racism or sexism and cannot be justified either culturally or ethically. Tradition does not replace moral scrutiny.

Critical examination is particularly essential in the field of hobby hunting. Few other fields are so heavily shaped by euphemistic narratives, half-truths, and deliberate disinformation. Where violence is normalized, narratives frequently serve as justification. Transparency, verifiable facts, and open public debate are therefore indispensable.