Initiative demands «Wildlife Wardens instead of Hunters» in the Canton of Zurich

Hunting in the Canton of Zurich is to be definitively abolished in its current form.

In future, only professionally trained wildlife wardens are to be deployed. This is the demand of the cantonal popular initiative «Wildlife Wardens instead of Hunters» by the Animal Party Switzerland (TPS).

The Canton of Zurich is to «introduce a canton-wide wildlife management system with professionally trained wildlife wardens» that replaces the at-risk group of amateur hunters. The focus is to be placed on the natural regulation of wildlife populations. Only wildlife wardens employed by the canton would be permitted to intervene in cases involving sick or injured wild animals.

On Tuesday, 18 July 2017, the Animal Party Switzerland (TPS) submitted over 7’300 signatures from the public to the canton in support of the cause.

«The phrase ‘conserve and care’, popular among hunting circles as a justification for a bloody hobby, is an old myth,» says co-initiator and president of the Animal Party Switzerland (TPS), Monika Heierli-Rutishauser. «Today it is scientifically proven that nature regulates itself.»

This assertion is confirmed by a wide variety of positive experiences in hunting-free regions, including, among others, the wildlife sanctuary of the City of Zurich. It is now known that the hunting of wild animals does not lead to a regulation of wildlife populations, but rather constitutes the cause of problems, as the fertility (birth rate) of wild animals increases as a result of hunting.

For the state game wardens, as with their counterparts in the canton of Geneva, there is no longer any reason to practice cruel hunting methods such as den hunting, drive hunting, pushed hunting, etc. Many forms of hunting and hunting dog training practiced in the canton of Zurich are still clearly in violation of animal welfare laws. Game wardens must also be sober on duty. Hobby hunters vehemently oppose an alcohol ban during hunting. Game wardens retire at 65 at the latest. The largest age group among amateur hunters is probably, as in Germany too, those aged 65+, individuals with age-related, visual, concentration and reaction impairments as well as training and practice deficits. In the police or military, older individuals are for good reason no longer sent on armed operations involving dangerous firearms. Game wardens will also no longer needlessly torment and/or shoot wildlife (e.g. around 200 healthy foxes per month, songbirds, waterfowl, etc.). Such «nature conservation à la hunters» has no place in a civilized society. Hunting in the canton of Zurich protects and benefits virtually nothing. Not even the hare, which is listed as «vulnerable» on the red list. The Federal Hunting Statistics speak for themselves. Game wardens will also no longer taint the public coffers with blood money. Practically everything that is cruel, unnecessary and heartless is still considered proper hunting practice today.

The territorial hunting system in the canton of Zurich has not truly proven itself in nearly 100 years and remains, even under the new hunting law, an unscientific, animal welfare-violating and ecological patchwork.

Especially during and after drive hunts and pushed hunts by Zurich hunters, a great deal of animal suffering takes place.

Better a game warden with sense than hobby hunters running amok!

The migration and dispersal movements of wildlife are hindered or even prevented by roads and railway lines. Of the 18 wildlife corridors of supra-regional importance, 16 in the canton of Zurich remain impaired or severed. But this is not truly surprising. The director of construction responsible since 2007, Markus Kägi (SVP), is in fact a suffering-causing amateur hunter who conducts his environmentally damaging shooting exercises in a nature reserve.

Toessauen_Embrach from Thomas Forster on Vimeo.

That the hunting education and hunting legislation cannot be of particularly great social value is confirmed by State Councillor Markus Kägi himself, on the occasion of a council debate:

«Especially in the area (hunting shooting range) that has been shot at with clay pigeons and shotgun pellets since the 1960s, the plants grow particularly vigorously. One must therefore assume that the soil there is of particularly high quality.» (KR-Nr. 197/1991, RRB-Nr. 3964/20.11.1991)

Wildlife passages help to prevent wildlife accidents and to open up habitats for wild animals. This ensures important genetic exchange and prevents the extinction of local animal species.  In 2015, 973 roe deer, 110 wild boar, 843 foxes, 282 badgers, 19 hares, as well as around 2,700 birds and small mammals were killed in the canton of Zurich by motor vehicles and rail traffic. The number of unreported cases is likely to be considerably higher.

Humans impair and destroy the natural habitat of wildlife, to which animals are nonetheless equally entitled. Therefore, people should not also needlessly and senselessly hunt wildlife — which, incidentally, is a clear indicator of a psychological disorder within the hunting community. Many hunters openly and honestly admit that hunting is not wildlife management, but rather an instinct-driven, compulsive pursuit of wild animals in times of abundant food, clothing, and other resources. Hunters want to kill! Hunting is therefore no service to the public either. Wildlife are not renewable raw materials. Wildlife, like other animals, have feelings and emotions. Wildlife can suffer, grieve, and experience joy. Like humans, they live in family groups and social structures, which today’s hunters largely shoot apart for sport. What person or animal would voluntarily choose to live in a habitat managed by militant hobby hunters? The canton of Zurich has an area of 1’729 km², of which 758.61 km² is huntable land. That amounts to 2 hobby hunters per km² of huntable area. One must truly imagine this clearly: Nearly half of the canton of Zurich’s territory is leased to private recreational users for around 1 million francs in blood money for 8! years, so that they may pursue a bloody hobby. We do not allow road users to be regulated, controlled, and directed by state-armed Hells Angels either, simply because the bikers have completed training for heavy motorcycles and enjoy being on the roads. The monopoly on force belongs in the hands of the state, not in those of private hunting gangs.

The Zurich Hunting Warden Association writes: Very few hunters subject themselves to regular and intensive training at the shooting range. …Where should these bungling amateurs suddenly acquire the ability to fire safely and handle everything else that is required…

A report by the Swiss Animal Protection STS also points out how unprofessional and sloppy hunting in the canton of Zurich actually is. For example, no reliable statistics are kept on missed shots, post-shot searches, and so on. Post-shot searches are not even subject to mandatory reporting.

It is absolutely essential, particularly with regard to hunting and hobby hunters, that the public scrutinizes things very closely. Nowhere else is manipulation through falsehoods so prevalent. Violence and lies are two sides of the same coin. Hunting, not only in the canton of Zurich, has for decades been nothing other than a permanently costly construction site and point of contention for politics, forestry, agriculture, administrations, the judiciary, health insurers, insurance companies, animal welfare organizations, environmental and nature conservation organizations, the police, the federal government, the media, etc. The canton of Zurich does not need nearly as many wildlife wardens as it would take to easily compensate for the damages and costs by abolishing hobby hunters, emphasizes IG Wild beim Wild.

In the canton of Graubünden, which, unlike Zurich, provides excellent data and statistics, wildlife wardens conducted, for example, 1,232 tracking searches in 2015. Yet only 57% were successful. Furthermore, a four-digit number of complaints and fines are issued each year against hobby hunters in Graubünden for violations of the law.

• 2016: 1,201 complaints and fines
• 2015: 1,298 complaints and fines
• 2014: 1,102 complaints and fines
• 2013: 1,122 complaints and fines
• 2012: 1,089 complaints and fines

Wildlife biological studies demonstrate that animals living in a wildlife sanctuary lose a large part of their forced, unnatural shyness, thereby shifting their unnatural, nocturnal activities back into the daytime hours. This is also said to lead to fewer road accidents involving wildlife — what one can see, one generally does not run over. Wildlife behave differently in daylight. Wildlife biologists such as Karl-Heinz Loske repeatedly report with great satisfaction on developments in areas without hunting. A higher level of biodiversity, lower densities of huntable wildlife species, reduced damage, and fewer road accidents are observed. On average, more than 20,000 wildlife accidents occur each year on Swiss roads and railways. The costs of these accidents are estimated at 40 to 50 million Swiss francs.

Professor Dr. Josef H. Reichholf (zoologist, evolutionary biologist, and ecologist) explains:

Long-term studies and experiences in hunt-free major cities demonstrate that wildlife populations largely regulate themselves. Continuous hunting achieves the opposite effect: the fertility of abundant animals increases, meaning that populations of hunting-preferred species (ungulates) do not decrease but grow, and are maintained at a high level. Predators and birds of prey, on the other hand, are excessively decimated and their populations endangered. In hunt-free areas, biodiversity increases. Other positive “side effects” have also been observed in hunt-free areas, such as a reduction in wildlife-related traffic accidents, as animals gradually lose their imposed shyness and become active during the day again, or a decline in browsing damage in forestry. All in all, society and nature can only benefit from modern wildlife management and allowing wildlife populations to self-regulate, as the Animal Party demands in its initiative. The reduced shyness makes animals accessible to experience!

Experiences from various countries and regions thus demonstrate that wildlife populations largely self-regulate in an intact wildlife sanctuary protected from hobby hunters. Should it nonetheless become necessary to intervene with regulation, this must, from an animal welfare perspective, be carried out exclusively by professionally trained wildlife wardens who work professionally in contemporary wildlife management (animal protection, safety, science, wildlife biology, etc.) .

The introduction of ethical wildlife management will furthermore ensure that hunting accidents are avoided as far as possible in the future. Domestic animals and livestock should no longer be killed by mistake. The safety of the public engaging in leisure activities in forests and fields is once again guaranteed. Cruel hunting methods practiced «for fun» will then be a thing of the past. In this way, the Canton of Zurich will once again increasingly enable nature experiences with wildlife observation, and, like the Canton of Geneva for example, will promote biodiversity as well as the general well-being and emotional welfare of the population.

Especially in a densely populated area such as the canton of Zurich, the introduction of a contemporary wildlife management system is desirable, as it offers a high guarantee of reduced density stress (burnout, etc.) for wildlife. Wildlife with reduced stress levels are also less prone to illness and behavioral abnormalities. Wild animals such as roe deer and red deer are not livestock to be farmed and bred. They do not even belong to hunters. Not only from the federal hunting statistics can one clearly see that something has gone seriously wrong in the canton of Zurich. The small but hobby-hunting-free canton of Geneva, for example, today has the highest hare populations in Switzerland — not the canton of Zurich. The canton of Geneva still has partridges. At the hunting-free Lake Geneva, international ornithologists are delighted to observe rare bird species, and so on. Roe deer and wild boar populations, on the other hand, are disproportionately abundant in the canton of Zurich. Year after year, hunters in the canton of Zurich continue to fail.

The wildlife populations of interest to hunters have not been genuinely regulated for decades, but rather decimated, while birth rates are being stimulated. A consequence of the current methods is that, for example, roe deer — grazing animals — become even more skittish and shift their daily activity entirely into the night. This leads to numerous traffic accidents. Wild boar and roe deer populations in the canton of Zurich have virtually exploded and are out of control. This reflects no understanding of nature.

Hunting is not an honorable craft. There are no standards, ethics, sound science, or rules in hunting that can withstand societal norms — not even within the hunting community itself — and least of all animal welfare arguments. Grisons hunters criticize earth hunting as animal cruelty, Valais hunters delight in trophy hunting of ibex, Obwalden hunters consider high seats unsportsmanlike, Glarus hunters are not recognized as hunters in Grisons, the contamination of the environment and wildlife with hunters’ ammunition is framed as a sacrifice for the ecosystem — while conservationists protest against it — or among German hunters it is considered taboo to shoot roe deer with buckshot, while Zurich hunters find it amusing, and so on.

Just as it is ethically wrong to decimate one wildlife species in order to protect another, the massacring cannot be right either. Over decades, unnaturally high ungulate populations have been bred for hunting purposes. To justify this now with lame excuses about the absence of predators, etc. — predators that are still being fought against, particularly in hunting circles — is simply despicable. Hunters also have no way of knowing which animals would survive natural selection. What matters most to hunters is that they get to take a shot before a wild animal dies a natural death (which is, after all, what we as humans wish for ourselves as well).

Hunting always represents a catastrophic failure of scientific competence and imagination. If the ecological mandate were truly taken seriously, the purpose of hunting would be nothing other than rendering itself unnecessary. The hunter's greatest joy would then be the self-regulating forest, which spared them from having to pursue their unwillingly bloody trade.

Hunting in order to decimate and massacre populations is not, historically speaking, hunting at all — it is terrorist zooicide. The killing of animals by the modern hunter today results primarily from greed, the pursuit of profit, pleasure, indifference, and contempt for the fate of animals. The true hunters of indigenous peoples would never sanction such a thing.

If hunters were not repeatedly retrained by animal and nature conservationists, there would be no upper limit to the hunting-related nonsense encountered in practice.

Environmental and animal protection are close to our hearts

As long as prey animals do not belong first and foremost to the predators, hunting is senseless killing. This is also the position of major conservation organisations in Switzerland. The prevailing hunting laws have little to do with ethics and morality — indeed, they stand in direct contradiction to the Swiss Animal Welfare Act, e.g. Art. 26 and Art. 4.

No one may unjustifiably cause an animal pain, suffering or harm, put it in a state of fear, or disregard its dignity in any other way. The mistreatment, neglect or unnecessary overexertion of animals is prohibited.

According to Pro Natura Switzerland, “hunting must have a good reason”“. Because ethics, science, legal frameworks, and related principles — simply formulated — are indispensable prerequisites for contemporary wildlife management. The slogan also holds true in reverse: without sufficient justification, the killing of a wild animal cannot be ethically justified. This sufficient, compelling justification is absent today in the hunting of animals that are simply "eliminated" (e.g. foxes, birds, trophy hunting, etc.). A so-called regulation of predators in favour of high ungulate densities must be categorically and consistently rejected on both professional and ethical grounds. Modern humans and wildlife wardens respect predators as an important part of the ecosystem. Studies conducted in various countries and at various points in time have documented the influence of the red fox not only on roe deer populations: for the Bernese Mittelland, it is estimated that a fox can prey on an average of eleven fawns during the months of May to July.

Under federal law, no Swiss canton is required to provide for hunting. It is the right of the cantons to decide whether hunting is permitted or not. If a canton decides against hunting — or even only partially against it — it is free to do so under the Federal Constitution. The canton of Geneva made this exemplary choice long ago. Many cantons already prohibit hunting locally through hunting ban areas, wildlife sanctuaries, and similar measures. The city of Zurich as well as the municipalities of Kilchberg and Oberengstringen have declared their entire municipal territory a communal wildlife protection zone. The city of Winterthur has designated its core zone as a wildlife protection area. Hunting is prohibited in cantonal and communal wildlife protection zones. This prohibition includes entering the protected zone with weapons, the use of hunting dogs, and similar activities. The necessary regulation of wildlife populations and management measures such as special culls of sick and injured animals or neozoa are carried out by wildlife wardens.

Label fraud

«The training to become a hunter in the canton of Zurich is probably one of the strictest and most comprehensive in Europe», says Urs Josef Philipp, head of the Zurich Fisheries and Hunting Administration. Christian Jaques (President of the Hunting Association Zurich) echoes this view:

«The training of Zurich hunters is demanding, and the hunting examination is the most difficult in all of Switzerland».

A dusty education in hunting violence culture and hunters' jargon is, however, no quality seal for meaningful wildlife management or an understanding of the complex wildlife-biological and ecological interrelationships and laws of nature. Terrorists, soldiers, etc. and/or other weapons users are also well trained in order to spread their often skewed and militant ideologies. Accordingly, Zurich should have the best hunting in the world — yet the Graubünden hunters or those in St. Gallen make the same claim. And Graubünden is likewise a fine object of study when it comes to what the ailing hunter's soul gets up to under the patent hunting system. In Graubünden, two popular initiatives from the public are currently pending, because people there have also had enough of the barbaric terror against wildlife organised by the cantonal hunting administration together with the risk group of amateur hunters.

In the canton of Zurich, even non-hunters may go hunting in the 172 game districts without an examination, provided they do so on no more than 6 days per year and their qualifying shoot is no more than 2 years in the past. Furthermore, persons who have already passed a hunting examination in another canton can benefit from the existing reciprocity declarations (AG, BE, BL, GL, LU, SG, SH, SO, SZ, TG, ZG). The examinations of these cantons and of Baden-Württemberg are recognised in the canton of Zurich as qualifying one to hunt. In Baden-Württemberg the hunting examination can be completed in three weeks. Even if a German citizen from Baden-Württemberg moves to Zurich, the hunting licence obtained in three weeks remains valid.

Hunters (with the exception of vivisection) inflict the most suffering and abuse on animals, particularly through the manner of killing. For decades, hunting has stood in sharpest contradiction to an enlightened, scientific, and ethical understanding of nature and animals.

The vast majority of the population (99.96%) do not regard wild animals as living targets and engage meaningfully in the protection of nature and animals – hunters, by contrast, create opportunities for killing.

A close analysis reveals that hunters perform no compulsory service for the public, let alone for wildlife. Wildlife does not welcome hunters. When entire stretches of land can be leased at a pittance in order to senselessly kill and/or torment wildlife, one is compelled to use very different terms than compulsory service. Hunters would not perform any «service» whatsoever if they were not permitted to kill. Hunters pay and expect something in return for their efforts. This has absolutely nothing to do with the spirit of selfless public service.

The extent of poaching in the canton of Zurich remains unclear. The responsible hunting authority has issued neither a statement nor statistics on the matter. Hunting supervision in Zurich is not the responsibility of wildlife wardens (as in the patent-hunting cantons), but rather of recreational hunters appointed by the respective districts themselves. The conflict of interest speaks for itself.

According to the federal hunting statistics (as of 2017), there is only one wildlife warden in the entire canton of Zurich holding a federal certificate of competence, and no qualified hunting inspectors. Yet amateur hunters on countless hunting association or municipal websites refer to themselves as «wildlife wardens» or «hunting inspectors» — which is equally misleading. The airline Swiss does not call its flight attendants pilots and place them in the cockpit.

In Switzerland, the risk group of hobby hunters causes more human injuries and fatalities every year than Islamic terrorists, cults, the Mafia, and biker gangs combined.

Between 2011 and 2015, accident insurers recorded a total of 1’526 injuries resulting from hunting accidents — along with at least a good dozen fatalities, and this solely within the hunting community itself. The degree to which hobby hunters endanger third parties cannot be determined from accident insurer data. Nor are there any statistics providing more detailed breakdowns by canton. The numerous hunting-related damages have also done nothing to reduce health insurance and insurance premiums for the general population.

Hunting laws in the canton of Zurich partly date back to 1929. These still violate human rights, as hunting on private land, for example, need not be tolerated. Every residential area is part of a hunting territory. Hobby hunters are therefore permitted to pursue their bloody hobby practically right up to one's own front door — and they do.

Hunting as it is practiced today is not a centuries-old craft, tradition, or culture. Those who kill senselessly do not protect, and civilized society gains nothing from it. What serves the population, foresters, farmers, and others more: disproportionately large ungulate populations that hide in the forest during the day and cause damage provoked by hunters, or wildlife sightings — as in the canton of Geneva — albeit in smaller numbers?

Throughout the entire canton of Zurich, according to the BAFU (and after 100 years of conservation work by hunters), there are still no legally binding wildlife sanctuary zones. Healthy predators are hunted and cannot fully perform their important function for society in self-regulating the ecosystem.

One does not need to be a mathematician to realize that when predators are hunted in an ecologically unsound manner, as in the canton of Zurich, an artificial imbalance in the animal world is systematically produced in favor of prey species — to the detriment of the cultivated landscape, and forests in particular.

Studies conducted in various countries and at various points in time have documented the influence of the red fox not only on roe deer populations: For the Bernese Mittelland, it is estimated that a fox can catch an average of eleven fawns during the months of May through July. Yet in the canton of Zurich, hunters shoot around 2,000 healthy foxes every year, only to discard them. Precisely the right number to allow the high-risk group of hunters to later spread their tall tales about being indispensable regulators.

Accordingly, every fox hunt constitutes a clear violation of the Animal Welfare Act, as there is no reasonable justification for it. No culling plan exists either. For more than 30 years, there have been at least 18 wildlife biology studies proving that fox hunting does not regulate populations and is also ineffective for disease control. On the contrary!

If there were fewer problem hunters harboring notions of exploiting nature, more peace-loving people could once again dedicate themselves to the idea of nature conservation – people who care for flora and fauna with respect, decency, and fairness.

The initiative «Wildlife wardens instead of hunters» is forward-looking

Hunting weapons contribute to abuse in all areas of our social life. Time and again, firearm suicides, threats, and fatal tragedies occur. Year after year, countless people are injured by hunters and hunting weapons, sometimes so severely that they end up in a wheelchair or have limbs amputated. The more hunting weapons are in circulation, the more dangerous it becomes for the general public. It is not uncommon for hunters to completely lose their composure during factual conversations with the public and begin making threats with violence and weapons. The risk group of hunters are in theCanton of Zurichnot even legally required to announce a hunt. People in forests and fields repeatedly find themselves in the line of fire of hunters and subsequently in hospital.

Studies repeatedly show that hobby hunters are not motivated by nature or animal protection, but that they take pleasure in a culture of violence. The exercise of violence against animals and animal cruelty is perceived as normal as cycling or Hornussen.

Finances

According to its own figures, the hunting administration in the Canton of Zurich incurs annual expenditure of approximately 1.6 million francs and generates deficit revenues of around 1.0 million francs (lease and hunting permit income). Calculations by the hunting administration around Mr. Urs Josef Philipp allegedly showed that if the canton were to take over the services provided by the 172 leased hunting territories itself, 20 million francs would not be sufficient – the amount that the 1’500 hare-whisperers invest in the slaughterhouse of nature. Despite the Freedom of Information Act, the hunting administration of the Canton of Zurich repeatedly failed to provide Wild beim Wild with an explanatory response. The hunting administration cannot substantiate the 20 million figure. Pseudo-hunters like to argue with the many unpaid working hours. This cannot be verified with any precision, and much of it is mere hunters’ tall tales as well as unnecessary self-interest, such as their hunting infrastructure installations. With 20 million francs, one could probably replace hobby hunters with professional wildlife wardens throughout the whole of eastern Switzerland.

In the canton of Vaud (3’212 km²), which is almost twice as large in area, there are over 50% fewer hunters active than in the canton of Zurich (1’729 km²) — and the world keeps turning there too.

The risk group of hunters in the canton of Zurich is completely overwhelmed. Due to improper hunting practices and related issues, the canton's compensation payments for wildlife damage cases rise practically every year (in 2014/15 even by 125%), placing an increasing burden on taxpayers. Half of the forests in Zurich belong to private owners, one third to municipalities, one eighth to corporations, and approximately 7% to the canton.

What more than 400 hunters in the canton of Geneva failed to accomplish particularly successfully in the past is today handled more exemplarily by 11 wildlife wardens who collectively share 3 full-time positions, alongside many other duties. From the canton of Geneva it is also known that not only was the supervision, monitoring, and oversight of the 400 hobby hunters an enormous financial burden. The 11 wildlife wardens today cost the taxpayer the equivalent of a cup of coffee per year in wage costs. The expenditure for the taxpayer is therefore no higher than it was before the hunting ban of 1974. Only those who hold a wildlife warden position with a canton may begin training as a federally certified wildlife warden. The average gross salary of wildlife wardens is: 58,153.85. With more wildlife wardens intervening solely in a sanitary or therapeutic capacity alongside foxes, lynx, wolves, birds of prey, and others, every canton would again have order, biodiversity, and greater protection against natural hazards. Taxpayers would likely be spared hundreds of millions of francs currently pumped by the Confederation, cantons, and municipalities into forest conservation — in areas where hobby hunters park, breed, and then vilify and persecute wildlife as agents of damage.

Furthermore, alternatives now exist where needed for maintaining population sizes in a sensible and sustainable manner without lethal force — such as immunocontraception, among others. Any zoo or wildlife park can provide information on this.

According to hunters' own statements, 95% of hunting activities have nothing to do with killing animals. They should therefore have no difficulty in good conscience leaving lethal force to the professionals and actively supporting the Animal Party's initiative. It is well established from the canton of Geneva that wildlife wardens are markedly better marksmen than hobby hunters, who bear responsibility for unspeakable animal suffering.

Even after the initiative is adopted, hobby hunters will still be able to tend and care for flora and fauna (and perhaps also clean up and detoxify entire ecosystems from their waste such as ammunition residues, etc.). And the more capable hunters can undergo further training as wildlife wardens through the canton or get involved in that role, turning their hobby into a profession.

In the canton of Bern, wildlife wardens have long been sleeping more soundly at night. The reason: when a driver hits a wild animal, it is not the hunters or wildlife wardens who respond, but the police. This relieves them of the burden, and above all eases the strain on the cantonal budget. The Bernese hunting inspector Peter Juesy explains: his wildlife wardens had accumulated around 5,000 hours of overtime each year through night operations. There is therefore considerable potential for savings and optimization, if the will is there. In the canton of Zug three wildlife wardens are employed. They are responsible for the entire canton and operate an on-call service around the clock, 365 days a year.

Morality and Ethics

As in every war — which today's terror against wild animals unquestionably is — one must fundamentally ask what is actually necessary from a wildlife-biological standpoint. The fanatical hunting of, for example, healthy foxes or birds certainly is not. What is sensible and what is not? What about the indirect costs that hunters also generate — for example, the numerous legislative revisions and ordinances, complaints, court proceedings, policing, higher health insurance and insurance premiums resulting from the many hunting accidents, costs of carcass disposal, environmental pollution, noise emissions, waste of resources, healthcare, diminished quality of life and biodiversity, victim costs, consequential costs, hunting infrastructure installations, and so on? The hunting community across Switzerland has been in conflict with those responsible for forestry for decades, and generates millions of francs in costs annually in the cultivated landscape at the expense of the taxpayer.

Modern wildlife biology and science today explain that hunting pressure increases wildlife populations, because the remaining animals simply increase their birth rate. Hunting does not mean fewer animals, but more births. The regulation of wildlife populations is not achieved through hunting. Hunting is most often the cause of alleged problems. When overpopulation in a habitat is threatened, the birth rate decreases. When many animals are killed by hunting in autumn/winter in a given area, the survivors have a better food supply. Wildlife that emerges strengthened from winter reproduces earlier in spring and in greater numbers. The wildlife-biological necessity of hunting has not only not been scientifically proven, but has been refuted in many places.

Under the law, "conservation" refers to the protection and care of wild animals, whereas "hunting activity" refers to the pursuit, trapping, and killing of game. The aim is to keep wildlife populations that are of interest to hunters stable at a high level, and to replace predators such as wolves and lynxes that have been weakened by hunters' hands. This is also why foxes are hunted with such fanaticism. Through small game hunting, hunters deliberately cause serious disruptions to the natural balance of species in order to hunt more successfully. Habitats are purposefully manipulated and disturbed, to the detriment of all wildlife.

The pleasure of killing wild animals cannot be a goal of our society and is in no way conducive to peaceful coexistence in our cultural landscape. Predominantly encountered in this environment are mentally predisposed individuals who are markedly lacking in the capacity for empathy. A look at the relevant hunting magazines, hunting forums, hunters' Facebook pages, or the photo galleries from cantonal hunting and fishing authorities, trophy shows, and the like regularly confirms this and reveals a disturbing enjoyment of killing. When examining the structures within the hunting community and the conduct of political authorities, only one consistent conclusion is possible: hunting as practiced in Switzerland is predominantly recreational hunting, in which trophy culture, the social experience, and the desire to kill — along with the associated exercise of feelings of power in nature at the expense of living beings — take center stage. The latter is repeatedly confirmed by hunters' own accounts.

The forest and nature should be returned to people and animals as a peaceful space for recreation and coexistence. Our times are increasingly shaped by brutality and violence, and the hunting community is not without involvement in this. These negative energies of violence, fear, terror, disrespect, environmental pollution and discomfort that hunters leave behind in the environment do not go without a trace.

The art of hunting is often compared to the art of war, with today's hunter typically sitting lazily and cowardly like a tyrant, heavily equipped with technology, in a high seat or under cover. Yet the hunter allegedly longs for nature. But what kind of surreal nature has the hunter created? He must use binoculars and telescopic sights to search for animals — his own relatives — in the wild, animals that can be observed with the naked eye, trusting and unafraid, in areas where no hunting takes place. Not closeness to nature, but rather distance and hostility is what the hunter lives and creates. These are the character and the essence of hunting.

Many people have the impression that foxes, roe deer, red deer, hares and the like no longer exist in the wild at all. How are today's children supposed to genuinely engage with nature in the future if they can no longer experience it — having been rendered unnatural by the hand of hunters? Nature is degraded by hunters into a staged backdrop, representing an enormous reduction in quality of life for ordinary people and animals alike. Hunters and their shooting create a climate and an energy field of unease for both humans and animals in nature recreation areas.

The fact that cantons in Switzerland generate revenue from the blood money of hunting activities is likely unique in Europe as well. Most hunts today are simply unnecessary, constitute animal cruelty, and are therefore essentially criminal in nature. Our legal system has simply not yet reached the point of recognising this in criminal law.

The lobbying efforts of a small hunting community — whose views are often highly radical and misguided, and which contradict the fundamental ethical values of society — amount to pure opinion-making and manipulation. Unfortunately, such circles repeatedly succeed in pushing through perverse laws driven purely by political power plays, laws that have a detrimental effect on wildlife, nature, society and thus the common good.

“JagdSchweiz knows that wildlife populations would, in principle – even in our cultivated landscape – regulate themselves.” – Umbrella organization of Swiss hunters

“Lowland hunting may not be necessary, but it is justified. One might equally ask whether it makes sense to pick berries and mushrooms in the forest!” – Robert Brunold, President of the Cantonal Licensed Hunters’ Association of Graubünden

Even without hunting, there would not suddenly be too many foxes, hares or birds. Experience shows that nature can be left to its own devices. – Heinrich Haller, National Park Director

Hunter slogans are pure eyewash and empty words. If one analyses, for example, the hunters’ faction in Swiss politics, it quickly becomes clear that they rarely, if ever, engage on behalf of nature – what does become apparent is that exploitation and self-interest are their true motives. The hunters’ experts are mostly nothing more than lobbyists for a selfish interest group, seeking to preserve and glorify an uncultured practice. In environmental rankings, hunters even occupy last place. The numerous hunting trips Swiss hunters take abroad likewise serve neither conservation nor a reasonable ecological footprint.

Processed game meat is, like cigarettes, asbestos or arsenic, a poison and a carcinogen – as the World Health Organization (WHO) confirms. Authorities have for years been warning children, pregnant women and women wishing to become pregnant against consuming game shot with lead-based ammunition. Game meat is furthermore contaminated with residues of pesticides, herbicides, liquid manure, antibiotics and other substances absorbed from feed grown in the fields. There is arguably no more inferior meat than that from driven or pressure hunts, which hunters foist upon the public.

In Canada, it is generally prohibited to sell hunters’ game meat in restaurants or shops, as it tends to be regarded as a toxin rather than a foodstuff, according to an article in “The Globe and MailWildlife lives in constant fear of hunters. Especially when they are actually being hunted by hunters, they produce enormous quantities of toxic hormones, adrenaline, etc., which combine in the flesh with the other toxins and waste products already present. Even the ancient Romans knew that when they tortured slaves to death, these individuals developed a certain poison in their saliva with which others could be poisoned. The fear of death thus enters the tissue of wild animals and is consumed along with the meat by those who eat it.

Nature and animal protection as well as safety always cost money, but they also create good jobs and are important cornerstones of a civilised society. If billions are spent on ailing banks, road construction, the military, etc., money can also be invested in the cultural and ethical enhancement of the common good, etc. The population and wildlife would benefit immeasurably from this added value. The cost argument is not a real argument. In democratic Switzerland, we regularly vote on proposals that incur far greater costs but can also lead to a better Switzerland.

Can the value of public safety for the population, leisure activists, walkers, etc. be expressed in figures? No, nor can biodiversity and species diversity, which flourish so beautifully in protected areas. The touristic enhancement of Zurich’s branding and pleasant wildlife observations likewise cannot be quantified in monetary terms.

A passion for hunting is not a mandate from society nor a right, and cannot be one. Hunters promote a culture of senseless violence all the way into primary schools.

With the initiative, you have the choice of a win-win situation for modern wildlife management.

Advantages of the initiative in brief:

• The monopoly on the use of force belongs in the hands of the state and not in those of hunter gangs
• Justice and responsibility towards nature and wildlife
• Hunters notoriously violate Swiss animal protection laws with their hunting methods — wildlife wardens do not
• Zurich’s animal and nature protection as a model for other cantons and countries (such as the Canton of Geneva) in hunting affairs
• No blood money in state coffers from hunters (unique worldwide)
• Curtailment of hunters’ sectarianism (hunters’ tall tales) — the cult of senseless killing and violence
• Dismantling of the criminalized hunter system (fewer legal violations such as breaches of hunting law, poaching, arms smuggling, environmental offenses, animal welfare violations, traffic offenses, etc. by hunters) — Canton Graubünden, for example, records over 1,000 reports and fines against hunters per year (2015: 1,298 reports and fines) — hobby hunters as a security risk
• Relief of time expenditure and costs for the state apparatus, judiciary, public prosecutors, courts, and legal system (thousands of legal violations, reports, administrative fines, etc. against hunters)
• Relief of time expenditure and costs for the federal government, authorities, politicians, and administrations, etc. (hunting revisions, surveillance, monitoring, motions, legislation, carcass disposal, etc.)
• Relief of time expenditure and costs for the healthcare and insurance sector, including health insurance contributions
• Relief of time expenditure and costs for taxpayers (forests, agriculture, etc.) — browsing damage in forests and agriculture
• Relief of time expenditure and costs for taxpayers regarding hunting infrastructure installations and their renovation
• Relief of time expenditure and costs for environmental, nature, and animal protection organizations
• Fewer personal accidents involving hunters' weapons. (2010 to 2013: fourteen fatal hunting accidents and approximately 200 non-fatal accidents involving hunters' weapons out of a total of 1,157 accidents) — not including private individuals, according to the BFU
• The initiative promotes good jobs for wildlife wardens and saves xxx million elsewhere
• More environmental protection instead of environmental pollution (toxic ammunition, illegal hunting stands, car noise and traffic in nature, waste of resources, lead-contaminated shooting ranges, etc. by hunters)
• Demonstrably fewer wildlife-related road accidents (approximately 60 persons injured per year and personal and property damage of 40 to 50 million francs). What one can see, one does not run over
• Violence prevention, protection of animals rather than perpetrators, less violence, fewer weapons and terror in society. Violence against animals often transitions seamlessly to violence against humans
• More wildlife observations, species diversity, and biodiversity for the population, as seen for example in the Canton of Geneva, national parks, or other hunting-free areas
• Enhancement of ethics, morality, fairness, safety, cultural landscape, etc.
• Less abuse and manipulation of hunting dogs
• No more animal-cruelty hunting infrastructure installations (artificial earths, wild boar enclosures, etc.)
• No more shootings of domestic animals
• Fewer pesticides and poisons in agriculture due to rodent plagues caused by the absence of foxes, etc.
• Fewer diseases and risk of epidemics (hobby hunters spread diseases as in the case of rabies)
• Less alcohol and drug abuse during hunting. Game wardens are not permitted to consume alcohol while on duty. The hip flask and “steady-aim drops” are constant companions of hunters. Hunters resist any alcohol ban during hunting
• Public safety for the population, recreational activists, pedestrians, etc.
• No hunting on private land (need not be tolerated, according to the European Court of Human Rights)
• A hunting ban is also good for the mental well-being of hunters. Today’s «hunting» is also a pathological behavioural pattern (those who kill senselessly are not protecting anything, and society gains nothing from it)
• Game wardens, police officers, and soldiers are retired at 65. Hobby hunters are still pursuing their suffering-inducing shooting culture with firearms at the age of 75
• Less shooting noise for the population and wildlife
• E.g. field hare density in the canton of Zurich with hunters at 1.0 per 100 ha, or locally extinct. In the canton of Geneva with game wardens: 17.7 field hares per 100 ha, etc.
• The canton of Zurich is backward in terms of animal-cruelty hunting methods, e.g. earth hunting, driven hunts, ammunition, etc. The canton of Thurgau has banned earth hunting; Geneva has had a hunting ban for 40 years, etc.
• Healthcare: Processed game meat is neither organic nor a high-quality food (particularly that from driven and stalking hunts) but rather causes illness and, according to the WHO, falls into the same toxicity category as cigarettes, arsenic, or asbestos. In Canada it is prohibited to sell hunters’ wild game in restaurants or shops, because it is, among other reasons, not classified as being particularly suitable as a foodstuff
• Weapons are not toys and wild animals are not fairground shooting targets
• Wild animals will once again become increasingly active during the day, visible and experienceable, which will delight the public
• In the canton of Zurich there is not a single wildlife sanctuary recognised by the FOEN
• What over 400 hobby hunters in the canton of Geneva once carried out unsatisfactorily — also at the expense of wildlife, animal welfare, ethics, safety, and the population — is today handled by 11 game wardens who share three full-time positions, and only one of which is required for hunting-related activities.
• Well-founded and better public education by game wardens with a federal certificate of competence (behaviour towards wild animals)
• Wildlife populations can once again regulate themselves more naturally and effectively (lynx, wolf, fox, long and cold winters, food supply)
• Better education, research, wildlife biology and science (long-term studies, open-air laboratory, etc.)
• Strict enforcement of nature and animal protection laws
• Promotion and preservation of local recreational areas
• Wildlife wardens have better training than hobby hunters.
• Hunters notoriously violate Swiss animal protection laws through their hunting methods and passion — wildlife wardens do not
• Wildlife wardens have an entirely different motivation than hunters
• Recreation and tourism, tourist enhancement, added value for the canton of Zurich through Swissness branding
• Protection of children and youth from hobby hunters and hunting tall tales in schools
• No groundwater contamination and no ammunition residue from hunters left in nature
• Hunting is not scientific or wildlife-biological wildlife management
• The canton of Vaud, for example, is twice as large as the canton of Zurich and has 50% fewer hobby hunters than the canton of Zurich
• etc.

Should this article contain false statements of fact despite conscientious research, we are grateful for feedback and take it very seriously.

Faktencheck: Regierungsrat Zürich zur Jagdinitiative