Wild animal in the garden: hobby hunters may not enter

During the hunting season, scenes like these are not uncommon. Roe deer, wild boars or foxes that have been shot at seek refuge on private property in their panic.

Many homeowners then experience the unease of suddenly becoming part of a hunting scene. But what does the law say – and what about the ethics behind this behaviour?

The law on your side

No one may hunt on someone else's land without the owner's consent.

That means: your garden, your house, your yard – they are not an open-air shooting range. Hobby hunters may not simply enter your property, not even on the grounds of wanting to «quickly put a wild animal out of its misery».

Only in a narrow exceptional case, the so-called right of pursuit, may they continue to pursue an animal that has already been mortally wounded. But even that is strictly limited: the animal must actually be doomed to die, not merely injured. In all other cases, hobby hunting ends at your property line.

Hobby-Jagd und Menschenrechte in der Schweiz

Ethics versus hunting tradition

Advocates of hobby hunting argue that the right of pursuit serves «humaneness» – the animal should not suffer unnecessarily. But in practice this argument often acts as a fig leaf. Many animals flee not because they «have to die», but simply because they want to survive.

That they then seek shelter in a private garden at the last moment is no coincidence: there is usually quiet, safety and no guns there.

So the question is: how humane is a system that drives wild animals to the brink of exhaustion – and then also denies them their last refuge?

The limits of the hobby hunter privilege

Hunting law does indeed recognise old privileges, but also clear limits. Fenced properties, the vicinity of houses and inhabited gardens are expressly exempt from hobby hunting.

Anyone who nonetheless intrudes risks a penalty.

Morally too the case is clear-cut: the right of ownership and compassion for an injured living being weigh more heavily than the pleasure of hunting.

If you are affected

• Refuse access.
• Document the incident (photos, date, time).
• Inform the police

A sign reading «Private property – hunting prohibited» can help to avoid misunderstandings.

A symbol of the wilderness in retreat mode

The scene of the injured animal in the garden symbolises a deeper crisis: wild animals are losing more and more habitat while at the same time being chased, controlled and killed – often under the guise of «tradition» and «population regulation».

Perhaps it is time to question these traditions – and to grant the animals peace at least where we ourselves are safe: at home.

An injured wild animal that flees into your garden is seeking shelter – not death. The law protects your property, and ethics demand compassion. The hunt ends at the garden gate. And that is precisely where human responsibility begins.