Hunting Fair Switzerland at the Umwelt Arena Spreitenbach

The Umwelt Arena Spreitenbach promotes itself with the promise of conveying 'sustainable lifestyles, ecological responsibility and future solutions'.

Their slogan: 'Tradition meets Future'. But which tradition is meant became clear this weekend: AJV (Aargau Hunting Protection Association), JagdZürich and RevierJagd Luzern presented rifles, hunting travel providers and 'latest innovations' around killing wild animals. Who pays, who shoots, who collects trophies, all under the roof of an 'environmental facility' that thereby undermines its own standards.

Protest with 850 emails and demonstration on site

The contradiction did not go uncommented. Weeks before the trade fair, a petition by IG Wild beim Wild had delivered 850 protest emails to the municipality of Spreitenbach. The message was unambiguous: A trade fair that markets recreational hunting and trophy culture as an attractive leisure activity is not acceptable in a facility that stands for environmental education.

On Saturday and Sunday, March 7/8, animal rights activists demonstrated peacefully on-site in Spreitenbach. The organization HUNT WATCH, Stop Hunting was not inside, but outside: visible, determined, uncomfortable. The familiar heckling from the recreational hunting lobby was once again not absent.

"We are not a moral authority"

Arena managing director Ivan Skender defended the decision to host the fair with a remarkable statement: The Umwelt Arena sees itself "not as a moral authority, but as a place of discourse and opinion formation." Sounds open. But it isn't.

Because whoever gives space to a hunting fair also gives it legitimacy. A "place of discourse" would be an event where animal protection positions stand on equal footing alongside recreational hunting interests. What took place was an advertising and networking event of the recreational hunting lobby, paid for, promoted and endorsed by the Umwelt Arena. Discourse looks different.

Normalization through staging

What the "Jagdmesse Schweiz" does is subtle and effective: It normalizes the killing of wild animals as a socially accepted leisure activity. Hunting travel providers, workshops and "expert lectures" transform the killing of living beings into a lifestyle offering, completely consumable, purchasable, emptied of any ethical reflection.

IG Wild beim Wild has been pointing out for years that recreational hunters in Switzerland annually kill tens of thousands of healthy wild animals - deer, foxes, chamois, often under torture, often with ammunition that poisons birds of prey like golden eagles and bearded vultures with lead. In no other country in Europe is the proportion of threatened species as high as in Switzerland, a result of decades of "management and care" by recreational hunters.

What the Arena owes

A facility that calls itself "Umwelt Arena" bears responsibility. Not as a "moral authority," but as a publicly visible sign of what counts as "environmentally compatible." Whoever hosts a hunting fair while simultaneously promoting sustainability and species protection makes one of the two incredible.

IG Wild beim Wild therefore demands: no future rental of spaces for hunting or animal trade events that trivialize animal suffering. The Umwelt Arena owes not only its brand, but the wild animals of this country a clear answer.

Further information: Hunting and Animal Protection · Hunting Myths Dossier · Trophy Hunting Dossier