Wolf Massacre Graubünden: 9 Wolves Shot in December

In December 2023, the wildlife authority in Graubünden shot nine wolves. The office informs the public only once a month and refuses transparency.

Editorial Wild beim Wild — 5 January 2024

Update 5.1.2024

In December 2023 9 wolves were shot by the wildlife authority in Graubünden.

Authority Refuses Transparency

The Office for Hunting and Nonsense in Graubünden refuses to inform the public promptly and transparently.

It intends to report only once a month on the massacre of wolves for which the office bears co-responsibility. This office cuts corners and manipulates wherever it can. Time and again, figures and reports are manipulated with fraudulent intent, as infosperber.ch also reports.

The wildlife authority has shot eight wolves so far. To date, not a single wolf has been shot by a hobby hunter, as Carmelia Maissen informed the Grand Council. According to Maissen, a total of around 400 hobby hunters are authorised to shoot a wolf during the special hunt. The special hunt continues until 20 December.

Differences Between Graubünden and Valais

Auxiliary equipment (thermal imaging cameras, night-vision devices) as used in Valais is not permitted in the canton of Graubünden, and the slaughtered animal is destroyed. No images of the wolf hunt are to appear on the internet, and the canton of Graubünden wants to prevent it from becoming public knowledge who fired the shot.

In Graubünden, wolves are effectively bycatch for hobby hunters, as they may only be shot during the animal-cruel special hunt. This means: once the special hunt for deer and roe deer is over, the wolf hunt is over for them as well.

Graubünden: Die hässlichste Jagd auf der Welt

In Valais, on the other hand, hobby hunters are also permitted to shoot wolves during the fox hunting season through the end of January 2024. Another difference: in Graubünden, the pelt does not belong to the hobby hunter — it must be surrendered. This is intended to prevent trophy hunting. Furthermore, in Graubünden, targeted hunting takes place only during the day, while in Valais any wolf that crosses a hunter's path can be shot even at night.

Criticism of FOEN and Federal Councillor Rösti

Once again, the FOEN and the Federal Council, orchestrated by Federal Councillor Albert Rösti, are criticised in the Club programme on srf.ch for their blind activism and lack of scientific rigour. IG Wild beim Wild has been pointing out for many years that something is fundamentally wrong within the FOEN's Wildlife Division leadership.

Before the massacre, there were good instruments in place to remove wolves causing damage. It is not a pragmatic solution but pure political arbitrariness to now divide Switzerland into compartments and limit the number to 12 packs — that was the tenor of the television programme. Unfortunately, this is all too common in politics: listening to those who shout the loudest, while being intellectually incapable of seeing the bigger picture:236 environmental organisations from 6 continents call on the Swiss government: Stop the wolf culling

Wolves, just like foxes, require no regulation, as they operate on a territorial system. Sooner or later, in search of new territories, they will expand into neighbouring countries. In a well-functioning pack, only one female has young — the mother of the pack — explains wildlife biologist Andreas Moser. The same applies to wild boar and other species. If trigger-happy humans now destroy this natural order, chaos ensues within the group and far more disoriented offspring are produced than before, which can lead to serious conflicts.

The goal of the problem breeders is to keep wolves entirely out of Switzerland or to eliminate them altogether. And it is precisely with them that the core problem lies — not with the wolves. The real problem is not the wolves, but the absent or poorly implementedherd protection measures, the misjudgements by the authorities, and the smear campaign against the wolf by the farming lobby, politicians and the media, which has increased enormously since the 2020 referendum.

Thewolf managementin Switzerland is now completely fact-free.

Dossier: Wolf in Switzerland: Facts, Politics, and the Limits of Hunting

Participatory Campaign: Petition your municipality for a remission of federal and cantonal taxes on the grounds of the catastrophic policies of Federal Councillor Albert Rösti (SVP) and the recently approved shooting of wolves in Switzerland. You can download the template letter here: https://wildbeimwild.com/ein-appell-fuer-eine-veraenderung-in-der-schweiz/