Criticism of the Glarner fur and pelt market in Glarus
How such events combine tradition, commerce and animal suffering.
Criticism of fur, pelt and trophy events in Switzerland, exemplified by the traditional fur and pelt market in Glarus (GL) on 14 February 2026.
Wild animals are not merchandise for entertainment, prestige and commerce.
IG Wild beim Wild strongly criticises fur, pelt and trophy events in Switzerland in the harshest terms. Year after year, such events present killed wild animals as trophies, decorative objects and commercial goods. This normalises a treatment of wild animals that is no longer in keeping with the times and that clearly contradicts society's expectations regarding animal ethics and respect for fellow creatures.
The organisers sell these events as cultivating tradition and as a contribution to so-called game management. In reality, the focus is on killed wild animals, whose body parts are measured, graded, awarded prizes or traded as merchandise. This practice promotes an outdated trophy culture in which it is not the animal as a sentient individual that counts, but the hunting achievement and the size of antlers, horns or other «signs of success».
It is particularly offensive that such events additionally serve as a marketplace for the trade in pelts. Fox pelts and other hides are bought up, evaluated, partly awarded prizes or raffled off. This trade ignores the suffering behind each individual pelt and contributes to viewing wild animals as a raw material. While politics and society take steps towards restricting the fur trade, Switzerland continues to celebrate a commercialised form of hobby hunting that is ethically barely justifiable.
Such markets are not folklore, but part of a system that puts a value on animal bodies. When pelts are traded at unit prices, animal suffering becomes a calculation. It is precisely this logic that is incompatible with a modern understanding of wildlife protection .
IG Wild beim Wild also points out that the depicted hunting practice often conveys an embellished picture. In reality, missed shots, injured animals and long periods of suffering are part of the everyday reality of hobby hunting. These aspects are neither addressed at such events nor openly communicated by those responsible. The claim that trophy shows serve to analyse the condition of wildlife populations is barely tenable. Scientifically based monitoring instruments do not require displayed skulls and antlers, which primarily serve self-promotion. Trophies are a material expression of killed wild animals, whose kill quality, follow-up search and suffering hardly feature in the official image.
From an animal welfare perspective, it is also concerning that children and young people are introduced to such events without being taught a respectful and contemporary approach to wild animals. Instead of imparting knowledge, the focus is on a spectacle that trivialises violence and propagates a romanticised hunting world.
Arms dealers, optics manufacturers, hunting accessories, hunting trips, raffles of hunting kills abroad: an industrial hunting system of violence is emerging, in which kills and animal carcasses are part of a marketing system.
Those who kill senselessly do not protect anything, and it serves no purpose for a civilised society. Hobby hunters thus do not ensure healthy or natural wildlife populations, particularly not with their abhorrent fox hunting. Such events regularly raise questions about ethical aspects, permit practices and public impact, and they must finally be fundamentally reviewed politically and socially.
The IG Wild beim Wild calls on those responsible in municipalities, towns and cantons to fundamentally reconsider such events. A civilised society does not need competitions in which dead wild animals are presented as achievements, and it does not need a market on which furs are traded like arbitrary commercial goods. What is needed instead is a respectful understanding of wild animals, a scientifically grounded wildlife ecology and a move away from hobby hunting.