Criticism of the Schwyz trophy show in Muotathal
How such events combine tradition, commerce and animal suffering.
Criticism of fur, pelt and trophy events in Switzerland, exemplified by the traditional Schwyz trophy show (SZ) of 26 February 2026.
Wild animals are not a commodity for entertainment, prestige and commerce.
IG Wild beim Wild criticises fur, pelt and trophy events in Switzerland in the strongest terms. Year after year, such events present killed wild animals as trophies, decorative objects and merchandise. This normalises a treatment of wild animals that is no longer in keeping with the times and clearly contradicts society's expectations regarding animal ethics and respect for fellow creatures.
The organisers sell these events as the preservation of 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 This practice promotes an outdated trophy culture in which it is not the animal as a sentient individual that counts, but rather the hunting performance and the size of antlers, horns or other «symbols of success».
What is particularly offensive is that such events additionally serve as a marketplace for trading in furs. Fox furs and other hides are bought up, assessed, sometimes awarded prizes or raffled off. This trade ignores the suffering behind every single fur and contributes to viewing wild animals as a raw material. While politics and society are taking 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 assigns value to animal bodies. When furs are traded at unit prices, animal suffering becomes a matter of calculation. It is precisely this logic that is incompatible with a modern understanding of wildlife protection .
IG Wild beim Wild further points out that the hunting practice depicted often conveys a whitewashed image. In reality, missed shots, injured animals and long ordeals 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 exhibitions serve to analyse the state of the 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 scarcely feature in the official picture.
From an animal welfare perspective, it is also worrying 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: a hunting-industrial system of violence is emerging, in which kills and animal carcasses are part of a marketing system.
Whoever kills senselessly protects nothing, and it is of no use to civilised society. Hobby hunters therefore do not ensure healthy or natural wildlife populations, especially not with their abhorrent fox hunting. Such events regularly raise questions about ethical aspects, permit practices and public impact, and it is high time they were fundamentally reviewed, politically and socially.
IG Wild beim Wild calls on those responsible in municipalities, towns and cantons to fundamentally rethink such events. A civilised society does not need competitions in which dead wild animals are presented as successes, and it does not need a market on which pelts are traded like any other commodity. What is needed instead is a respectful understanding of wild animals, a sound and well-founded wildlife ecology, and a turning away from hobby hunting.