Criticism of 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) on February 26, 2026.
Wild animals are not commodities for entertainment, prestige and commerce.
IG Wild beim Wild strongly criticizes fur, pelt and trophy events in Switzerland . Such events present killed wildlife as trophies, decorative objects and commercial goods year after year. This normalizes treatment of wild animals that is no longer appropriate and clearly contradicts societal expectations regarding animal ethics and respect for fellow creatures.
The organizers market these events as preservation of tradition and as a contribution to so-called wildlife management. In reality, killed wild animals are the centerpiece, whose body parts are measured, graded, awarded prizes or traded as commodities. This practice promotes an outdated trophy culture in which the animal as a sentient individual does not count, but rather hunting performance and the size of antlers, horns or other 'success markers'.
Particularly offensive is that such events additionally serve as marketplaces for trading in pelts. Fox pelts and other hides are purchased, evaluated, sometimes awarded prizes or raffled off. This trade ignores the suffering behind each individual pelt and contributes to viewing wild animals as raw material. While politics and society are taking steps toward restricting the fur trade, Switzerland continues to celebrate a commercialized form of recreational hunting that is ethically hardly defensible.
Such markets are not folklore, but part of a system that puts a price on animal bodies. When pelts are traded at unit prices, animal suffering becomes a calculation. This logic is incompatible with a modern understanding of wildlife protection incompatible.
The IG Wild beim Wild also points out that the presented hunting practices often convey a romanticized image. In reality, missed shots, injured animals and prolonged suffering are part of the daily routine of recreational hunting. These aspects are neither addressed at such events nor openly communicated by those responsible. The claim that trophy shows serve to analyze wildlife populations is hardly tenable. Scientifically-based monitoring instruments do not require displayed skulls and antlers that primarily serve self-presentation. Trophies are a material expression of killed wild animals, whose shooting quality, tracking and suffering barely feature in the official narrative.
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 knowledge transfer, the focus is on a spectacle that trivializes violence and propagates a romanticized hunting world.
Gun dealers, optics manufacturers, hunting equipment, hunting trips, raffles for hunting permits abroad: A hunting-industrial violence system emerges in which kills and animal carcasses are part of a marketing system.
Those who kill senselessly do not protect, and it serves no benefit to civilized 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, licensing practices and public impact, and they finally belong under fundamental political and societal review.
The IG Wild beim Wild calls on those responsible in municipalities, cities and cantons to fundamentally reconsider such events. A civilized society does not need competitions where dead wild animals are presented as achievements, and it does not need a market where pelts are traded like arbitrary commodities. What is needed instead is a respectful understanding of wild animals, professionally-grounded wildlife ecology and an abandonment of recreational hunting.