Criticism of the Fäälimärt 2026 in Sursee
How such events combine tradition, commerce and animal suffering.
Criticism of fur, pelt and trophy events in Switzerland, illustrated by the traditional fur and pelt market in Sursee (LU) on 10 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 trade goods. This normalises a way of dealing with wild animals that is no longer in keeping with the times and clearly contradicts societal expectations regarding animal ethics and respect for fellow creatures.
The organisers sell these events as a way of maintaining tradition and as a contribution to so-called wildlife management. In reality, the focus is on killed wild animals, whose body parts are measured, graded, awarded prizes or traded as goods. This practice promotes an outdated trophy culture in which it is not the animal as a sentient individual that matters, but the hunting achievement and the size of antlers, horns or other «signs of success».
Particularly offensive is that such events additionally serve as a marketplace for the trade in furs. Here fox furs and other pelts are bought up, assessed, sometimes awarded prizes or raffled off. This trade ignores the suffering behind each individual fur and contributes to viewing wild animals as a raw material. While politics and society are taking steps towards restricting the fur trade, in Switzerland a commercialised form of hobby hunting continues to be celebrated that is barely justifiable from an ethical standpoint.
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.
The IG Wild beim Wild also points out that the hunting practice portrayed often conveys a sugar-coated picture. In reality, missed shots, injured animals and prolonged 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 grounded 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 picture.
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 way of dealing with wild animals. Instead of imparting knowledge, the focus is on a spectacle that trivialises violence and promotes a romanticised world of hunting.
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 bodies are part of a marketing system.
Those who kill senselessly do not protect anything, and it serves civilised society no purpose. Hobby hunters thus do not ensure healthy or natural wildlife populations, least of all with their abhorrent fox hunting. Such events regularly raise questions about ethical aspects, permit practices and public impact, and they finally deserve fundamental political and societal scrutiny.
The 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 achievements, and it does not need a market on which pelts are traded like any commercial goods. What is needed instead is a respectful understanding of wild animals, a scientifically sound wildlife ecology and a turn away from hobby hunting.