Sample text: No recreational hunting against swine fever

1. Motion

The Government Council is instructed to submit to the cantonal parliament a proposal ensuring that epidemic scenarios such as African Swine Fever (ASF) are not used as a pretext for expanding recreational hunting. In particular, it must be ensured that

• measures to combat ASF are based exclusively on recommendations from the cantonal veterinary office and the FSVO
• large-scale, preventive culling of wild boar without concrete ASF evidence is inadmissible
• in case of an epidemic outbreak, interventions are carried out exclusively by state wildlife management
• relaxation of existing closed seasons and night hunting bans is only permissible with veterinary office authorization
• baiting of wild boar for hunting purposes is prohibited throughout the cantonal territory

2. Brief justification

The recreational hunting lobby systematically uses the ASF scenario to demand an expansion of wild boar hunting. Veterinary epidemiological expert bodies warn that large-scale hunting during an ASF outbreak is counterproductive: driven hunts panic wild boar and spread the pathogen over large areas. The demonstrably most effective measures are zoning, carcass searches and biosecurity in livestock operations.

Canton (...) has a legitimate interest in ensuring that its epidemic control is based on veterinary scientific evidence and not on the wish lists of hunting associations.

• ASF Dossier: Link
• Dossier Hunting and wildlife diseases