Sample text: Reform of recreational hunter training
1. Motion
The Government Council is mandated to submit to the Cantonal Parliament a proposal for amending the Law on Hunting and Wildlife Protection (… law designation …) as well as the Hunting Ordinance (… ordinance designation …), which fundamentally reforms the training and examination for the hunting license in the canton (…) and expands it with binding animal protection, ethics and ecology components. The legislative revision must particularly ensure that
- training for obtaining the hunting license is expanded with mandatory modules in animal protection law (Animal Protection Act, Animal Protection Ordinance), animal ethics, wildlife ecology, non-lethal wildlife management methods and stress physiology of wildlife
- the content of these modules is delivered by specialists who are personally and institutionally independent from hunting associations and hunting schools
- the hunting license examination includes a written and oral animal protection and ethics examination that comprises at least one third of the total examination
- periodic re-examination (every ten years) becomes mandatory
In particular, it must be legally regulated that
- training content and examination questions are not determined by hunting associations, but by the cantonal office for nature and environment in cooperation with the cantonal animal protection specialist office
- training institutions are subject to cantonal accreditation and regular quality control
- applicants must complete a mandatory psychological aptitude assessment
- the hunting license is immediately and permanently revoked for violations of the Animal Protection Act
2. Brief justification
TheTraining to Obtain a Hunting License in Switzerland is outdated and one-sided in essential areas. It is predominantly conducted by hunting associations and hunting-affiliated institutions. Animal welfare law, animal ethics, and wildlife ecology content lead a niche existence.
The result is a hunting community that, after passing the exam, moves within the echo chamber of hunting press and whose self-understanding is based on narratives that are scientifically untenable in many respects. The twelve most common hunting myths are not critically questioned in the training, but reproduced.
A hunting license authorizes the carrying of firearms in publicly accessible areas and the killing of sentient wild animals. This authorization must be tied to the highest professional and ethical standards. In no other area where humans are permitted to kill animals is independent training in animal welfare law dispensed with.