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Education

Neuchâtel: Hunting drunk is now prohibited

The blood alcohol level of hobby hunters is now limited to 0.5 per mille.

Editorial Wild beim Wild — 24 January 2023

In the canton of Neuchâtel, alcohol consumption during hobby hunting has been restricted since the beginning of the year.

The five Neuchâtel game wardens will check the sobriety of hobby hunters using breathalyser tests from the coming season onwards.

The canton of Neuchâtel is thus the first French-speaking canton and the second in Switzerland (after Zurich) to introduce an alcohol limit of 0.5 per mille for hunting. Violations may result in the revocation of the hunting licence for one to five years.

Revocation of the hunting licence

The game wardens are trained and equipped by the Neuchâtel police. According to the Office for Wildlife, these legal changes were adopted “to strengthen the credibility of hobby hunters.”

In the crosshairs

The Neuchâtel reform stems from an incident in which a hobby hunter took aim at a mountain biker after having “had a few beers.”

Two years after this incident, the mountain biker was ordered to pay the hobby hunter compensation of 4’500 francs for having insulted him on Facebook. More on the topic of crime and hunting.

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