Petition: Blood alcohol limit for hobby hunters
Weapons and alcohol don't mix.
Anyone carrying a rifle in the forest is allowed to drink without being checked.
The Swiss Hunting Act and the cantonal implementing provisions contain no binding blood alcohol limit for armed hobby hunters. Alcohol at hobby hunts, at the morning drink, on the high seat or at the evening after the hunt, is culturally entrenched and barely regulated by law.
Since the year 2000, dozens of people have been killed in hunting accidents in Switzerland, with around 300 hunting accidents registered annually. Whether and how often alcohol was a factor is statistically invisible, because no alcohol tests are required after hunting accidents.
Anyone driving a car is checked. Anyone driving a motorboat is checked. Anyone going into a forest with public hiking trails carrying a semi-automatic hunting rifle is not. This regulatory gap cannot be justified by tradition.
Our demands
- Binding zero tolerance of 0.0 per mille for armed hobby hunters in the hunting ground.
- Mandatory alcohol test after every hunting accident involving personal injury or property damage.
- Reporting obligation for hunting accidents where alcohol consumption may be a factor, including statistical recording at federal level.
- Independent investigation of hunting accidents by cantonal bodies outside the hunting administration, not by game wardens or hobby hunting associations themselves.
- Ban on carrying weapons under the influence of alcohol in the hunting ground, enforceable through random checks by the wildlife wardens.
Why this petition?
Hobby hunting is a leisure activity in Switzerland pursued by around 30,000 hobby hunters. These people carry firearms through publicly accessible forests, alpine pastures and field margins. That they are not subject to any alcohol checks while doing so is a historically grown exception, not a factual argument.
The influence of hobby hunting associations in consultation procedures and parliamentary committees has so far prevented every regulatory initiative in this area. A society that exempts armed people in public forests from alcohol checks exposes its citizens to an avoidable risk.
Who is the petition addressed to?
Swiss Federal Council, DETEC (Federal Office for the Environment, Species, Ecosystems, Landscapes Division), Conference of Cantonal Governments, Conference of Cantonal Hunting and Fisheries Administrators (JFK), and the 26 cantonal hunting administrations.
Sign now
With your signature you support the demand for a binding alcohol regulation for armed hobby hunting in Switzerland. Every voice counts.
Dear Sir or Madam,
with this petition we demand a binding blood alcohol limit for armed hobby hunters in Switzerland.
There is no federal regulation for armed hobby hunters. This is a regulatory gap that cannot be justified by tradition.
Our demands:
1. Binding blood alcohol limit of 0.0 per mille for armed hobby hunters in the hunting ground.
2. Mandatory alcohol test after every hunting accident involving personal injury or property damage.
3. Reporting obligation for hunting accidents involving possible alcohol influence.
4. Independent investigation of hunting accidents outside the hunting administration.
5. Ban on carrying weapons under the influence of alcohol in the hunting ground.
I support these demands as a signatory.
Yours sincerely
Add your voice now
Your signature counts.
I signed because...
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«Because the consumption of alcohol leads to uncontrolled actions that would probably not occur while sober.»
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«in my view, hunting should fundamentally be abolished, because it is scientifically unjustifiable, de facto unnecessary and de jure untenable. But since injustice remains "right" until a majority frees itself from this injustice and its perpetrators through legal means, the minimal demand should be that hunting must not begin without alcohol checks. A hunt must be registered. The meeting point, i.e. place and time, must be announced. Before the hunt begins, the police can carry out alcohol checks on each participant, depending on the number of participants. The same applies after the hunting activities, since the hunters want to take part in road traffic again afterwards. Alcohol can also be carried in or stored in the car.»
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«I am signing because drunk hunters pose an avoidable risk.»