Poacher in the Zurich Weinland
29-year-old hunted without a valid licence – penalty order issued.
A 29-year-old man from the canton of Zurich shot a total of 21 wild animals between April and November 2024 without a valid hunting licence, reports the NZZ on 10.9.2025.
The Winterthur/Unterland public prosecutor's office has now issued a penalty order against him.
Hunting without a licence
The hobby hunter was active in the Zurich Weinland and shot several species of animal within seven months. According to the penalty order, twelve roe deer, five badgers, two foxes, one wild boar and one unidentified wild bird fell victim to his illegal hunting. In doing so, he clearly violated the cantonal hunting law, which requires the possession of a valid hunting licence as well as compliance with closed seasons and quotas.
An incident with a signal effect
The Zurich hunting authorities view the case as a clear signal. Hunting without a licence is not regarded as a minor offence: it undermines the state-regulated system that observes closed seasons and takes animal welfare into account.
The incident once again shines a spotlight on controls within the hunting system. Although Swiss hunting laws are considered strict, illegal killings occur time and again – whether out of ignorance or deliberate intent. IG Wild beim Wild therefore calls for more rigorous checks and stricter sanctions in order to prevent copycat offences.
According to IG Wild beim Wild, annual medical-psychological assessments are required for hobby hunters following the model of the Netherlands, as well as an upper age limit. The largest age group among recreational hunters is 65+, those with age-related, cognitive, visual, concentration, and reaction impairments, as well as training and practice deficits. From the age of 45, the number of accidents involving humans and animals rises dramatically. The alarming reports of hunting accidents and fatal criminal acts involving hunters' weapons make it clear: it is high time to abolish recreational hunting! Deadly firearms must not be placed in the hands of senile recreational hunters who can use them completely without oversight! Recreational hunters represent everything that is wrong with the world.
Recreational hunters embody speciesism. Speciesism is comparable to racism and sexism, and that is not a culture or tradition.
Particularly in the case of recreational hunting it is essential to look very closely. Nowhere else is so much manipulation carried out through falsehoods and fake news. Violence and lies are two sides of the same coin.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In our dossiers on the criticism of recreational hunting gather fact-checks, analyses and background reports. The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
