Podcast episode: Hunting, wild animals and animal welfare

In this episode, the Wild beim Wild editorial team takes on the headlines that circulate faster than the facts that are supposed to back them up.

The starting point is an incident in Tuscany that was reported across Europe as a confirmed wolf attack, even though neither a DNA sample nor any official confirmation existed. The correct term would have been “alleged wolf attack”. Authorities later established that no one was in the garden when the animal appeared.

The same pattern runs through Baltic hunting policy: Latvia raises the wolf quota to 400 animals, even though its own court of auditors describes the population estimate as not verifiable. And in Schwyz, the SVP is raising money for fines that so far have never existed.

Next comes the capercaillie, practically extinct in Fribourg, whose population across Switzerland has fallen from around 1,100 to between 380 and 480 displaying males — entirely during a period without any legal kill. Even so, the hunting association is calling for more technology rather than self-reflection. Add to this rising wild boar damage despite record kills of over 12’000 animals, a Grisons red deer population that only the wolf and lynx have demonstrably reduced, and an undercover investigation into violence in Italian circuses.

The connecting question: who checks the foundations on which decisions are made? And who bears the costs when no one asks questions?