Zurich: Fact-Check on the Press Conference by Jagd Zürich

On 24.10.2017, a press conference organised by the association Jagd Zürich, which represents hobby hunters in the canton, took place in Zurich.

The initiative committee of the initiative “Wildlife Wardens Instead of Hunters” responds with the following facts in the interest of animal welfare and the common good:

Background

Even in the run-up to the referendum on the hunting ban in the canton of Geneva in 1974, the same circles of hobby hunters, farmers, and fellow travellers tried to paint a dire picture. Over 40 years later, one can rightly say that none of their scaremongering has come true. Because: Hunting often does not mean less wildlife, but more births. Hunting does not regulate in the sense of natural wildlife population frequencies, but creates inflated or suppressed populations. If more and more animals of certain species are shot because there are more and more of them, does that mean even more need to be shot in order for numbers to decrease?

Wildlife Management in Geneva

It is utterly absurd for Christian Jaques, president of Jagd Zürich, to claim in the media that the Geneva model has failed.

In 2004, the Institut Erasm conducted a public survey in the canton of Geneva. Nearly 90% were opposed to allowing recreational hunters to once again pursue their bloody and cruel hobby without purpose. In 2009, a motion was brought before the Geneva cantonal parliament to vote on reintroducing hunting. It was clearly rejected by 71 votes to 5, with 6 abstentions. The 1974 hunting ban for recreational hunters continues to be enthusiastically supported by the population and politicians to this day, and has evolved dynamically over time. The people of Geneva have long since recognized that they too benefit from wildlife that can once again be experienced, greater biodiversity, and less environmental damage caused by recreational hunters, etc. (see advantages of the initiative).

The small but recreational-hunting-free canton of Geneva today has, for example, the highest hare populations in all of Switzerland — not the canton of Zurich. The canton of Geneva still has partridges. International ornithologists enjoy visiting the hunting-free shores of Lake Geneva, where they can observe rare bird species, and so on. Compared to other cantons, roe deer and wild boar populations in the canton of Zurich are disproportionately high — they have literally exploded. This reflects no understanding of nature. Year after year, recreational hunters in the canton of Zurich also fail to protect forests, farmland, and so on from serious damage.

Sanitary or therapeutic culls carried out by wildlife wardens are not the same as regulatory hunting based on hunters' jargon or a misguided understanding of nature! Of course, wildlife wardens in the canton of Zurich will be able to intervene regulatorily at hotspots. This is set out in the initiative text!

Due to the high hunting pressure in the surrounding areas of France and the canton of Vaud, wild animals even seek refuge in Geneva. Hunted animals sometimes swim across the Rhône into the canton of Geneva. Wildlife in Geneva is cared for by around a dozen professional environmental wardens (at a cost of CHF 600,000 per year). These nature conservation officers also carry out a wide range of other tasks, such as fisheries monitoring, management of nature reserves, prevention of wildlife damage, and special duties relating to forests and agriculture.

What was once the case in the canton of Geneva over 400 hunters also did not perform particularly successfully, these wildlife wardens (3 full-time positions) today handle this more exemplarily alongside many other tasks. From the canton of Geneva, it is also known that not only the supervision, monitoring, etc. of the 400 hobby hunters was an enormous financial burden. The cost to the taxpayer is therefore not necessarily higher than before the hunting ban of 1974.

Wild boar damage

In 2016, the canton of Geneva, with its professional wildlife wardens, recorded wild boar damage of CHF 25,350. In the canton of Zurich, with its hobby hunters, however, wild boar damage amounted to CHF 394,000. The canton of Zurich, with an area of 1,729 km², is only 6 times larger than the canton of Geneva with its 282 km². The huntable area within the canton of Zurich is in fact only 950 km².

Wildlife damage to agriculture is practically negligible, says wildlife warden Gottlieb Dandliker from Geneva. The canton spends CHF 250,000 per year on prevention, plus CHF 350,000 per year on wildlife damage, for which pigeons are largely responsible. In total, the canton must raise CHF 1.2 million per year for wildlife management — equivalent to one cup of coffee per resident, or a subsidy to agriculture of just over 3%. By comparison, fisheries consume significantly more costs, even though licences are sold there. Dandliker therefore sees the current approach as the cheapest alternative for the canton and one that is very easily financially sustainable in the long term.

Wildlife accidents

In the canton of Zug, for example, three wildlife wardens are employed. They are responsible for the entire canton and operate a well-functioning on-call service around the clock, 365 days a year, for wildlife accidents. In the canton of Bern, wildlife wardens sleep even more soundly. Because: if a motorist strikes a wild animal, it is not amateur hunters or wildlife wardens who respond, but the police, who are already on the scene in the event of an accident and take care of what needs to be done. This relieves the wildlife wardens and, above all, the cantonal budget. There is therefore considerable potential for savings and optimisation in the hunting establishment, if one so desires.

Wildlife biology

“In Switzerland, hunting already takes place within the framework of a scientifically and wildlife-biologically based wildlife management system”, mused wildlife biologist Jasmin Schnyder at the Jagd Zürich press conference.

Studies in various countries and at different points in time have documented the influence of the red fox not only on the roe deer population: For the Bernese Midlands, it is estimated that a fox can catch an average of eleven fawns during the months of May to July (Fred Kurt: The Roe Deer in the Cultural Landscape. Ecology, Social Behaviour, Hunting and Game Management. Kosmos Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, p. 83). In the canton of Zurich, however, more than 2,000 healthy foxes are shot for fun by hobby hunters every year, which is certainly not in the interest of animal welfare, wildlife biology, society, science, etc. either. A closer analysis even reveals that the amateur hunters in the canton of Zurich spread diseases.

What exactly is supposed to be “scientific and wildlife-biological” about hunting has not been explained by wildlife biologist Jasmin Schnyder of Fornat . The senseless fox hunting also explains the high roe deer population and the associated high number of wildlife accidents involving roe deer alone (1,500 per year) in the canton of Zurich, along with the related costs. At the same time, farmers complain about mouse plagues, etc., and spread poisons on their fields that harm people, the environment, and wildlife.

Self-proclaimed experts from within the hunters’ own ranks and “wildlife biologists” even comment on the issue: “The small game hunt is not necessary, but it is justified. One could equally ask whether it makes sense to pick berries and mushrooms in the forest,” – Robert Brunold, President of the Grisons Patent Hunters’ Association. Or the umbrella organisation of hunters JagdSchweiz is convinced: “JagdSchweiz knows that wildlife populations would fundamentally regulate themselves – even in our cultural landscape.”

We have observed that fox mothers give birth to more young in areas where the animals are hunted. While culling can provide localised relief, the vacant territories are quickly reoccupied. Nature regulates this itself. – Wildlife warden Fabian Kern – Tagi

Forest

No one causes more damage to forests than humans. Trees are constantly being felled out of greed and ignorance. Entire plots are cleared under the pretext of forest regeneration. The proper approach to forest management has a far greater influence on its protection. Wildlife browsing is only a secondary problem in this context. Nevertheless, the problems in the forest are blamed on wildlife, even though little effort is made to implement protective measures against browsing damage. Wildlife browsing is caused primarily by hunting (hunters park wildlife in the forest) and by the development of tourist infrastructure for recreational activities. Wildlife population regulation does not occur through hunting. Hunting is most often the cause of the very problems it claims to address. The one-sided focus on profit maximization leads forest owners to have a financial interest in decimating wildlife populations. In a natural forest, there is no "damage" caused by wildlife. In the canton of Zurich, there has long been no natural forest where foresters have had a hand — only tree plantations.

In certain areas of the canton of Geneva and in many hunting districts in Switzerland, including for example the area of Pfannenstiel in the canton of Zurich, sometimes more than 25% of the forest area falls into assessment level 3, indicating clearly unacceptable damage. The canton of Geneva has a forest cover of 12.1%, the canton of Zurich of 28.7%.

Conclusion

For state wildlife wardens, just as with their counterparts in the canton of Geneva or the city of Zurich, there is no longer any justification for practicing cruel hunting methods such as den hunting, drive hunting, or battue hunting. Many forms of hunting and hunting dog training practiced in the canton of Zurich are still clearly in violation of animal welfare laws. Wildlife wardens must also be sober while on duty. Hobby hunters vehemently oppose an alcohol ban during hunting. Wildlife wardens retire at 65 at the latest. The largest age group among amateur hunters is likely — as in Germany — those aged 65 and over, who may suffer from age-related impairments in vision, concentration, and reaction time, as well as deficits in training and practice.

Practically everything that is cruel, unnecessary, and heartless is still considered acceptable hunting practice today. The territorial hunting system and hunting law in the canton of Zurich has not truly proven itself in nearly 100 years and is an unscientific, animal-welfare-violating, and ecological patchwork. Hunters disturb the ecological balance.

Particularly when it comes to hunting and amateur hunters, it is absolutely essential that the public takes a very close look. Nowhere else is so much manipulation carried out through falsehoods and fake news. Violence and lies are two sides of the same coin. Hunting, not only in the canton of Zurich, has for decades been nothing other than a permanently costly construction site and point of contention for politics, forestry, agriculture, administrations, the judiciary, health insurers, insurance companies, animal welfare organizations, environmental and nature conservation organizations, the police, the federal government, the media, and so on. The canton of Zurich does not need nearly as many wildlife rangers to easily compensate for the costs and damages through the abolition of hobby hunters.

A brief overview of the benefits of the initiative “Wildlife Rangers Instead of Hunters” for forests, the environment, the population, finances, animal welfare, and more can be found here: Benefits of the Initiative