Recreational hunting in Canton Bern should become less violent
For this purpose, an interpellation was submitted to the city council on 13.3.2025: "Non-violent alternatives to hunting in Bern"
IG Wild beim Wild supports this initiative, as recently a court in Bellinzona established: Practically everything that is cruel, unnecessary and heartless is promoted by the association JagdSchweiz.
The association "JagdSchweiz" and other dubious hunting organizations emerged primarily to be able to proceed against predators (fox, lynx, wolf and others) – their prey competitors – and they continue to do this to this day. This is probably a main reason why hobby hunters face criticism from all directions.
In the chaos in which nature finds itself after decades of management and care by Swiss hobby hunters, the proportion of threatened species according to the UN is not as large in any other country in the world as in Switzerland.
It is crystal clear that with professional wildlife wardens as in Canton Geneva, a completely different level replaces the recreational hunters. Wildlife benefits from this through less animal suffering, as do the population, nature and environment. Champions League instead of amateur tournaments.
From Canton Geneva it is also known that not only the supervision, monitoring etc. of hobby hunters was an enormous financial burden. The wildlife wardens today cost taxpayers the equivalent of a cup of coffee per year in wage costs, and the added value in biodiversity for the population is gigantic.
There are years when in Canton Geneva for example no red deer, roe deer, red fox, badger, marten, brown hare, jay etc. are shot, according to the federal hunting statistics. This is because there are no hunting seasons for hobby hunters, as in the other cantons. Wildlife in Canton Geneva primarily has year-round closed seasons. Many wild animals are visible and experienceable for the population, which is scientifically proven and valuable for the health of animals and humans.
Forest health and cultural landscape are much better off where there are predators instead of hobby hunters.
Particularly with recreational hunting, it is extremely essential that the population watches very closely. Nowhere else is there so much manipulation with untruths. Violence and lies belong to the same coin. Hunting, not only in the Canton of Bern, has been nothing other than a permanently cost-intensive construction site and point of contention for politics, forestry, agriculture, administrations, judiciary, health insurance, insurance companies, animal protection organizations, environmental and nature conservation organizations, police, federal government, media, etc. for decades. The Canton of Bern doesn't even need so many game wardens to easily compensate for the damages and costs by abolishing hobby hunters.
Taxpayers would probably be spared hundreds of millions of francs that the federal government, cantons and municipalities pump into forest conservation if there were no more hobby hunters.