Sweden: Hobby Hunters Run Amok

Sweden is another country that is slowly but surely losing its role model status in animal protection to partly criminal hunter gangs.

Although EU law is being violated, Swedish authorities have yielded to the pressure of the hunters’ mafia and issued the license to kill protected lynxes starting March 1st, even during the mating season. More than 3’000 hobby hunters from home and abroad have registered. As early as 2017, lynxes and their young were massacred by trophy hunters.

Sweden too is in the grip of a hunters’ mafia running amok, one that knows no limits in its greed for kills and trophies, and in its hatred of predators. The IG Wild beim Wild has already published a report on this phenomenon in Norway.

Lynxes shot from trees

The protected lynxes are hunted with specially inbred dogs imported from abroad. Even in the trees, the tufted-eared animals are shot while fleeing from the rabble. Mother animals and their young are mercilessly eliminated, as befits a hobby hunter. One of the justifications given is that the lynxes prey on reindeer.

At the start of the year, 22 wolves were already killed in Sweden under extraordinary licenses, with an estimated population of around 370 individuals. “Sweden has become a barbaric nightmare for wildlife since the year 2000,” says hunting critic Eva Stjernswärd of the animal and nature conservation organisation Jagdkritiker.

As in Sweden as with the mafia, it is primarily about money. There are countless hunting organizers such as «Hunting for Life», which compete for customers worldwide with licenses and offer perverse hunting events in various countries. Many of these hunting organizers produce their own promotional videos that are virtually unmatched in sadism and psychopathy.

Hunting critic Eva Stjernswärd even suspects that the lynx count in Sweden is being manipulated in the same way as the wolf count, in order to maintain a large "political population." According to independent population surveys, the number of lynxes in Sweden declined from 1’700 to temporarily below 850 individuals between 2009 and 2017. The cause of this population decline is lawless hunting. Scientists estimate the minimum number required to maintain a healthy lynx population at at least 900 individuals. Politicians and lynx opponents instill fear in people to manipulate them. This is cynical and dirty, but the tactic is frequently employed, simply because it works so well.

Largest predator populations in Europe: Wolf: Russia 15’000, Romania 2’500, Spain 2’000, Ukraine 2’000, Sweden ranks twelfth with 370. Brown bear: Russia 43’000, Romania 6’000, Sweden 2’800, Finland 1’700. Wolverine: Russia 1’400, Sweden 650, Norway 340, Finland 160. Lynx: Russia 8’000, Finland 2’475, Romania 1’350, Sweden 840. (Sources: IUCN and Naturvårdsverket)

Killing animals for trophies is in some cases criminal, but always wrong

As in the Swiss parliament, hobby hunters have also infiltrated politics in Sweden, operating a kind of club to advance their militant interests.

The counterpart to sheep farmers in Switzerland are reindeer owners in Sweden. Both benefit from the generous flow of subsidies. Although they profit from our tax money intended to promote acceptance of protected predators, they stir up sentiment and kill wolves, bears, lynxes and even eagles.

In 2017, yet another barbaric case of hunting crime was uncovered in Northern Sweden known. A gang of hobby hunters tortured and killed bears and lynxes, filming themselves in the process. Phone and computer surveillance, GPS tracking, undercover investigators, and other methods led the prosecution to the criminals, who were eventually apprehended with the assistance of 40 police officers. The hobby hunters were later convicted of poaching and other offences, but not of animal cruelty. The prosecution's indictment contained 23 counts, including violations of weapons laws, illegal traps, and more. Several of the men were reindeer farmers and held political positions in various municipalities. Security measures comparable to those at an airport were put in place for the court proceedings.

Animal welfare versus hobby hunting

Courageous hunting opponents attempted this year to monitor the wolf hunt in the districts of Västmanland and Dalarna. In doing so, the group was attacked by hobby hunters. A 17-year-old girl was violently assaulted by a masked and militant hobby hunter. Violence against animals and violence against humans are a seamless continuum, as is clearly visible in this video.

Naturally, the mainstream media subsequently focused their coverage of the incident exclusively on the “disruption of the hunt” — not on the killing of protected animals or the abuse of innocent people who sought to save the lives of the wolves, laments Eva Stjernswärd.

Romania as a role model

Although all large predators in Europe are protected, the number of hunting quotas in Romania also continued to rise in the past. In 2016, as many as 550 bears, 600 wolves, and 500 lynxes were approved for shooting at prices of up to 10’000 euros per trophy. The hunting mafia exploited a legal loophole for this purpose, as hunting of protected species may be authorised in justified individual cases — such as animals that are conspicuous or deemed dangerous to humans. The hunting quotas were set each year based on figures provided by hunting associations.

«How can hunting associations calculate in advance how many animals are likely to cause damage — even before any damage has occurred at all? By introducing the ban, we are merely restoring the balance, as the Habitats Directive originally intended,» said Environment Minister Cristiana Pasca-Palmer.

While in Romania trophy hunting was banned as recently as 2016, it is promoted in Sweden under pressure from the hunting mafia. In Romania, there are not only a remarkable number of pristine old-growth forests, as in Sweden, with species-rich tree populations, but also no feeding stations for cloven-hoofed animals and simultaneously a naturally high predator density. And nature is used no less than in Sweden — alpine pastures are everywhere, where animals graze in summer; there are even grazing pigs, alongside sheep, cattle and horses.

Eva Stjernswärd concludes:

That the people who kill bears, wolves and lynx in Sweden should be regarded as mercenaries and trophy hunters. WWF Sweden is afraid and does not protest. On its board, a hunting monarch is listed as an honorary member — what a disgrace.

More on crime and hobby hunting and on the animal welfare problem.