Valais: Recreational hunter shoots billy goat in enclosure
The monopoly on the use of force belongs in the hands of the state and must not be delegated to gangs of recreational hunters.
Werner Brenzikofer (72), owner of a small goat herd in Maragnènes above Sion, was near his animals when he heard a whistling sound. It was a bullet that struck a billy goat named Patrick.
The billy goat leapt into the air, turned around, and collapsed, says his owner.
Owner was just 2 metres away
Werner Brenzikofer tried to help the animal. In vain. The goat is dead. Brenzikofer then believed he saw someone leaving the area, though he was unable to identify them.
The animal lover gives free rein to his grief and anger in the local newspaper "Le Nouvelliste" “I worry so much about my animals. I spoil them every day. I fell ill when my billy goat died,” he says. And adds: “That bullet could have hit me — I was only 2 metres away.”
Enclosure in the middle of a hunting area
Was the billy goat really a target? This would be alarming. The enclosure with the animals is situated at the edge of the forest, right in the middle of a hunting area.
The cantonal office for hunting and fishing has launched an investigation.
Also in the month of November and also in the canton of Valais, a 130-kilogram llama was shot by a recreational hunter who believed he was seeing a deer. Such hunting accidents are becoming increasingly frequent in Switzerland.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier Poaching and hunting crime in Switzerland we document cases, legal questions and recurring patterns. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
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.
