Solothurn Government Defends Animal Cruelty

Anyone who has ever witnessed a driven hunt knows what takes place: roe deer, wild boar and other wildlife bolt in mortal fear from their cover, racing blindly across roads and fields, often to the point of complete exhaustion.

Stray shots, injuries and agonising deaths occur time and again. Even non-huntable species are swept up in the vortex of panic. This is not “management” — it is organized animal cruelty. Around 55% of roe deer shot annually in the canton come from driven hunts.

In their statement of 21.10.2025, the government writes: “Driven hunts represent a sensible and efficient method of regulating populations.” Efficient? Yes, if the goal is to kill as many animals as possible in the shortest time. But efficiency is not a moral free pass. Animal suffering remains animal suffering, no matter how “convenient” it is for the hobby hunters.

Particularly cynical: «Driven hunts are not coursing hunts. Coursing is not practised in Switzerland.” An absurd piece of hair-splitting. Whether dogs chase an animal for hours or it is driven into panic in the chaos of a driven hunt, the suffering is the same: stress, fear, injuries, death throes. Everything else is window dressing. Driven hunts also repeatedly cause dangerous road accidents. The government’s statement «Driven hunts are considered efficient and wildlife-friendly» is the height of absurdity. The Swiss Animal Protection (STS) also opposes driven hunts and earth hunts, precisely because they constitute animal cruelty.

Solothurnerin will Treibjagd verbieten

Solothurn hobby hunters drive wildlife into the middle of residential areas

On 29 October 2025, an incident occurred in Nunningen in the canton of Solothurn during a driven hunt in which several roe deer were driven in panic down a steep slope and into the local residential areas. Video footage documents how the frightened animals exhausted vital energy reserves during their minutes-long flight — reserves they urgently need for the approaching winter.

This incident once again illustrates: the so-called hobby hunt has nothing to do with animal or nature conservation. It means, rather, that animals are subjected to unnecessary stress, suffering and death solely to satisfy the human urge to hunt.

HUNT WATCH therefore emphatically demands:

• An immediate ban on hunting
• A consistent expansion of animal-welfare-compliant alternatives to wildlife management
• An open public debate on the ethical responsibility towards wildlife

Only in this way can effective and respectful protection of wildlife be guaranteed.

Nature does not need hobby hunters

The government justifies its rejection with the alleged necessity of regulation: without driven hunts, the “effective management of wildlife populations” would no longer be possible. Yet a growing number of scientific studies and case examples — numerous cantons manage without driven hunts — prove the contrary: ecosystems regulate themselves to a large extent when hobby hunters do not disturb them. Forests and wildlife populations reach a better balance without human “correction” than with bullets and shotgun pellets. In areas without hobby hunting, the evidence is clear: nature, together with its forests, is stronger, healthier and more peaceful when left undisturbed.

By rejecting the public mandate, the canton of Solothurn has taken a clear stance — against animal welfare, against social progress and against a future-oriented wildlife policy. Instead of boldly pursuing new paths, the government clings rigidly to hunter lobbying and defends a relic from barbaric times.

Yet criticism of hunting is growing louder. More and more people see driven hunts for what they are: brutal spectacles that have no place in any modern society. Solothurn may refuse to abolish them, but public opinion will not be deterred. The pressure on politicians and the hobby-hunting lobby is mounting.

Politicians and hobby hunters may hold power and are often a source of corruption and greed. – IG Wild beim Wild

Missed shots — the invisible tragedy

Drive hunts not only cause stress and panic for wildlife. They are also notorious for the high number of missed shots. In the chaos, when dozens of animals charge through the field of fire simultaneously, shooting accuracy drops dramatically. The result: numerous animals are not killed instantly, but are severely injured and drag themselves away in agony with broken limbs, bullet-riddled bodies, or internal injuries. Many of these animals only perish hours or days later in the forest, slowly, silently, and invisible to the hobby hunters.

Such a scenario is not the exception but the rule in drive hunts. Every year they produce enormous animal suffering that can barely be controlled or justified. Precisely because the government itself insists on “efficiency,” it tacitly accepts that a considerable proportion of animals die cruelly rather than being killed instantly.

Game meat – no “honest” natural product

Hobby hunters like to tout their meat as “honest” and “pure,” palming it off on the public. Yet on closer inspection, none of that holds up. “Honest or healthy meat” from hobby hunters is a myth.

Game meat is not a clean natural product. It is often contaminated with heavy metals, parasites, bacteria, and ammunition residues. On top of that: this meat comes from animals that were killed amid panic, fear, and agony.

In their death throes, the animals release stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol that flood the entire organism. This makes the meat tough, burdens it with contaminants, and is far removed from any romantic notion of a “natural delicacy.” A hunted deer is not a health product – it is the result of fear, trauma, and violence.

How honest is a product based on suffering and blood? When hobby hunters claim their meat is “honest,” they above all expose themselves. The honest thing would be to state clearly: this meat comes from an animal that was chased, shot, and died in mortal agony.

Anyone who genuinely wants to live healthily and sustainably should consume neither game meat nor meat from factory farming. Because the outcome is always the same: animal suffering on the plate. In the slaughterhouse animals are killed; in the forest, unhygienically and brutally. With hobby hunters there is the added factor that they make use of carrion.

Added value:

• Game meat: natural, healthy – or dangerous?
• Game meat from hobby hunters? – Carrion on the plate!
• According to studies, there are health risks associated with the consumption of wild game meat
• Nutrition: The civilized palate
• Wild game meat from hunters is carrion
• Wild game meat cannot be organic
• Meat from wild animals is not organic game
• Dementia: How harmful is venison?
• Venison makes you sick
• Lead residues in wild game meat products
• Wild game meat: risks, lead and hunting myths
• Caution: Warning about wild game meat from hobby hunters
• Hunters also lie when selling meat

Sources:

Year	Author(s)	Species / Topic	Hunting method / Context	Key findings	Relevance to argumentation
1998	Mason et al.	Red deer	Drive hunting / Pursuit	Cortisol levels elevated up to 70-fold; massive physiological stress	Strong evidence that drive hunting produces extreme stress responses
2018	Gentsch et al.	Ungulates (various species)	Trauma situations incl. driven hunts (“battues”)	Cortisol levels significantly higher during “battues” and hunts with dogs than during single stalking shots	Directly relevant: driven hunts cause the highest stress levels
2020	Vilela et al.	Red deer	Hunting in general	Hunting activity leads to measurable stress responses (cortisol, heart rate)	Documents general hunting-induced stress, measurable physiologically
2023	Dziki-Michalska et al.	Roe deer	Stalking hunt	Significantly elevated cortisol levels, varying by age and sex	Evidence: even silent hunting is a stressor – driven hunts correspondingly worse
2024	Dziki-Michalska et al.	Red deer	Stalking hunt	High cortisol levels correlated with poorer meat condition and body weight	Supports criticism of “honest game meat”
2025	Bíl et al.	Europe (incl. CH)	Wildlife-vehicle collisions	Overview: legal consequences & accident statistics in Europe	Relevance: driven hunts increase the risk of wildlife accidents
2023	[CH study, anonymised in open access]	Switzerland	Wildlife-vehicle collisions	Identifies hotspots of wildlife accidents in the Swiss road network	Argumentative support: drive hunts push wildlife into hazardous traffic areas
2019	Wild bei Wild (statistics)	Switzerland	Hunting accidents	Statistics on hunting and wildlife accidents in CH	Demonstrates risk for humans & animals during driven hunts
2005	von Borell et al.	Wild boar	Capture & killing	Significantly elevated stress parameters (cortisol, lactate)	Documents physiological stress in wild boar
2011	Broom & Johnson	Review: Welfare of hunted animals	Various hunting methods	Hunting regularly causes fear, stress, injury and prolonged suffering	Foundational source for ethical classification